Besides bills, the odd magazine and newspaper clippings from my grandma, I rarely receive anything via the US Postal Service. It seemed like an out-dated way of communication that is often times more hassle than it’s worth. With e-mail, Facebook, Twitter and other social networking services, people can communicate almost instantly. Snail mail requires time (and money! Stamps do NOT come cheap!) to write, stamp and send. Often times taking DAYS to be delivered, and who has time for that?
So, naturally, it made sense to me that the United States Postal Service announced they were planning on switching to a five-day delivery service. According to huffingtonpost.com, the mail carrier service loses $25 million a day and lost $16 billion in the last year. However, this plan to cut back on costs has suffered a blow due to legislation passed by Congress requiring six-day delivery. But why require a six-day delivery week? Several polls show that a majority of the public supports ending delivery on Saturdays. As it is not directly funded by tax dollars, and is, in fact, its own business, some experts have estimated that the Postal Service could run out of money by October, costing taxpayers more than $47 billion in bailouts, says huffingtonpost.com. If the USPS were to cut back, they would continue to deliver packages and medications for six days a week, and only the delivery of letters would be cut back a day.
However, in my hasty, number-focused research, I had entirely forgotten about the people who make a living with the USPS. All of the research I had done was based on people who were served by USPS or passed legislation over it, but no one who was directly affected by this change. So, I went to speak to some USPS employees, who have chosen to remain anonymous and their comments on the matter changed my perspective. “By cutting out Saturday delivery, every Monday will be like the day after a holiday,” said one employee, “and usually clerks have to put in long hours on those days.” Another employee said that “by removing 17 percent of our revenue, you’re not cutting costs, you’re driving away customers.” Yet another mentioned that the only employees that might possibly support this shortened delivery week are letter carriers, since they wouldn’t have to work on Saturdays. “I’ve worked here for many years to get my Saturdays off.”
These kind people pointed me in the direction of postalreporter.com, which is a website that includes information on how employees feel about the switch to five-day delivery, which senators are for and against, and other postal-related news. From this website, I’ve gathered that a very large percent of Postal Services employees wish to keep Saturday delivery, including letter carriers. Now, the push to keep the six-day delivery period is much more understandable. Cutting the number of days in which to do essentially the same amount of work makes very little sense. I don’t know why I had never thought of that before–perhaps I was operating under the false assumption that decreasing the amount of delivery days would somehow decrease the amount of mail going through the system regularly. Perhaps I was convinced by the large numbers and statistics being thrown around by the political proponents of the switch. Either way, I was wrong to assume without taking in the opinions of those who would be affected the most, the USPS workers.
The bill is still awaiting approval from the president. Ali Ahmad, a spokesperson for Representative Darrell Issa, says that even if the legislation passes, there may still be room for the Postal Service to change its schedule. “Although the spending measure maintains the six-day delivery language, it is vague and does not stop the Postal Service from altering what products it delivers on Saturdays,” says Ahmad.
I do hope that the USPS continues Saturday delivery. While mail is not the most modern form of communication, nor the most immediate, it’s still a very important way of sharing things with others.
Maybe I’ll start sending letters more often.
Samantha Bloom can be reached at samantha.bloom@spartans.ut.edu