Mail drop-off changing postal routes
Think you know what time your mail arrives each day? Guess again.
The U.S. Postal service is reviewing all of its city routes nationwide and changing some of them to cut costs because mail volume is dropping during the recession.
Nationwide, the changes are expected to affect as many as 50 million addresses on 85,000 urban routes. Rural routes already get reviewed each year,
"It should be pretty seamless to customers, except they could possibly see a difference in delivery times," said Al Eakle, a USPS spokesman for the Indiana District.
The route reviews began last month and should finish by the end of February, Eakle said Thursday. Customers, depending on where they live, already might be seeing changes as parts of some routes are consolidated into others.
Some letter carriers are saddened by the changes. Bloomington's Darlene Meyer said she has watched children grow up, kept an eye on homebound customers and returned escaped pets during the nine years she's delivered her route.
"It's like losing part of my family," Meyer told The Herald Times of Bloomington.
Meyer's is one 2,700 urban routes under review in the Indiana District, which includes about 670 post offices and covers the entire state except for part of southern Indiana.
Eakle said the economic downtown affects the Postal Service just as it would any enterprise because businesses have reduced mailings to cut expenses. Through the first eight days of 2009, mail volume in Indiana fell 15 percent to 482 million pieces, compared with 567 million pieces during the same period last year.
Nationally, mail volume fell by 9.5 billion pieces, or 4.5 percent, during the fiscal year that ended last Sept. 30.
An agreement between postal officials and the National Association of Letter Carriers allows the Postal Service to expedite the changes, Eakle said.
Union officials at first resisted some route eliminations last year but have since given their nod to the changes.
The Postal Service has been offering early retirement to thin the ranks of carriers.
Postmaster General John Potter has said that after losing $2.8 billion last year, it would continuing to cut overtime and working hours. The cost of a first-class stamp rose to 42 cents last May and a new increase based on the rate of inflation will occur next May.
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On the Net:
U.S. Postal Service: http://www.usps.com
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According to the article I’ve read last night, there will be changes in the postal system stemmed from four basic provisions of the Postal Reorganization Act. There will be elimination of politics from postal management; establishment of adequate financing authority; development of a postal career service, allowing collective bargaining between management and employees; and creation of an independent commission for setting of postal rates. The next employer that may need a payday loan is those who work in mail delivery. The United States Postal Service has announced it might be suspending all operations on Saturdays, or possibly Tuesdays. It seems that recession, not rain or sleet or cold of night, is what the postal service is susceptible to, unlike a payday loan. Government agencies across the board are making cuts, and this would save billions by eliminating the slowest mail days of the week – so it may not be the greatest idea to clamor to get….
Click here to read more: http://personalmoneystore.com/moneyblog/2009/01/28/postal-lockdown-payday-loan/
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