Post office wants to go to five-day-a-week delivery schedule

This article was originally on a blog post platform and may be missing photos, graphics or links. See About archive blog posts.

Facing declining revenue and business, the U.S. Postal Service on Tuesday announced a plan that could end mail deliveries on weekends as the agency moves to a five-day delivery schedule.

“Our proposal, you’ve heard it over the last year, is that we move from six-day delivery to five-day delivery,” Postmaster General John E. Potter said in televised remarks.

Citing rising fuel and labor costs along with a drop in business, Potter said “the Postal Service is facing a severe income gap that we absolutely have to close.”

The lost business is due to the growth of electronic communication such as e-mail and electronically distributed bills. The Postal Service also faces continually growing competition from private package haulers such as FedEx.

Last year, the agency handled 177 billion items, down from 213 billion in 2006.

In a news release Tuesday, the Postal Service said that if it takes no action, it will face ‘a cumulative shortfall of $238 billion by 2020.”

In addition to cutting delivery, the agency is considering restructuring retiree health benefits, adding kiosks for customers instead of post offices, and price increases for 2011.

The Postal Service has previously proposed eliminating one delivery day a week, but Congress objected.
-- Michael Muskal

Twitter.com/LATimesmuskal