Cutting Saturday Mail Delivery: Delaying the Inevitable

A majority of Americans support ending Saturday mail deliveries to help the U.S. Postal Service solve its financial problems, but most oppose shuttering local branches, according to a new Washington Post poll.

The public support for moving to five-day deliveries may bolster a new proposal to end six-day deliveries to help the mail agency trim hundreds of billions of dollars in losses by 2020.

The elimination of Saturday delivery is at best a stop-gap measure. Competition from private carriers, both paper and electronic, will almost certainly doom the Post Office to bigger and bigger losses, regardless of Saturday service.

What’s the answer? On the one hand, end the Post office monopoly on delivery of first-class mail. This will hurt the Post Office but help customers by allowing competition.

On the other hand, unshackle the Post Office.  Eliminate the Congressional requirement that it serve low-density rural areas.  Allow it to fire its unionized workforce.

That is, make the Post Office a truly private company. If it survives  under those conditions, fine. If not, that’s fine too.

Categories: My Blog

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