A Little Postal Patience, Please
The Postal Regulatory Commission has started the long process of holding hearings about the postal service’s proposal to cut Saturday mail delivery and already we hear the USPS complaining the Commission is taking too long and that such delays will further lead the USPS to insolvency. The USPS anticipates losing $238 billion over the next decade.
But is it really such a good idea to move fast when such a profound change to American business, if not the way of life, is on the table?
Over the next few months, the USPS plans to hold public hearings in Las Vegas, Sacramento, Dallas, Memphis, TN; Chicago, Rapid City, SD and Buffalo to gauge reaction to this idea. After that time, the PRC would issue an “advisory opinion” on the wisdom of cutting service. To learn more, click here directmag.com/postal/0430-prc-postal/
The Commission said it could take nine months to come up with its opinion which Congress is expected to look at if it considers cutting service
For her part, PRC Chair Ruth Goldway isn’t necessarily sold on the idea that cutting Saturday delivery will make the postal service more financially viable. She said as much to the Senate Subcommittee on Federal Financial Management.
More importantly, Goldway told that panel Congress should seriously think about reworking the USPS’s extra-heavy financial burdens of pre-funding retired employee health benefits and pension costs before it cuts mail delivery. For more click here directmag.com/postal/0423-postal-prc/index.html.
And who really knows if cutting delivery will work?
Last year, many industry groups thought axing Saturday service would further diminish the importance of mail in face of e-mail and the like. Now, most of them say to do it if it will save the USPS.
Maybe the PRC’s hearings uncover more about the popularity of cutting Saturday service at the very least.
May 3rd, 2010 at 10:38 am
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