The U.S. Postal Service made
an announcement that’s bound to get Congress’s attention: they will stop
delivering mail on Saturdays beginning August 1st of this year.
The decision, which research suggests 7 of 10 Americans support, comes as an
effort to help the government agency cope with increasing financial stress and
competition.
Congress has tried to reorganize USPS in the past, but
politics have continually derailed the efforts. Now the agency is forcing
Congress’s hand in dealing with the financial woes. Last year they lost about
$16 billion, about triple the losses of the year before.
“The Postal Service is advancing an important new approach
to delivery that reflects the strong growth of our package business and
responds to the financial realities resulting from America’s changing mailing
habits,” said Postmaster General Patrick R. Donahoe. “We developed this
approach by working with our customers to understand their delivery needs and
by identifying creative ways to generate significant cost savings.”
While USPS says it has the final authority to make such
decisions, some in Congress have expressed the opinion that lawmakers do. While
the Saturday cuts would mean regular mail would not go out, USPS says packages
would still be delivered. They expect to save about $2 billion per year, which
would take a significant chunk off of their yearly losses.
But more will have to be done to address the remaining
losses—still billions of dollars. With the rise in the popularity of electronic
media and sharing and of competitors like FedEx, USPS has lost its monopoly on
the market. This proposal is not a new one, but it has been prevented in
previous years.
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