End of Saturday delivery would bring changes

The end of Saturday home mail delivery appears likely next year, potentially delaying deliveries ranging from paychecks to newspapers.

Corridor executives who watch the U.S. Postal Service closely say the proposal to Congress appears likely to pass, given the projected USPS loss of $238 billion over a 10-year period, without price increases and changes in postal services.

Eliminating Saturday delivery will allow the postal service to put carriers on a 40-hour workweek, said postal spokesman Richard Watkins. That will allow the postal service to eliminate “floater” carriers who fill in on the days regular carriers take off in a six-day delivery schedule.

Postal patrons could still pick up mail at post office boxes and send mail at the blue street boxes or post office counters on Saturdays, Watkins said. Priority Mail would continue to be delivered on Saturdays.

For some mail recipients, this is not a catastrophe.

“To be honest with you, Saturday mail is usually the lightest mail of the week, and Monday is usually the heaviest,” said retired broadcaster Bob Nance of rural Toddville.

Ken Blin, 75, of Marion, said he'd even go one step further. “They could discontinue Wednesday delivery and go to a 10-hours-a-day, four-days-a-week schedule,” the retired real estate salesman said.

For some businesses, however, the loss of Saturday delivery is troubling.

Gazette Publisher Dave Storey said it would jeopardize the company's ability to get newspapers on a timely basis to about 3,284 customers who live outside company delivery routes.

“We make a real concerted effort to get the first papers off the press to the post office for delivery to outlying areas,” Storey said. “We send papers from Decorah to Washington and from Tama-Toledo to Clinton. It's a pretty wide swath.”

Receiving The Gazette on the publication date is important to subscribers, Storey said, because it is one of the things that connects communities in Eastern Iowa. The newspaper spends more than $1 million a year on mailing.

Financial institutions are among the business groups most concerned over the possibility. Even though many customers have gone to electronic payments and statements, others don't use computers.

“Any time you start to reduce our ability to reach out to our members, it's a concern,” said Dupaco Community Credit Union President Bob Hoefer. “It's not a major crisis, but a deterioration of service.”

Hoefer suggested the postal service raise first-class rates to levels that reflect cost of service and that first-class mail be opened up to private competition.

Electronic payments and e-mail have eliminated the need for many mailings, contributing heavily to the financial woes of the postal service.

Mail volume has decreased about 12 percent in Cedar Rapids in the past year, said Brad Miskemen, operations manager at the Northeast Station. Mail volume in Iowa City also has declined, but at a smaller rate - 1.8 percent so far this year, said Iowa City Postmaster Doug Curtiss.

Cari McKay-Widdel, operations manager for Pitney-Bowes Presort Services in Cedar Rapids, said businesses that use the outsource provider of presorted first-class and standard mail generally get mail Monday through Friday, but some companies still mail paychecks to employees on Friday for Saturday delivery.

“That could be problematic,” said Widdel.

The loss of Saturday delivery also could affect some University of Iowa mailings, such as promotions to prospective students, said Chris Kula, assistant University of Iowa director of business services.

Kula, a former postal employee, said he sees eliminating Saturday delivery as a necessary step, however, to avoid crippling postal rate increases. He said it wouldn't be too disruptive.

“They are talking about raising rates next year and eliminating non-profit rates,” Kula said. “That would be devastating.”