Bad News from the Postal Service
By: Stephanie Castillo
Updated: December 5, 2011
The estimated $3
billion in reductions, to be announced in broader detail later Monday,
are part of a wide-ranging effort by the Postal Service to quickly trim
costs and avert bankruptcy. They could slow everything
from check payments to Netflix's DVDs-by-mail, add costs to mail-order
prescription drugs, and threaten the existence of newspapers and
time-sensitive magazines delivered by postal carrier to far-flung
suburban and rural communities.
That birthday card
mailed first-class to Mom also could arrive a day or two late, if people
don't plan ahead.
"It's a potentially
major change, but I don't think consumers are focused on it and it won't
register until the service goes away," said Jim Corridore, analyst with
S&P Capital IQ, who tracks the shipping industry.
"Over time, to the extent the customer service experience gets worse, it
will only increase the shift away from mail to alternatives. There's
almost nothing you can't do online that you can do by mail."
The cuts would close
roughly 250 of the nearly 500 mail processing centers across the country
as early as next March. Because the consolidations would typically
lengthen the distance mail travels from post office to
processing center, the agency would also lower delivery standards for
first-class mail that have been in place since 1971.
Currently, first-class
mail is supposed to be delivered to homes and businesses within the
continental U.S. in one to three days; that will be lengthened to two to
three days, meaning mailers could no longer expect
next-day delivery in surrounding communities. Periodicals could take
between two and nine days.
The Postal Service
already has announced a 1-cent increase in first-class mail to 45 cents
beginning Jan. 22.
(Copyright: The Associated Press) read more
(Copyright: The Associated Press) read more
