The United States Postal Service (USPS) has chosen to delay its efforts to implement a new national delivery schedule that would eliminate mail delivery on Saturdays, according to a statement from the USPS Board of Governors.
On Tuesday, April 9, the USPS Board of Governors met to discuss the Continuing Resolution, which was recently passed by Congress to fund government operations and includes restrictive language that prohibits the implementation of the new USPS delivery schedule, according to the statement.
The new schedule would have also consisted of package delivery from Monday through Saturday and taken effect the week of August 5, 2013.
A number of local residents and businesses have expressed relief that the decision to implement a new mail delivery schedule has not been passed.
Billy Johnston, a loan officer for Wilson & Muir Bank’s main Leitchfield branch (WMB), said that while the absence of Saturday mail delivery would not have affected the productivity of WMB, it may have limited how quickly customers could pay their bills.
“From a payment perspective, that’s good [that the new delivery schedule was not implemented] because customers can still go ahead and pay their bills on the same day, rather than wait until Monday,” Johnston said.
Mark Butler, of A&B Hardware in Leitchfield, echoed Johnston’s sentiment.
“They should have [mail delivery] on Saturday because it would affect a lot of bill and credit card payments,” Butler said. “If all services, like banks, were going to be closed on Saturdays, it might be understandable.”
Grayson County News-Gazette Reporter Brittany Wise said she and the staff of the local newspaper were happy to learn the alternate mail delivery schedule was not implemented because it would have meant a drastic alteration in the publication’s own schedule.
“The decision to keep Saturday mail service is one we at The Gazette—along with many other newspapers around the country—are pleased with because it allows us to keep putting out our weekend edition,” Wise said. “The previously proposed changes would have meant a significant upset in scheduling for our employees and our customers, so we’re pleased to hear those changes will not be made.”
In their statement, the USPS Board of Governors said they continue to support the transition to the new national delivery schedule because “such a transition will generate approximately $2 billion in annual cost savings and is a necessary part of a larger five-year business plan to restore the Postal Service to long-term financial stability.”
The USPS Board of Governors said without the new delivery schedule, the USPS’s “worsening financial condition” runs the risk of making the postal service “a burden to the American taxpayer.”
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