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The offbeat personal finance blog for responsible people.

100 Words On: Why the US Postal Service Should Take Saturdays Off

By Len Penzo

Until 1912, the United States Postal Service delivered mail on Sundays — and prior to 1950, the mailman came twice a day. Now, with the USPS expected to suffer a projected $238 billion deficit over the next decade, maybe Saturday delivery is on the verge of becoming a thing of the past too. Luckily, with the era of online bill pay, email, and other forms of electronic communication, most people won’t even notice.

The bottom line: Yes, the USPS may be undeterred by snow, rain, heat and the gloom of night — but it still must find a way to conquer those mountains of red ink.

Photo Credit: Jo@net

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37 Comments December 28, 2017

Comments

  1. 1

    cashflowmantra says

    I think eliminating Saturday delivery is a good idea. I wouldn’t miss it.

    Reply
    • 2

      Len Penzo says

      Nor would I!

      Reply
  2. 3

    Libby says

    Why haven’t they done it already? If you need Saturday delivery for something just pay FedEx or UPS or one of the others who are set up for it?

    Reply
    • 4

      Len Penzo says

      I’m really not sure why it’s taking them so long to stop. They’ve been seriously talking about eliminating Saturday service since the beginning of 2010. I suspect it will happen next year.

      Reply
      • 5

        andy says

        Why ? Union. One day a week less means one day less pay for employees.

        Same reason there were fireman (coal shovelers) for years and years after trains switched to diesel powered locomotives.

        Reply
        • 6

          Len Penzo says

          Good point, Andy.

  3. 7

    Jack says

    The USPS is the worst run business in America. Fed Ex and UPS are profitable because they both do the same job more efficiently and for less than half the cost.

    Reply
    • 8

      Len Penzo says

      I do know that they spend much more money on labor (including pensions) than either FedEx or UPS. I believe it is almost 75% of their operating costs, which I believe is close to double that of FedEx. UPS is somewhere in the middle.

      Reply
    • 9

      m says

      FedEx and UPS are much much more expensive than USPS. Two years ago I calculated the cost of a letter delivery as price of stamp + (total USPS loss / number of mail items delivered). If I recall, it came out to well under a dollar. Compare that to $13 or whatever it costs to send something FedEx.

      All this being said, the times are changing for USPS and we shouldn’t have a federal agency (even if it has been self funded for a long time) that exists mainly to deliver junk mail.

      Reply
  4. 10

    PKamp3 says

    Well, if we have to pick a day and privatization isn’t an option, I would go with Wednesday. I know that has implications for overtime in the American Postal Workers Union contract (I think Saturday would still mean overtime), but with Wednesdays instead of Saturdays eliminated, the longest you would have to wait for mail would be 2 days. With no weekends, you’re looking at a Friday to Monday gap.

    Either way, do something, haha.

    Reply
    • 11

      Len Penzo says

      Interesting point, Paul!

      Reply
    • 12

      m says

      I like this point mainly because my copy of The Economist comes on Saturdays.

      Reply
  5. 13

    DC says

    @Jack, like private vs public schools, I would argue Fed Ex and UPS cherry-pick the most profitable slice of shipping work — package delivery — leaving the USPS as the carrier of last resort for everything else.

    @PKamp3, the USPS is already “privatized” as a self-funding entity. That’s why it’s usps.com instead of usps.gov.

    The USPS is caught in a technology trap. It is defined too narrowly as a letter carrier instead of, say, a communications clearinghouse. E-billing and e-payments are killing off its primary business. Like horse-drawn carriage manufacturers at the start of the 20th century, the USPS will eventually have to undergo radical change or die.

    The fondly-remembered Pony Express was in operation for less than a year before going out of business thanks to new technology, the telegraph. Again, an example of a too narrowly defined business model.

    Reply
  6. 14

    Bret @ Hope to Prosper says

    @DC I agree with half of what you said. The post office is stuck delivering less profitable letters, magazines and junk mail. But, their attempt to compete with packages is a miserable failure. The reason is they don’t guarantee anything. With FedEx and UPS, if you order overnight or second day delivery, it gets there. With the post office, express could take a week.

    The post office should have killed Saturday delivery years ago. But, the union has strongly resisted it, because it will kill a lot of jobs. The post office probably thought they would get a bailout like everyone else, but Congress has limited their raises to the cost of inflation. So, now they will have to get real.

    Reply
  7. 15

    DC says

    @Bret, I agree the USPS package delivery has issues, but Fed Ex and UPS in particular have their issues too. There’s a reason why UPS is also known as “United Parcel Smashers”. Have you ever tried to collect on that guarantee? It can take months and proving repeatedly they were at fault to be reimbursed for a smashed delivery.

    I’m not so much trying to defend the USPS as point out they have to operate under different rules, and all other things being equal, that in itself causes a hit on profitability. Of course, things are not equal; the USPS still suffers from a monopoly mentality from the days when they were a true government agency.

    But absolutely, yes, they have to get real.

    Reply
    • 16

      Len Penzo says

      They do operate under different rules. One of the biggest is that they are obligated by law to provide mail to all Americans.

      They also have a Congressional sanctioned monopoly on first class mail, which discourages improvements in service.

