Post office asks for opinion on Saturday delivery

WASHINGTON -- The Postal Service may have provided a clue why it is losing money when it asked regulators -- by e-mail -- for an opinion on dropping Saturday delivery service.

Plagued by loss of mail business to the Internet, the post office was required to send its request to the independent Postal Regulatory Commission electronically.

The commission posted the request on its website late Tuesday afternoon.

The post office said last week it would request the opinion on its plan to drop Saturday deliveries to homes and businesses to save money. Post offices would remain open on Saturdays.

Congress would also have to approve the change, but it is likely to give great weight to the regulatory commission's response.

"The ball is in our court now," said regulatory commission chairman Ruth Y. Goldway.

She said her agency will seek public comment on the idea and will look at four specific areas:

* Will the savings the Postal Service anticipates be as significant as they estimate?

* Will mail volume decline more than the Postal Service anticipates?

* Will businesses and citizens have service that remains adequate to meet their needs?

* And will the national economic effect of service reductions offset or add to the savings that are proposed?

The Postal Service lost $3.8 billion last year and is headed toward a larger loss this year as people do more business on the Internet and the recession discourages business mail.

"The Postal Service does not take this change lightly and would not propose it if six-day mail service could be supported by current volumes. There is no longer enough mail to sustain six days of delivery," the post office said in a report accompanying the request.

Postmaster General John Potter reported on Monday that ten years ago, the average household received five pieces of mail every day. Today that's down to four and by 2020 it is expected to fall to three.

Overall, the number of items handled by the post office fell from 213 billion in 2006 to 177 billion last year. Volume is expected to shrink to 150 billion by 2020.

At the same time, the type of material sent is shifting from first-class mail to the less lucrative standard mail, such as advertising.

And as people set up new homes and businesses, the number of places mail must be delivered is constantly increasing.

Cutting out Saturday delivery is expected to save about $3 billion annually and is part of a series of other changes and cuts aimed at reducing expenses.

Much of the saving is expected to come from eliminating thousands of mail carrier jobs, especially among part time rural carriers and non-career workers.

With many postal workers coming eligible for retirement in the next few years postal officials have indicated layoffs are unlikely for career workers.

Nevertheless, Frederic V. Rolando, president of the letter carriers union, denounced the plan and charged that postal officials are misleading the public in an effort to win approval of the change.