The US Postal Service has given in to public pressure to save thousands of rural post officesacross the country and will shorten their opening hours instead to save costs.
The heavily loss-making government agency, which operates more than 31,000 post offices,wanted to close about 3,700 retail outlets in small towns and communities under plans announced inJuly 2011. About 88 per cent of the rural outlets are loss-making.
Customer visits to post offices have slumped 27 per cent since 2005 as more consumers andbusinesses buy online. USPS now generates only about 60 per cent of its postal retail revenuesthrough Post Offices while about 40 per cent comes from purchases on usps.com and through approvedpostal service providers, including Wal-Mart, Staples, Office Depot and Walgreens.
But following months of public and political opposition to the planned closures, USPSyesterday announced it was dropping the plan and would instead seek cost savings of about $500million a year by shortening the working hours at most rural locations. Other alternatives would beto merge nearby post offices, to use partner outlets or provide more delivery services.
Survey research conducted by the respected Opinion Research Corporation (ORC) in Februaryshowed 54 per cent of rural customers would prefer the new solution to maintain a local Post Officewhile 46 per cent would accept an alternative solution.
The new plan will be reviewed by the Postal Regulatory Commission (PRC) before any changesare made. The new strategy would be implemented over a two-year, multi-phased approach and wouldnot be completed until September 2014. A voluntary early retirement incentive for the nation’s morethan 21,000 non-executive postmasters was also announced.
“Meeting the needs of postal customers is, and will always be, a top priority. We continue tobalance that by better aligning service options with customer demand and reducing the cost toserve,” said Postmaster General and CEO Patrick R. Donahoe. “With that said, we’ve listened to ourcustomers in rural America and we’ve heard them loud and clear – they want to keep their PostOffice open. We believe today’s announcement will serve our customers’ needs and allow us toachieve real savings to help the Postal Service return to long-term financial stability.”
“The Postal Service is committed to serving America’s communities and providing a responsibleand fair approach for our employees and customers,” said Megan Brennan, Postal Service ChiefOperating Officer. “The Post Offices in rural America will remain open unless a community has astrong preference for one of the other options. We will not close any of these rural Post Officeswithout having provided a viable solution.”
