Halting Postal Service deliveries on Saturdays and later slicing service to three days a week will slow receipt of periodicals but delight banks that issue credit cards and others that slap fees on late payments, envisions Grumpy Editor.
Postmaster General Patrick Donahoe warns heavy financial losses in operations soon could curtail Saturday deliveries.
Then, “at some point, we’ll have to move to three days a week of mail delivery, possibly in 15 years,” adds Donahoe who projects an $8.3 billion loss this year mainly because more people are moving communications electronically.
Senators Tom Carper (D., Del.) and Susan Collins (R., Maine) are behind legislation that would lead to scrubbing Saturday deliveries.
However, Sen. Jon Tester (D., Mont.) won’t vote for it because he says Saturday deliveries are important for people in states like his to get things like medicine and other vital items.
The Postal Service also is reviewing up to 3,600 postal facilities for elimination. Final decision is slated for next spring.
Stopping Saturday service also means mailed payments deposited into Post Office collection boxes on Friday nights won’t be picked up until Monday mornings. With two or more days for delivery, they could wind up as “late,” thus triggering late payment fees from banks and others.
Postal Service has been marked by deteriorating service in recent years.
Some examples:
+ Residents of newer homes pick up mail from mostly inconvenient cluster boxes, rather than deliveries through mail slots at residences.
+ Delivery time over short distances comes close to Pony Express days. For instance, a letter from Los Angeles to Las Vegas --- about 230 miles --- takes at least two days.
+ Earlier “last” pickup times Mondays through Saturdays from collection boxes.
+ Elimination of Sunday pickups.
Largely forgotten: Two mail deliveries a day to businesses in the early 1940s. Thus, a same-city mailing in the morning was received in the afternoon.
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