THE POSTAL REGULATORY COMMISSION has started the long process of holding hearings about the Postal Service’s proposal to cut Saturday mail delivery, and already we hear the USPS complaining that the Commission is taking too long and that such delays will further lead the USPS to insolvency. The USPS anticipates losing $238 billion over the next decade.
Hold on a minute. Is it really such a good idea to move fast when such a profound change to American business, if not our way of life, is on the table?
Over the next few months, the USPS plans to hold public hearings in Las Vegas; Sacramento, CA; Dallas; Memphis, TN; Chicago; Rapid City, SD; and Buffalo, NY, to gauge reaction to this idea. After that time, the PRC will issue an “advisory opinion” on the wisdom of cutting service.
The Commission said it could take nine months to come up with its opinion, which Congress is expected to look at if it considers cutting service.
For her part, PRC Chair Ruth Goldway isn’t necessarily sold on the idea that cutting Saturday delivery will make the Postal Service more financially viable. She said as much to the Senate Subcommittee on Federal Financial Management.
More important, Goldway told that panel that Congress should seriously think about reworking the USPS’s extra-heavy financial burdens of pre-funding retired employee health benefits and pension costs before it cuts mail delivery.
And who really knows if cutting delivery will work?
Last year, many industry groups thought axing Saturday service would further diminish the importance of mail in the face of e-mail and the like. Now, most of them say do it if it will save the USPS.
Commentary from the BigFatMarketingBlog.com
