(Image Source: The Epoch Times)
 

BY SHELLY YANG

On the brink of bankruptcy, the US Postal Service has announced it will no longer guarantee next-day delivery for first-class mail. Its standard will change from two to five days to one-to-three.

Although the financially ailing agency estimates this change will save them 3 billion dollars, Republican representative Jason Chaffetz told Fox News he finds the logic hard to understand.

“One of the things I like about the postal service is we don't appropriate money to them, they got to sell stamps in order to generate the revenue, and we want to continue that. But you don’t cut service, limit the days of service, slow down that service if you want to sell more stamps, and they also want to raise rates. That’s not a way to drive volume. So I think they are moving in totally the opposite direction. “

USPS is under the gun -- the agency has a $5.5 billion payment due to its workers’ health care retirement fund in two weeks. Spokesperson Sue Brennan told CNN,

"These changes …will allow for significant consolidation of the entire postal network in terms of facilities, processing equipment, vehicles and employee workforce.”

But a writer for the Ramona Sentinel doesn’t believe the changes will be significant enough.

“The problem is too little too late and the message is weak. The post office has failed to capitalize on its strengths: the experience of receiving and opening a letter or card (as opposed to digital) and the one size box that ships anywhere in the U.S. for one price, or leasing space to a card shop for instance. “

 

The New York Times says what was once the “bind of our nation” may no longer be as relevant.

“… the primary beneficiary of the United States Postal Service today is arguably the advertisers whose leaflets and catalogs flood our mailboxes…Direct-mail advertising generates an estimated 10 billion pounds of waste each year…Perhaps catalogs should be delivered by private companies, ending the centuries-old law that the only a government employee can place things in your mailbox.”


The Postal Service has been steadily laying off employees and closing offices in recent months, and the price of postage is expected to increase early next year, with a possibility of service being shut down on Saturdays.