ST PAUL — Customer service retail hours are being changed at the Twin Cities Local Distribution Center (LDC) Post Office at 5001 Northwest Drive, effective Friday, March 26.

The Twin Cities LDC Post Office, commonly known as the Minneapolis-St. Paul Airport Post Office, will now be open Monday through Saturday, 7 a.m.-11 p.m., and Sunday 10 a.m.-6 p.m. Retail customer service will no longer be available 24 hours a day, seven days a week. However, retail service will still be available until midnight on Tax Night, April 15.

The customer service retail hour change is being done as a cost-savings measure and in response to changes in customer traffic.

Postal retail services are now offered through a number of convenient alternate sources. These include the Postal Service’s web site at usps.com, many contract postal units with evening and Sunday hours throughout the Twin Cities metro area, and at self-serve Automated Postal Center units accessible 24 hours a day in the lobbies of some larger Post Offices. (Customers can also find 24-APCs at usps.com)

“With the availability of these many other postal retail options, we were seeing a much smaller number of customers using our Twin Cities airport location in the off-hours,” said St. Paul Postmaster Mike Larson. “With the poor economy, USPS is facing declining revenue and needs to save on costs and improve efficiencies.”

Customers are being informed of the changes by letters and by postal signage. Postal employees affected by the changes will be transferred to other postal jobs and work assignments in accordance with collective bargaining agreements.

Receiving its operating revenue mainly through postage and with no taxpayer funding, the Postal Service reported a $3.8 billion operating loss for Fiscal Year 2009, mainly due to the continued poor economy, higher costs, and declining mail volume and revenue.

The Postal Service is currently making other operational changes throughout the country in an effort to further reduce costs. It saved $6.1 billion in costs last year.

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A self-supporting government enterprise, the U.S. Postal Service is the only delivery service that reaches every address in the nation, 150 million residences, businesses and Post Office Boxes. The Postal Service receives no direct support from taxpayers. With 36,000 retail locations and the most frequently visited website in the federal government, the Postal Service relies on the sale of postage, products and services to pay for operating expenses. Named the Most Trusted Government Agency five consecutive years and the sixth Most Trusted Business in the nation by the Ponemon Institute, the Postal Service has annual revenue of more than $68 billion and delivers nearly half the world’s mail. If it were a private sector company, the U.S. Postal Service would rank 28th in the 2009 Fortune 500.