Is it Time to End Saturday Mail Delivery?

It is no secret that the Postal Service has been hard hit by the precipitous decline in mail volume. From  a peak of 213 billion pieces of mail in 2006, mail volume has declined to a projected 167 billion pieces for 2010, and is expected to level off at about 150 billion beyond this year. That represents a nearly 30% decline in revenue. The Postal Service has been scrambling to find places to cut to make up the shortfall. Post Offices have been closed and some 300, 000 "under performing" mail drop boxes have been eliminated. A slew of new mailing specifications have been put into place to further automate bulk mail.  But approximately 80% of costs for the Postal Service is in employee pay and benefits. Short of reductions in work hours, there is no way to achieve savings that will make up for the shortfall. Eliminating Saturday delivery is estimated to save the postal service over $3 billion.  

The Postal Service has requested that they be allowed to discontinue Saturday service, and have been working on operational changes that will have to be made if and when that happens. So far, Congress and the Obama administration have been reluctant to allow the change. Rep. Jason Chaffetz, R-Utah, says that Saturday delivery gives U.S. businesses a competitive advantage. Cutting Saturday delivery on the day before Mother's Day or Christmas, he says, is "Probably not a good idea."  Chaffetz suggests adding 12 more non-delivery holidays to the postal calendar, whether they fall on Saturday or not.

Clearly, the Postal Service is important to the economy of this country. Printed communications have unique value that is not matched by email which can be easily lost, ignored, or deleted in the surge of electronic data we are subjected to every day. And with today's reduced mail volume, mailed communications get more attention than ever before. But does that mean we should require mail delivery on Saturday, and at what cost? Polls suggest that most Americans do not object to elimination of Saturday mail. What do you think?