Modifying Retail Window Hours Could Keep Offices Open
WASHINGTON — The U.S. Postal Service announced a new strategy today that could keep the nation’s smallest Post Offices open for business, while providing a framework to achieve significant cost savings as part of the plan to return the organization to financial stability.
The plan would keep the existing Post Office in place, but with modified retail window hours to match customer use. Access to the retail lobby and to PO Boxes would remain unchanged, and the town’s ZIP Code and community identity would be retained.
“Meeting the needs of postal customers is, and will always be, a top priority. We continue to balance that by better aligning service options with customer demand and reducing the cost to serve,” said Postmaster General and CEO Patrick R. Donahoe. “With that said, we’ve listened to our customers in rural America and we’ve heard them loud and clear – they want to keep their Post Office open. We believe today’s announcement will serve our customers’ needs and allow us to achieve real savings to help the Postal Service return to long-term financial stability.”
The new strategy would be implemented over a two-year, multi-phased approach and would not be completed until September 2014. Once implementation is completed, the Postal Service estimates savings of a half billion dollars annually.
“The Postal Service is committed to serving America’s communities and providing a responsible and fair approach for our employees and customers,” said Megan Brennan, Postal Service Chief Operating Officer. “The Post Offices in rural America will remain open unless a community has a strong preference for one of the other options. We will not close any of these rural Post Offices without having provided a viable solution.”
The Postal Service will provide an opportunity for the Postal Regulatory Commission (PRC) to review this plan prior to making any changes. The Postal Service intends to file a request for an advisory opinion on the plan with the PRC later this month. Community meetings would then be conducted to review options in greater detail. Communities will be notified by mail of the date, time and location of these meetings.
This new option complements existing alternatives, which include:
1) Providing mail delivery service to residents and businesses in the affected community by either rural carrier or highway contract route;
2) Contracting with a local business to create a Village Post Office; and
3) Offering service from a nearby Post Office.
A voluntary early retirement incentive for the nation’s more than 21,000 non-executive postmasters was also announced.
Survey research conducted by the respected Opinion Research Corporation (ORC) in February, showed 54 percent of rural customers would prefer the new solution to maintain a local Post Office. Forty-six percent prefer one of the previously announced solutions (20% prefer Village Post Office, 15% prefer providing services at a nearby Post Office, 11% prefer expanded rural delivery). This strategy would enable a town to possibly have a Post Office with modified hours, as well as a Village Post Office.
The Postal Service has implemented a voluntary moratorium on all postal facility closings through May 15, 2012. No closings or changes to Post Office operations will occur until after that time.
In addition to maintaining a retail network of more than 31,000 Post Offices, the Postal Service also provides online access to postal products and services through usps.com and more than 70,000 alternate access locations. Nearly 40-percent of postal retail revenue comes from purchases on usps.com and through approved postal providers such as Wal-Mart, Staples, Office Depot, Walgreens, Sam’s Club, Costco, and many others.
A list of Post Offices affected by today’s announcement and additional details will be available after 4 p.m. ET today at http://about.usps.com/news/electronic-press-kits/our-future-network/welcome.htm
The Postal Service receives no tax dollars for operating expenses and relies on the sale of postage, products and services to fund its operations.
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What is happening to the PO now is the direct result of years of allowing inmates to run the institution. Now, the inmates don’t want any part of fixing the problem. Keep paying dem dues bruthas n sistas n keeps grievin locker space in your facility.
The fix? VERA with 5 year add-on and $20,000. Droves will bail and it will break the unions!
All this “plan” supposedly does is to try to get the lawmakers – who have done absolutely nothing to address the other concerns of the P.O. – a chance for a break so they can tell their constituants that they were trying to work for them! It’s all a freaking political game. It has nothing to do with actually providing service to the customers of the USPS and the American public.
Everything is always politically motivated. Those lawmakers really don’t give a shit about the postal workers – or the American public’s right to their mail.
31 years and still fighting for you and me, come on join in will occupy ther web pages and send letters to ther offices . If they vote for us we vote for them, plain and simple.
continue to call your senators ,comgressmen ,and keep the heat on this is not over yet. dont let them beat the spirit out of you , will all of you start a online workers revolution . for each person who votes against us ,we vote them out of office. thats if your and american and you vote.
do any of you have any idea of howthe po is winning this battle. Tell them to get off your back. thats what eeo is for.
keep up the fight , they want you all to quit ,and we all can become socialist ,like they want us to.
all off you need to use your energy to put loads of paper on o bamas desk to have early out for everyone.
Alls this is ,is an unnessecary reduction in service to the public ,caused by congressional greed.
Bob, we’re only ‘losing’ $ due to the forced prepayment of a 75 year retirement fund
he is fucking over the postal service and should be fired right now. Donahioe is a tool kick his ass to the curb. Patrick, you have no idea what you are doing!
psst, psst, wanna hear a good one?
donahoe is now claiming he never used the word “closure” when
refering to post offices! of course, this is a big lie and a previous post listed
many examples of donahoe and postal management using the word closure
when speaking of post offices. if donahoe and his lemming/lapdog
friends in postal management are now saying that they will just reduce the hours of rural post offices, why should anyone believe them? after all, they have a history distorting facts, lying, not telling the truth, etc etc etc. the moral of this story? DON’T BELIEVE A WORD THAT COMES FROM THE PIEHOLE OF PATRICK DONAHOE OR OTHER POSTAL MANAGERS.
New effort to save smallest post officies. Some of the small offices are within 2.5 miles of each other or a station of a larger high level office. Politicans have no concern for need but what will create favorable action to get a vote. Americans are wise to politicans ploy to have no concern for debt as the usps loosing 25 million dollars daily.