usps.com has put up a section on 5-day-delivery on their website. Nothing is in stone yet, but this is what is being planned. Lots of complaining about the usps, but it's still the best value for your money. The times are changing, and they are trying their best to adjust. Estimates are that they delivered 25 BILLION fewer pieces of mail in 2009 than the year before, and almost 1 million new delivery points were added (urban sprawl, anyone?). The carriers have to travel more miles to deliver those grocery store flyers businesses only pay a penny or two to mail, whether or not any other mail is delivered to a particular home.  No taxpayer money, but still they are completely under the thumb of the US congress, and we know how efficient they all are.

Yes, I'm a postal employee and I know there are many problems internally, but I'm still proud of what we do each and every day.

You are absolutely correct in saying it's still the best bet for our money. The employees at the small substation, farther than the main one closer to me, I use are polite, friendly, helpful, and always smiling - a hard feat in these times.     Thank you!    M'ann

Sounds like we'd be money ahead if they banned junk mail lol!!!!

Love my local postal employees, a great (and knowledgable) group 

I'm ok with a 5 day delivery.  The PO's will still be open for the M-F 9-5ers to mail things, get stamps etc...,  The only thing that'll suck is if the Netflix DVD doesn't come on Friday.  But I'd get over it and learn to plan my mailings better so I get the return on Friday.

My post office is only open 5 days a week now, though the postmaster comes in for a few hours Saturday to put mail in the boxes (but no window hours). I wonder under the new rules if our one-employee PO would close one weekday but start offering Saturday hours. That would be nice for me, but suck to be the postmaster who no longer gets two days off in a row (though right now he only gets 1.5 days off anyway).

I'm OK with 5-day delivery service but will sure miss the Saturday delivery.  There are several post office locations in my city that are open 7-days a week and I am hoping they will not change that schedule.  Having the PO open on the weekends is very helpful for me as I can't get there during the weekdays. 

A quick note on "junk mail".  Normal First Class mail, by law, has to be universally priced.  That means the same price for everyone, no negotiating rates or lower rates based on volume, the PO's expenses, etc.  Bulk Business Mail (junk mail) isn't first class so its rate structure is different.  It is based on how much it cost us to deliver it.

Most BBM mailers mail large quantities, pre-sort it down to the delivery sequence, and even drop ship (drop it off or have it dropped off) at the delivery post office, especially in larger cities.  All the PO has to do with it is give each carrier their portion of it.  Even the carrier doesn't have to case it, it's already sorted by the mailer.  That's why it's cheaper for the mailer (even though they complain like crazy to the PRC and Congress every time we raise their rates) and the Post Office.  It is a money maker for us.

The PO still charges them more then what it cost us to deliver it.  What do we do with the extra money made on it?  It is used to off-set the cost of First Class Mail!  In other words, without BBM a first class stamp would cost more.  I don't know about you but as far as I'm concerned they can stuff all the BBM in my mail box they want to, it's saving me money on my postage and sometimes there are some good deals on other things advertised that  way.

"Ban junk mail" - nooooo!  It's providing a huge amount of revenue to USPS.  If that volume of mail was gone the whole financial situation of USPS would be sunk.  USPS in the red as it is, can't take any more revenue out and expect the system to survive.  It is hard enough to survive in the current condition.  Don't like the junk mail - do what I do and just shred it.  Also go ahead and apply for as many catalogs as you can - they recycle just fine but are revenue. 

If there's no delivery on Saturday, I'll rarely see my mailman.   I like my mailman!

Thank you Tina.........i'm a part time rural carrier myself and worry about my position if they drop Saturday deliveries.

I too love my job and i'm proud to be a USPS employee even if i don't always agree with every decision they make.

If the USPS need to scale down, is there a way they can not deliver to businesses that are not open on Saturdays?

I will miss Saturday delivery and already miss tthe shorter hours that my local PO is open. 

I agree that USPS is the best value, especially as I live in Hawaii and so many companies want to send goods via FedEx/UPS and that costs way too much and isn't much quicker than USPS Priority.  I had an eBay seller tll me recently that they couldn't send an item USPS to Hawaii as it was overseas!!!  Yes, it is overseas but it's still part of the 50 US States.     

Sometimes junk mail comes in handy as a book wrapper.  At work, we receive a lot of junk mail advertising classes, seminars, and conferences.  Many are on good quality glossy paper, which I use to wrap my PBS books in for mailing.   

USPS already doesn't deliver to businesses that aren't open on Saturday - so there are no savings to gain there.  Reducing from 6 day to 5 day delivery is just out on the street saving the carrier hours and costs associated to drive the routes.

PO Boxes will still be delivered on Saturday, so anyone that will go through Saturday withdrawls has that as an option to keep getting mail on Saturday.  And the post offices will remain open for folks to do the transactions they currently do on Saturday.  Additionally looking for more ways USPS can offer convenience to the public by trying to expand services offered at alternate locations such as Office Depot, grocery stores, etc.

Mail volume expected to continue declining for the next 10 years - it's tough to respond like a business thats losing money when everything you try has political push back and many times we cant shrink the organization or set prices to respond to changes in the economy.