      Combine the two and you have inefficiencies, lack of innovation, a disincentive to improve customer service, and high costs.

      Reply
      • 17

        m says

        Are you unhappy with their first class mail delivery? I routinely send items to my sister on the opposite coast and they almost always arrive in a single day.

        Reply
        • 18

          Len Penzo says

          Actually, m, I think their first class mail delivery is top notch. I can’t remember experiencing single-day opposite-coast delivery (more like two to three days), but I routinely enjoy single-day local and regional (within several states distance) delivery.

  8. 19

    Krantcents says

    The problem with the USPS is they have not kept up with the changing times. In addition, they are losing money. I have no problem giving up Saturday delivery.

    Reply
  9. 20

    Darwin's Money says

    Today, and many other days, I have seen the UPS guy whip and and run. Run to a door to deliver a package and then run back to the truck and drive away. Aside from potential safety issues with how fast they drive sometimes, they are MOTIVATED! These guys get stuff done and quickly.

    When was the last time you saw a postal carrier run (except from a dog). Granted, it may not be the most motivating job in the world. But there is something to be said for private industry and incentives vs. public sector union work.

    Reply
    • 21

      Len Penzo says

      That is true, Darwin. In fact, my post man has on a couple occasions over the years completely skipped delivery of my mail on days when he would have had to get out of his truck to reach my mailbox because, say, a vehicle (not mine) had blocked it. (Wouldn’t want him to have to exert himself you know.) Can you imagine FedEx or UPS pulling a stunt like that?

      Reply
  10. 22

    Kathy says

    Home Saturday delivery? wow. Don’t have that up here in Canada — Monday to Friday only. Although at one point during the lovely postal strike we had a while back, a few blogs pondered if we should move to 3 day delivery instead of 5 days per week. I personally wouldn’t have a problem with it. But, it was just on a couple of blogs….

    Reply
    • 23

      Len Penzo says

      I think I could handle 3 days a week too, Kathy.

      Reply
  11. 24

    YFS says

    A way to conquer the red ink would be to change how they must prepay retirement benefits. They would have a surplus if they didn’t have to abide by these ridiculous cash reserved requirements

    Reply
    • 25

      Len Penzo says

      Bingo, YFS. Then again, if they are like a lot of other government pensions, they may be just a bit too generous to begin with.

      Reply
  12. 26

    WB says

    They have a 21.5 billion deficit over the last 5 years. Over the last 5 years they have paid 20 billion to the pension-health care fund for future payments. Something that can be tapped by the government with an IOU. Hmm, where have we heard that before?

    UPS and FedEx have found that it is cheaper to deliver packages(ground only) to rural customers by delivering them to the post office for the final leg of the trip.

    I really don’t know how much would be saved by no Saturday delivery but it wouldn’t make a difference to me.

    Reply
  13. 27

    UltimateSmartMoney says

    There should not be much impact on my family if USPS takes off Saturday. You are absolutely right in these days with the Internet, we end up paying majority of our bills online.

    Reply
  14. 28

    Guy says

    No, keep Saturday! It is the one day that many people can get there since they are open only 9-5 M-F. What they should get rid of is Monday. That way they can have two days closed down which will give them savings of opening/closing (and heating/AC). But it allows people who work during the week to stop by on the weekend to mail something. Actually, do half a day Saturday like 10-2 or something, even more savings!

    Reply
  15. 29

    Allyn says

    Honestly, as far as I’m concerned, if they delivered once a week, that would be plenty for me. That’s about how often I walk over to the mailboxes to get my mail now; and most of the time, everything that comes out of my mailbox goes into the trash anyway because it is junk mail. Maybe once a month, I get something in the mail that I don’t throw away (or shred if it is something like a pre-approved CC solicitation). All of my bills are paperless and they all get paid online or in cash. If I could figure out how to get unexpected notices (like jury duty) through email, I would be happy not to be bothered with snail-mail at all.

    Reply
  16. 30

    Joe says

    We need to reframe ending Saturday delivery as an envirnmental issue. Think of the amount of CO2 that would be eliminated by getting all those mail trucks off the roads one day a week! Dems would need to choose between big labor or the environment.

    Reply
    • 31

      Len Penzo says

      Joe: I can hear the sound of exploding heads all over America now.

      Reply
  17. 32

    RD Blakeslee says

    The lifeblood of USPS are sales catalogs and fliers, delivered as second class mail.

    Those catalogs use 53 million tress and tons of fossil fuel just to make their paper.

    http://brgov.com/dept/recycle/catalogs.htm

    Reply
    • 33

      Len Penzo says

      Amazing, isn’t it?

      Reply
  18. 34

    Ellis says

    What about all the packages that are delivered by the USPS to homes on Saturdays and Sundays by the USPS, from Amazon, who uses the Postal Service for the final stage of their delivery?

    Reply
    • 35

      Len Penzo says

      I propose that would be an exception, Ellis … since presumably the USPS would be acting as a private subcontractor for Amazon to provide delivery service on Saturdays and Sundays.

      Reply
  19. 36

    MaryAnn says

    They contract with Amazon and those Prime members like me want our 2 day shipping/delivery.

    Reply
    • 37

      Len Penzo says

      Yep, MaryAnn … in some cases I now see Amazon offer ONE day delivery!

      Reply

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