On Saturdays our mailboxes may be nice and empty.
It’s hard to argue with the Postal Service decision, announced Wednesday, to stop Saturday mail delivery starting in August. Most of the mail people get consists of bills, ads and requests for donations. There’s no rush on those, and if they don’t get delivered till Monday, fine, no problem.
In Oregon we have the issue of ballots coming in the mail. They often arrive on Friday or Saturday two and a half weeks before election day. So if they don’t arrive till the following Monday, is that a problem? No, it’s not. Nobody needs two weeks to fill out a ballot and send it back. Voters used to be able to handle ballots within a few minutes, so we know it can be done.
The post office says that not delivering mail on Saturdays will save $2 billion a year. That estimate has to be taken with a grain of salt. And whatever savings are actually realized will come out of somebody’s earnings. If that’s contract carriers who deliver the Saturday mail, that’s sad for them. Still, the service has been losing lots and lots of money, and it clearly can’t continue doing the same things it has always done. Unless we want to start paying a dollar or two for a first-class stamp — or unless we ban bill-paying online or demand that every household write two personal letters a day instead of using email —Â changes have to be made.
For most postal customers, though, the change may prove helpful. If you don’t get mail on Saturdays, it won’t sit in your rural box for most of two days — ready loot for thieves — when you happen to spend a weekend away. (hh)
From Ted Salmons: What I don’t understand is that if they’re doing this to save money (and heaven knows they’ve got to do something) then why still deliver packages, keep those post offices with Saturday hours (do these really exist?) still open on Saturday and deliver mail to post office boxes? Does that mean we that are getting our service cut are going get a discount on our postage since we’re the ones that actually are going to get less service? Yeah, like that’s gonna happen. If they’re doing this to save money then save money. No service on Saturdays. Period.
