Park Slope Weighs in on U.S. Postal Service to End Saturday Mail Delivery

Calling the six-days-per-week mail delivery business model “no longer sustainable,” the U.S. Postal Service announced Wednesday it will eliminate Saturday delivery of mail by Aug. 1.

The plan to change delivery from six days a week to five would only affect first-class mail. Packages, mail-order medicines, priority and express mail would still be delivered on Saturdays, and local post offices will remain open for business Saturdays.

“Will they still send Netflix DVDs on Saturdays?” asked Dakkan Abbe while walking on Seventh Avenue. “Seriously though, Netflix is the biggest company that contributes to the U.S. Postal Service.”

Abbe said that he wouldn’t mind the cutback, so long as he can still count on receiving his DVD in the mail on the weekends.

“It’s disappointing, but if there’s a $2 million deficit it’s worth doing this to save the Postal Service,” Abbe concluded.

According to the U.S. Postal Service, the reasons are continued economic struggles and the increasing use of the Internet for communications and bill paying by consumers. The U.S. Postal Service is also the only federal agency required to pre-fund health benefits for retirees, and those costs are escalating quickly.

“Our current business model of delivering mail six days a week is no longer sustainable. We must change in order to remain an integral part of the American community for decades to come.”

Saturday is the lightest mail delivery day by volume and many businesses are closed on Saturdays, according to the U.S. Postal Service. However, many residents receive print magazines and ads on Saturdays in the mail that may be shifted to another day.

A Rasmussen poll on mail delivery in 2012 showed “Three-out-of-four Americans (75%) would prefer the U.S. Postal Service cut mail delivery to five days a week rather than receive government subsidies to cover ongoing losses.”

A USA Today/Gallup poll in 2010 found the majority of U.S. residents surveyed were ok with eliminating Saturday delivery. The March 2010 telephone survey of 999 adults revealed people age 55 and older were more likely than younger people to have used the mail to pay a bill or send a letter in the past two weeks.

A mailman who wanted to stay anonymous said that the change wouldn’t affect him specifically, but many of his fellow mail carriers would feel the change.

“It’s going to affect us carriers, and it’ll hurt our overtime,” a Park Slope mailman said, who has been delivering mail for almost 30 years. “But, it’ll save a lot of money for the post office.”

According to the Park Slope mailman, who has only worked five days a week for his entire career, some employees count on overtime to feed their families.

“Some of us will lose a lot of money, by Friday we work 40 hours so Saturday is usually all overtime,” he said, explaining that the news was unexpected and his Post Master told him and the other mailmen just today. “Once service is cut to five days Aug. 1, a lot of us will be hurting.”

Alice Fox, who was walking in Grand Army Plaza, said that the cutback is a positive move.

“I think it’s a good thing,” said Fox, who manages a dental office on Grand Army Plaza. “I think the post office really needs to tighten up and get out of the red.”

Also looking on the bright side, Abbe said that there will be one benefit to the end of Saturday mail except for packages:

“It’ll also mean one less day of junk mail,” Abbe said. 

Amy Sara Clark contributed reporting to this article.