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The United States Postal Service might eliminate Saturday mail delivery as one of several cost-cutting measures designed to weather a multi-billion shortfall.
On Tuesday, Postmaster General John E. Potter announced a 10-year plan to increase revenue and cut expenses. Along with five-day mail delivery, the plan includes branch closures and rate hikes as well as increasing postal contract units with retailers.
If no action is taken, the Postal Service is projected to face a $238 billion shortfall by 2020.
"The future depends on a suite of solutions that takes a balanced and reasonable approach," Potter stated, "one that cuts across every aspect of our industry, but one that, in the end, does the greatest possible good for our stakeholders and the American public."
In order to make some of proposed changes, the Postal Service will need approval from the United States Congress or the Postal Regulatory Commission - a President-appointed commission comprised of private citizens and Postal Service personnel. According to Portland Postal District customer relations coordinator Ron Anderson, five-day delivery service must be approved by Congress, any rate hikes require approval by the Regulatory Commission, and branch closures require approval from both.
At this point, regarding Congressional approval to drop Saturday delivery service, Anderson said there is "a lot of buzz," but ultimately Congress has not yet stated their intentions.
For Senator Jeff Merkley (D- Ore.), it is too early in the process to determine whether he will accept or reject five-day delivery service or any other proposed changes.
"Right now there is not a lot of detail," said Courtney Warner-Crowell, Deputy Communication Director for Merkley. "It's relatively early, but Senator Merkley is monitoring the situation closely and reaching out to communities and making sure their voice is heard throughout this process."
Senator Ron Wyden (D - Ore.) pointed out that postal service changes could have an impact on future elections.
"This (changes in service) is especially important in Oregon because we vote by mail," Wyden spokesman Tom Towslee said, "and whatever changes do occur, our ability to vote must not be compromised." The other critical concern for Wyden is how rural communities would be impacted.
"Whatever changes are made, the Postal Service must deliver on their responsibility to provide universal service and not sacrifice service in rural areas," Towslee stated.
As far as the Postal Service is concerned, dropping Saturday delivery service would go far toward saving money, and customers appear to support the idea.
"We've done extensive research with residential customers and business customers asking them if we should go to five-day delivery service, raise prices or subsidize postal service with tax dollars," Anderson said. "The majority - not everybody, but the majority - said, `I can live without Saturday delivery.'"
Rate increases seem more likely, and have taken place already in recent years. However, 2010 rates are expected to remain the same for the remainder of the year.
"We're going to hold true to our promise of no price changes this year," Anderson said, but went on to say that next year could be different. "They (the Postal Service) are talking about a proposed price increase that would be effective in 2011."
This could include a change in the price of stamps (currently 44 cents) as well as priority or express mail, but Anderson made a point of stating that any increase is subject to Postal Regulatory Commission approval.
As far as branch closures go, Crook County post offices should still be safe. Anderson said the Postal Service will likely target higher-populated cities with multiple branches, such as Portland or Eugene, or post offices that have expanded to annex buildings to increase floor space.
"As it stands now, the strategy nationally is not to look at closing a post office in a community (with one post office)," he said.
Locally, the Prineville Post Office has been carrying out cost-cutting measures as well.
"We are doing the same thing as other post offices - reducing hours, reducing routes," said Prineville Postmaster Brian Moore. "We have gone down about 15 percent in the volume of mail in the last couple years, and we're expecting that again this year."
During quarter one of fiscal year 2008, the Prineville branch delivered 1,081,117 pieces of mail. During the same quarter of fiscal year 2009, that amount had dropped to 990,171, and, in fiscal year 2010, it has fallen to 896,639.
