Saturday Mail Service Getting the Sack
Businesses that count on weekend delivery of circulars and other materials to boost sales will have to readjust their game plans once USPS switches to a Monday to Friday schedule.
By Jim Ostroff, Associate Editor, The Kiplinger Letter
September 25, 2009
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There’ll be no more Saturday delivery of mail, come 2011 or so. The U.S. Postal Service is serious about cutting back to a Monday to Friday schedule -- a plan that the USPS figures will save the cash-strapped agency at least $3 billion a year.
Congress will grudgingly go along, though not till after the 2010 elections. Lawmakers on both sides of the political aisle are reluctantly coming to the conclusion that USPS cost cutting and much higher postal rates can’t bail the service out of the deepening hole it’s in. They know that rate hikes will only accelerate the inexorable erosion of mail volume.
It’ll mean a big shift for many businesses: retailers, auto dealers and others that count on Saturday delivery of ads to generate weekend sales. “Typically, these operations focus on Saturday to do coordinated targeting, using ads sent by mail, as well as newspaper inserts, e-mail and Web ads. It is likely these all will move to Fridays, which may not be as effective,” says Hamilton Davison, executive director of the American Catalog Mailers Association.
Only very limited service is likely to be maintained: Saturday morning hours at post offices for business pickup and Express Mail boxes in lobbies, for example. Outgoing mail won’t be processed until Monday. Look for businesses to lean more on third-party services that use software to determine the best days of the week to mail everything from bills to promotions and reach the majority of their target consumers, says Angelo Anagnostopoulos, vice president for postal affairs with GrayHair Software, a New Jersey-based postal analysis firm.
Postal officials see axing mail pickup and delivery and other postal services on Saturdays as being least disruptive to operations. Saturday mail volume is lower than that of other days -- around 11% of a typical week’s total.
However, postal officials haven’t ruled out restoring full mail service on Saturdays during the year-end holiday season, which brings heavy volume. Also under consideration: limited Saturday service to deliver mail-order prescription drugs to consumers.
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Reader Comments (12)
Posted by: Newman at 09/27/2009 09:46:32 PM
This article has little substance since nothing has been decided or agreed upon and it is merely speculative in nature. I wish your article addressed why the Postmaster General has 43 VPs for the USPS why our country operates with only one VP.
Posted by: mojorisen at 09/28/2009 08:11:27 AM
I read on the federal times website that as of 9-14 congress is not going for 5 day delivery and they're doing everything they can to ensure 6 day delivery
Posted by: dugbert at 09/28/2009 08:27:14 AM
Weekend sales should start on Saturdays. This would be a good thing.
Posted by: David at 09/28/2009 09:54:16 AM
This article is premature. The end of Saturday delivery has only been proposed to Congress -- who has yet to act on the proposal. So, any setting of dates for implementation is presumptive.
Posted by: Big Ed at 09/28/2009 11:21:19 AM
Nowhere in our discussions with all of the management in USPS, has led to the belief that mail will not be processed on saturday and or sunday. right now i do not think the public knows that the uspostal service process mail twenty four seven. The mere suggestion to the public that mail will not be proccessed on the weekend is iresponsible of the media to suggest. the media is only in my opinion trying to stir the pot.
Posted by: Chantel Smith at 09/28/2009 06:49:51 PM
Sat mail volume is NOT lower than that of other days. Don't know where you got that info. There are some days during the week that are really light, but sometimes on Sats mail volume is higher that during the week. Sometimes not.
Posted by: tom at 09/28/2009 07:04:23 PM
If H.R. 22 is signed into law the cancellation of Sat. delivery will not be needed. The financial losses of the Postal Service would be a profit if not for the short sighted law forcing them to Prefund all retire obligations. That is all retirees who will ever work for the P.O.The amount to be paid this year is around 5 billion dollars. Another way for the P.O. to save money would be to get rid of all the multi layers of Management.
Posted by: Bill at 09/29/2009 09:46:14 AM
I've been an employee for over 30 years in Phoenix Arizona and this statement by Mr. Ostroff is bunk: It’ll mean a big shift for many businesses: retailers, auto dealers and others that count on Saturday delivery of ads to generate weekend sales. “Typically, these operations focus on Saturday to do coordinated targeting, using ads sent by mail, as well as newspaper inserts, e-mail and Web ads. It is likely these all will move to Fridays, which may not be as effective,” says Hamilton Davison, executive director of the American Catalog Mailers Association. Apply a little logic here. businesses don't send out ads/flyers etc on the day (saturday) that the special sale is planned to happen! Guessing by the UPS ads that inhabit this page, I'd venture to say that the Kiplinger Group isn'r much of a fan of the US Postal Service in the first place, no bias here, huh?
Posted by: john at 09/30/2009 12:39:58 PM
i am retired. every post office i ever worked at sat was the heaviest day of the week by far
Posted by: George at 09/30/2009 03:08:29 PM
Neither mailers or customers (citizens) are interested in reducing service. The passage of HR 22 plus the accelerated downsizing of the clerk craft will hold off the drastic actions threatened in this article. USPS also reflects the economy. As the economy improves so will USPS revenue. "Closing" any day of the week is too business-foolish to take seriously.
Posted by: Jim Ostroff at 09/30/2009 08:15:12 PM
Studies done by the USPS and private firms agree that Saturday is the "lightest" mail volume day--with 11% of the weekly volume, on average. No member of Congress or the Administration is going to say, before the Nov. '10 election, that they plan to end Sat. mail service, or raise the gas pump tax. Both are in the works. Kiplinger never takes sides on any issue. Period. We say what is most likely to happen, based on our conversations with policymakers. With mail volume ebbing and USPS deficits growing, Sat. mail service will not be around much longer.
Posted by: David at 09/30/2009 10:42:01 PM
I see postal outlets that are often only a few miles from each other!! That may be ideal with unlimited funds, but not when you're going broke. Each office has a large payroll and a boss who pulls down pretty good pay ...another relic of bygone days.