The change reflects the strong growth of our package business and responds to the financial realities resulting from America’s changing mailing habits. Technology continues to reshape how Americans communicate and conduct business and has resulted in a sharp decline in First-Class Mail volume. Meanwhile, technology, especially the rise of e-commerce, continues to spur strong growth in package delivery.
Saturday has the week’s lowest daily mail volume and more than a third of U.S. businesses are closed Saturdays. Most businesses and households surveyed in a national Gallup Poll indicated Saturday would be the least disruptive day to eliminate mail delivery. That opinion was supported by Postal Service market research. Since Post Offices that currently have Saturday hours will remain open Saturdays, customers will have the same access to products and services they do today.
Post Offices open on Saturdays will remain open under the new delivery schedule. Saturday delivery of mail to PO Boxes will continue, and Express Mail will continue being delivered.
Package delivery is a thriving business for us with a 14 percent growth in volume over the last two years. It hasn’t suffered the declines we’ve seen in other types of mail, so we want to continue to do everything we can to continue to support our customers’ growing needs for package shipping. In addition, consumers have given us feedback that Saturday is often a preferred day for package shipments, because residents are more likely to be at home to receive their deliveries.
Except for Express Mail, mail accepted on Saturday will not be picked up and processed until Monday. Based on this change, customers should decide whether their mail will arrive at its destination within the deadline they need to be met. If not, they may want to change their payment and mailing schedules to Friday or Monday.
We are currently working to define the employee impact and will be meeting with our unions and management associations to discuss the impact in accordance with our collective bargaining agreements and other obligations. The estimated impact would be between 20,000 and 25,000 employees. Most of these savings come from delivery employees. The Postal Service will make this reduction through attrition, reassignment and the other tools available to us. The Postal Service has a proven track record of working with affected employees. In fact, the Postal Service has reduced over 193,000 career positions since 2006 without major layoffs.