Postal Service plans to cut Saturday mail

Dancer · **Joined:** Fri Jul 30, 2010 1:32 pm **Posts:** 5124

Neither rain now snow nor dark gloom of night will keep mail carriers from delivering mail, but money just might. The Postal Service plans to eliminate mail delivery on Saturdays beginning this summer.

The Postal Service has announced mail delivery will go to five days a week. Door-to-door deliveries on Saturdays will be eliminated the week of August 5.

Federal Postmaster General Patrick Donahue on Wednesday defied Congress by stating the Postal Service will halt Saturday mail with or without their approval.

A provision in legislation currently requires mail to be delivered six days a week. That provision expires in March. Although the Postal Service has been unsuccessful in the past, Donahue has once again asked Congress not to renew the legislation.

This battle is more than just a tiny paper cut. Congress has full control over the 236-year-old federal service, but the USPS is not funded by federal tax dollars. In 2006, Congress passed the Postal Accountability and Enhancement Act that requires USPS to pre-fund its employee pension over the next 75 years. No other federal company operates under the requirement.

Despite its efficiency for only 46 cents to the consumer, the USPS is bleeding billions of dollars. Donahue has attributed debt problems to the pension requirement. Last year, USPS stated a loss of $16 billion and estimates an overall $236 billion budget fall by 2020 without any action.

So, their reactionary plan is to eliminate Saturday mail service. Pat Eagan understands the need for change.

"I like to get the mail, but I'll get a bigger mail on Monday," said Eagan. "So, what's the difference? It isn't like I'm not going to get it."

Getting mail may require people to go to their local post offices on Saturday. USPS explained post offices would remain open if such local post offices currently have weekend hours.

USPS may also have found a loophole in the current six-day provision. Packages, Express Mail, and P.O. Box mail would still be delivered on Saturdays, thus making USPS "open" six days a week.

Those who live in rural areas, like Hannah Smith-Brubaker, contend the move may make receiving mail a little more difficult.

"We're a farm, so we are working every single day and not getting letters on Saturday will actually be a pretty big inconvenience for us," she said, "but we understand why they have to do it."

USPS said the move would save roughly $2 billion in the first year and about $5 billion a year by 2020.

"Congress needs to get a grip," Smith-Brubaker said. "They're making it very difficult for the post office to be able to make reasonable decisions on how they handle their budget."

Believe it or not, prior lawmakers were not as stubborn on Saturday deliveries. Mail carriers have been delivering mail on Saturdays since 1863. However, in 1947, 1957 and 1964, Saturday mail deliveries were halted for a short period of time respectively due to budget cuts.

Our nation has come accustomed to the elimination of such accommodations. Like milk, evening newspapers, and of course the 30-minute pizza delivery, weekend mail is another costly convenience that'll soon be extinct.

"We'll deal with it," Eagan said. "We've dealt with other things."

Its about time. As far as im concerned the USPS can deliver just Tuesday & Friday. I guess these people are in denial of the new technology

TheSeif · **Joined:** Fri Jul 30, 2010 3:00 pm **Posts:** 983

Agreed, but this should just be a small start toward much larger cuts.
I'm reading that the USPS is losing 16 Billion Dollars a year, guess who's picking up that tab ?

jadiff · **Joined:** Thu Jun 02, 2011 9:05 am **Posts:** 444

The PO is losing 25 million each day!

How many pennies is that for each of us Dancer?

Newspolice · **Joined:** Sat Jul 31, 2010 12:34 am **Posts:** 2837

TheSeif wrote:

Agreed, but this should just be a small start toward much larger cuts.
I'm reading that the USPS is losing 16 Billion Dollars a year, guess who's picking up that tab ?

~~The USPS has not directly received taxpayer-dollars since the early 1980s with the minor exception of subsidies for costs associated with the disabled and overseas voters. Since the 2006 all-time peak mail volume,[6] after which Congress passed the Postal Accountability and Enhancement Act",[7] (which mandated $5.5 billion per year to be paid into an account to pre-fund retiree health-care, 75 years into the future—a requirement unique to this agency[citation needed]), revenue dropped sharply due to recession-influenced[8] declining mail volume,[9] prompting the postal service to look to other sources of revenue while cutting costs to reduce its budget deficit.[10]

~~ unlike the state workers and school teachers, they were required to pre fund their retirement program.that what lead to the biggest loss,that and the unions protecting deadbeats. I refuse to use online banking ,due to the high threats of the sites being hacked. warning ahve been issued in the last few weeks about this.

Dancer · **Joined:** Fri Jul 30, 2010 1:32 pm **Posts:** 5124

Newspolice wrote:

~~The USPS has not directly received taxpayer-dollars since the early 1980s

Thank you newspolice for helping me lighten my work load

TheSeif · **Joined:** Fri Jul 30, 2010 3:00 pm **Posts:** 983

Well OK, then where are they getting the money to operate ?????
They are taking some pretty huge losses, are they borrowing the money ?????
If so how will they ever pay it back ????
Only a taxpayer funded government entity can continue to operate this far in the red.

Dancer · **Joined:** Fri Jul 30, 2010 1:32 pm **Posts:** 5124

TheSeif wrote:

Well OK, then where are they getting the money to operate ?????

I think the only thing keeping them a float is the junk mail people

Huh? · **Joined:** Fri Jul 30, 2010 4:49 pm **Posts:** 1046

Agreed.

(oops, you don't like smilies)

tenringx · **Posted:** Fri Feb 08, 2013 12:40 am

They should get rid of90% of their ADmin vehicles, cut off the cell phones for all the vehicle users, cut Sat mail, get rid of 70% of all MANAGEMENT, fire the drunks that come to work repeatedly, take care of training over the internet and stop sending people to Oklahoma when not necessary. I'll stop here, that would be a big enough MONEY SAVER.

Dancer · **Joined:** Fri Jul 30, 2010 1:32 pm **Posts:** 5124

tenringx wrote:

fire the drunks that come to work repeatedly

We have always suspected this

tenringx · **Posted:** Sun Feb 10, 2013 1:28 am

Dancer wrote:

tenringx wrote:

fire the drunks that come to work repeatedly

We have always suspected this

Oh, it's true, they send them to rehab classes, more then once, twice, maybe even three times, then they either transfer them someplace else or change their shift. God help you when you go in one morning and find out they're your new boss.

Newspolice · **Joined:** Sat Jul 31, 2010 12:34 am **Posts:** 2837

And Hi percentage are minorities or person on lite duty "with a Doc note" who can get away with almost anything.some sleep at their jobs, the bosses are helpless anything said they scream for a union steward and play the race card, and the lite duty get a free ride with fake doctors notes .I personally know of cases where complaites were filed about such a sleeper and the postmaster came in to their unit and frist thing out his mouth was lets not make thise a Black /White thing

When I was told that story I told the person that I'd have told him I don't care if they are Black, White, purple, or green.if they are getting the same pay for the work as I am then they have to be expected to try and do some work. tyhe unions back the deadbeat all the way to the wall. and the Drunks are protected like posted , the same person told me of a wht guy tha would come in stinking of booze so badly you couldn't stnd working near him.I think he was sent to rehab once ,then they ignore it. In most private sector jobs these deadbeats would be fired and some one who wanted to work hired to replace them .No matter the color, or race.So next time to have to pay more for postage just say thank you union.

Postal Service plans to cut Saturday mail

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