WASHINGTON — The U.S. Postal Service today updated the list of retail stations and branches that remain under review for possible consolidation, with only 241 offices still under review.
Unlike most federal agencies, America’s national mail system receives no tax subsidy for operating expenses and relies on the sale of postage, products and services to fund its operations. The Postal Service reported a loss of $3.8 billion at the end of its 2009 fiscal year in October.
“To shore up its finances, the Postal Service is looking at every aspect of its business to economize. Reducing over-capacity in retail and delivery operations is a smart business move. Every effort is being made to maintain and improve customer access to postal services,” said Steven J. Forte, senior vice president, Operations.
Today’s announcement updates a review process begun earlier this summer that initially examined about 3,300 stations and branches in urban and suburban areas across the country, focusing on facilities in relatively close proximity to one another. The process is to determine where consolidations might be feasible without compromising customer access to postal services.
With over 36,000 Post Offices, stations, branches, contract and community post offices, the Postal Service has the largest retail network in the United States. An additional 56,000 locations such as supermarkets, drug stores, and other retailers sell postage and selected postal services. Nearly 18,000 ATMs dispense sheets of stamps. But customers do not have to visit a physical building to purchase products and services; postage can be bought at usps.com and printed on personal computers.
As part of this process, the Postal Service has filed periodic updates with the Postal Regulatory Commission, identifying the retail stations and branches that remain under consideration. The filing does not represent a final decision on consolidation. To date, no facility-specific final decisions have been made as a result of this initiative.
New initiatives also are being undertaken to build revenue, including Flat Rate Priority Mail pricing. If it fits in the box, it ships for one low price regardless of U.S. destination or weight. Another recent revenue building initiative introduced greeting cards to 500 select Post Offices.
Click here for the list http://www.usps.com/communications/newsroom/stationbranchop.pdf
They alos MUST prosecute those who steal from the USPS instead of giving them PTO until the person can retire and then letting them retire with full pension.
Stop protecting criminals.
The USPS MUST cut all positions that don’t deliver mail, stop outsourcing their own trucking of mail, and cut wasteful spending.
If they do that things may improve.
The USPS needs to eliminate more management positions. Not only are there too many, but the majority are imcompetant. You talk about keeping your position out of the spotlight, well you could care less about craft positions. When someone finally wakes up and sees that there are too many managers, then the USPS might have a chance to succeed.
I know of two P.O.’s that are about 1 and 1/2 miles apart here in N. Calif. I don’t see that one being considered for closure. Both of these offices are in small towns.
John Smith,
I have to eat and pay my bills just like you. Plese keep my position out of the spot light.
Sirs,
If the Postal Service calls every post office a ” retail outlet ” and it is pursuing Congress to allow it to allow it to sell more services at these retail outlets, then why is it trying to close so many retail outlets ?
If the Postal Service is focused on reducing labor costs, then why is the management side of the management to employee ratio not being reduced ? The current ratio is one manager for every eight employees, about triple the national average.
If the USPS is serious about reducing overhead then why does the USPS have 39 vice-presidents ? Former Postmaster General Marvin Runyan said that everyone that doesn’t touch the mail is overhead. He was correct ignored.yet