Delivery delays will result from the postal service’s decision to shut about half of its 487 mail processing centers across the nation.
This would cause the postal service to reduce delivery standards for first-class mail for the first time in 40 years, substantially increasing the distance that mail travels between post offices and processing centers.
Current standards call for delivering first-class mail in one to three days within the continental United States. Under the planned cutbacks, those delivery times would increase to two or three days, potentially creating problems for companies like Netflix that rely heavily on next-day delivery.
The agency announced in September that it would begin studying plans to close 252 out of 487 mail processing centers, and on Monday it said it would “move forward” with that plan, with closings to begin as early as March. Heavy pressure from Congress or the public could still cause the postal service to scale back the plan, at least somewhat.
Patrick Donahoe, the postmaster general, has repeatedly said that by 2015 he hopes to cut $20 billion from the agency’s annual costs, which are now about $75 billion. He has called for closing up to 3,700 of the nation’s 32,000 post offices, while reducing deliveries to five days a week from six, and cutting the agency’s work force of 653,000 employees by more than 100,000.
“We’re in a deep financial crisis today because we have a business model that’s tied to the past,” he said at a news conference last month. “We are expected to operate like a business, but don’t have the flexibility to do so. Our business model is fundamentally inflexible. It prevents the postal service from solving its problems.”
Mr. Donahoe has urged Congress to act with more urgency to allow the postal service to cut costs. In recent months, he has complained repeatedly that his agency needs permission from Congress to take the actions he says it needs in an era when mail volume has plunged largely because of the explosion of e-mail and electronic bill-paying. Mail volume has dropped more than 20 percent — by more than 40 billion pieces — over the last five years.
According to The Associated Press, about 42 percent of first-class mail is currently delivered the following day, while 27 percent is delivered in two days. Thirty-one percent arrives in three days and less than 1 percent is delivered in four to five days.
According to postal officials, after processing centers are closed in the spring, slightly more than half of all first-class mail is expected to be delivered in two days, with most of the rest arriving in three days.
The postal service previously announced a 1-cent increase in first-class postage, to 45 cents, starting Jan. 22.
The postal service said there would still be opportunities for companies that properly prepare and enter mail at the destination processing center so their mail could be delivered the following delivery day.
David Williams, the vice president for network operations, said, “The proposed changes to service standards will allow for significant consolidation of the postal network in terms of facilities, processing equipment, vehicles and employee work force, and will generate projected net annual savings of approximately $2.1 billion.”
Article source: http://feeds.nytimes.com/click.phdo?i=2b05b39eeecafd1a428a66913541d928
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