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Unspeaked

macrumors 68020
Original poster
Dec 29, 2003
2,448
1
West Coast
LINK

USPS May Cut Out Full Day Of Mail Delivery

Neither rain nor sleet nor snow slows the United States Postal Service down, but a rising deficit may do the trick.
Postmaster General John Potter says the post office's financial situation could force the agency to cut a full day out of mail delivery each week.

Potter asked a congressional panel today to end the requirement that the post office deliver mail six days a week.

If the post office was to cut its delivery days, it would not necessarily cancel Saturday delivery. Previous studies have looked at the possibility of skipping some other day, such as Tuesday.

Rising costs and increasing use of e-mail lead to a $2.8 billion deficit in 2008.
 

PlaceofDis

macrumors Core
Jan 6, 2004
19,241
6
makes sense to cut out a day really. i don't see any need to hold onto a six day delivery schedule any longer with email becoming more and more ubiquitous.

that said... i do not see the benefit of cutting out a day besides saturday simply for logistic purposes. talk about confusion...
 

EricNau

Moderator emeritus
Apr 27, 2005
10,724
265
San Francisco, CA
Tuesday? I suppose it's logical not to skip two consecutive days, but at the same time it would seem very odd not to receive mail on a weekday.

Can't say it would affect me much either way.
 

iJohnHenry

macrumors P6
Mar 22, 2008
16,530
30
On tenterhooks
I agree, Tuesday??

"We" have been without Saturday delivery since (insert date here). (Don't remember.)

I don't perceive anything Earth-shattering to result if you give the letter carriers the week-end off. But Tuesdays would blow chunks, IMHO.
 

GSMiller

macrumors 68000
Dec 2, 2006
1,666
0
Kentucky
They already get off practically every other Monday for a federal holiday, isn't that enough?

If they do this I will stop buying from merchants who ship their goods through USPS.
 

PlaceofDis

macrumors Core
Jan 6, 2004
19,241
6
They already get off practically every other Monday for a federal holiday, isn't that enough?

If they do this I will stop buying from merchants who ship their goods through USPS.

really? one day matters that much?
/bewildered.
 

rdowns

macrumors Penryn
Jul 11, 2003
27,397
12,520
Cutting out Saturday delivery probably wouldn't save them that much since they don't deliver to offices on Saturday. With less traffic, they likely deliver much more quickly on Saturday. Cutting out a day during the week would save them a lot more.

Tuesday wouldn't work because of 3 day weekends (that would mean businesses wouldn't get delivery for 4 days). Give them hump day off.
 

PlaceofDis

macrumors Core
Jan 6, 2004
19,241
6
Cutting out Saturday delivery probably wouldn't save them that much since they don't deliver to offices on Saturday. With less traffic, they likely deliver much more quickly on Saturday. Cutting out a day during the week would save them a lot more.

Tuesday wouldn't work because of 3 day weekends (that would mean businesses wouldn't get delivery for 4 days). Give them hump day off.

they deliver to our office on saturday??

perhaps mondays would be the best. who knows. but i certainly see no reason to hold onto a six day delivery schedule.

i understand the desire for weekend delivery for some people. but UPS does offer it i know. and as for pricing afaik USPS is far cheaper with their flat rate shipping than UPS or FedEx any day.
 

iJohnHenry

macrumors P6
Mar 22, 2008
16,530
30
On tenterhooks
Mondays sounds like a good solution. Give them a 2-day week-end, and, in case of stat Monday holidays, they could schedule the make-up day so as not to interrupt normal deliveries.
 

Gray-Wolf

macrumors 68030
Apr 19, 2008
2,603
2
Pandora, Home Tree
They don't realize that every time they slap the american people in the face like this, we tend to take our business else where. Paying bills on line rather than mail ing it in and such.

How about cutting benefits to the carriers. Getting 6-7 weeks vacation a year is a bit much.
 

hayduke

macrumors 65816
Mar 8, 2005
1,177
2
is a state of mind.
Once a week would be fine. Anything that needs to go faster or on a special day would incur an overage fee. All I get most days is junk mail. I love the intertubes...
 

iJohnHenry

macrumors P6
Mar 22, 2008
16,530
30
On tenterhooks
They don't realize that every time they slap the american people in the face like this, we tend to take our business else where. Paying bills on line rather than mail ing it in and such.

How about cutting benefits to the carriers. Getting 6-7 weeks vacation a year is a bit much.

So, you would be willing to work 6 days a week, assuming that you don't already.
 

Unspeaked

macrumors 68020
Original poster
Dec 29, 2003
2,448
1
West Coast
So, you would be willing to work 6 days a week, assuming that you don't already.

I'm sure many MacRumors members work at places that are open 7 days a week, but that doesn't mean they work 7 days a week.

I'm sure the vast majority of US Postal workers do 5 day weeks.
 

mkrishnan

Moderator emeritus
Jan 9, 2004
29,776
15
Grand Rapids, MI, USA
that said... i do not see the benefit of cutting out a day besides saturday simply for logistic purposes. talk about confusion...

In some ways, I would actually prefer if they did cut out a day other than Saturday, if they had to cut. Right now, they're one of the major options to receive things like packages on Saturday, and Saturday is the only day I'm even remotely likely to be home when the mail comes.

The postal service is great, and I support them in wanting to get their budget balanced. I'd prefer if they could keep six days, though. We'll see....
 

Scooterman1

macrumors 6502a
May 15, 2008
939
12
Houston, Tx
Can't Balance The Budget...... Get Someone Who Can

If he can't manage what he was hired to do, then get someone who can. It's been done in the past. The rest of the corporate world does it all of the time. I'm a retired Postal Worker. He also asked that Congress allow them to change the Postal Services sharing formula for Retired Health Benefits. Work for a company for 38 years, and then they want to tell you that what we promised, we no longer want to do. They want to take the best of the quasi-government that suits them, and ignore the ones that don't.

They don't get 6-7 weeks vacation per year. The most they can get after 15 yrs employment, is 26 days, or 8 hrs. per 80 hour pay period. And it takes 15 years to build up to that.
 

tobefirst ⚽️

macrumors 601
Jan 24, 2005
4,611
2,335
St. Louis, MO
One of the main things keeping the post office alive is all the bulk mail. I'd sure like to see that one less day a week, but I'd really rather opt out of it altogether. Too bad there is no way to do that.

As it is, I see no problem with cutting delivery days to 5 days...except that would likely mean thousands of more jobs lost. ):
 

Unspeaked

macrumors 68020
Original poster
Dec 29, 2003
2,448
1
West Coast
Somewhat ironically, Netflix announced yesterday that they were going to start shipping out DVDs on Saturdays (up until now, they've only shipped out M-F) to help get discs to customers faster.

Now they come to find out they might not be able to - or lose a weekday instead and be back to 5 shipping days.
 

IJ Reilly

macrumors P6
Jul 16, 2002
17,909
1,496
Palookaville
For those who are interested in the history of these things, the US Post Office delivered mail twice daily until 1950. The same was true in the UK until quite recently I believe, but it seems the Post Office in Britain is also now talking about eliminating Saturday service. The volume of paper mail has dropped so substantially, it's virtually inevitable.
 
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