http://www.breitbart.com/article.php?id=CNG.a0b6766a9ea827cbb5a923f2763e94d1.871&show_article=1
Facing rising costs and declining demand, the United States Postal Service this week unveiled a cost-cutting plan that would trim mail delivery to five days a week and slash some 40,000 jobs.
The USPS said in a statement that it is facing an expected 238 billion dollar budget deficit over the next decade.
Officials said they plan to scale back mail delivery by early 2011, as it attempts to reinvent itself as a leaner, more efficient postal service.
Although this article didn't provide the figure, other articles have placed the savings expected by this move to hit as much as $3 billion per year. In my opinion, that's not a lot to offset an expected $23 billion per year loss.
But I honestly expect that their savings projections are wrong. Think about it... you can't just fire the guys who work on Saturday, because those people also work during the week. So all you're doing is paying those people for one day's less work.
Now the USPS claims that cutting Saturday delivery will allow them to reduce their workforce. I'm not sure how they reach that conclusion... it doesn't make sense to me.
Let's look at the pointy end of this particular stick, the mail carriers. Each mail carrier has a route he has to run every day, and he must run the entire route every day. I believe that the routes must be finished by 5:00 PM each day. You can bet that the USPS has the routes balanced with the current mail volume to make sure the routes aren't too big or too small.
So they slash Saturday delivery... what happens? The mail volume hasn't suddenly decreased, just the delivery days, so that means the mail that WOULD have been delivered on Saturday will have to be delivered on other days of the week. As the per-day mail volume per route increases, many carriers will be unable to complete their routes in the available time.
The result? The USPS will have to juggle things around, shortening some routes and creating new routes to handle the overflow. The result could EASILY be an INCREASE in the number of mail carriers.
I don't have access to the numbers and inside information the USPS is using for their estimates, but the proposed plan of action doesn't pass the basic logic test.
And keep in mind that mail processing facilities will still be open on weekends... the mail still moves across the country and arrives at processing centers on Saturdays and Sundays.
One final observation: It must be nice to be able to slash 1/6th of your work days and keep your entire budget. Private businesses don't have that option.
So put me down as skeptical on this one.
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