The US Postal Service filed a notice with the Postal Regulatory Commission on March 30, formally asking it to weigh in on the agency’s planned move to a five-day-per-week delivery schedule. The USPS intends to implement the schedule change in 2011 if Congress approves it.
The move to five-day delivery is part of the Postal Service’s 10-year plan to regain financial stability, which also includes a review of the USPS’ pension-payment schedule and a possible exigent price increase. The Postal Service’s board of governors approved the agency’s five-day delivery request on March 24.
Earlier this month, the PRC hired an actuarial consultant to review the pension-payment system used by the postal service. The USPS’ Office of Inspector General released a report in January stating that the agency’s current pension-funding system resulted in an overpayment of $75 billion from 1972 to 2009.
The USPS ran net losses of $611 million for February, and $592 million for January, respectively.
Patrick Donahoe, deputy postmaster general and COO of the USPS, said on March 29 that business mailers have been more receptive to a drop in delivery days than possible price increases.
“Most business mailers said, ‘Give us four months to adjust our schedules,’” he said. “However, the thing they do not want to see are price increases.”
Donahoe added that the USPS would need six months to implement the schedule after a congressional vote on the issue.
