by Luke Rasmussen

Created on: March 30, 2010   Last Updated: April 02, 2010

It seems that the debate of whether to cut Saturday mail delivery has been going on for a couple years. I read an article in our local newspaper today that suggests that the United States Postal Service has targeted early 2011 to drop Saturday delivery.

My boss said to me this morning, "no big deal to me." I also had a friend in Canada who, years ago was shocked to hear that we got mail delivered on Saturdays. Canada is only five-day-a-week service.

If the USPS is doing this to save money, but then raises postal rates (which I have seen some reports that say the USPS will raise rates), does it really work out? The cheapest postage stamp I can remember is 25 cents. My parents remember stamps at 6 cents. Today, March 30, 2010, we pay 44 cents for a first-class stamp.

The USPS is doing this for a couple of reasons. 1) people are using other means to pay bills, ship packages and so forth, 2) because people are relying on other carriers (i.e. UPS) and other means of paying bills, the USPS is losing money. If the USPS raises postal rates again, will it drive even more people away from using USPS? And, let's not forget, no Saturday delivery.

I believe the USPS will keep branch offices open, however, if and when Saturday delivery is canned.

If early 2011 stays the target date, in my estimation the USPS is going to need to do a large PR campaign to get the word out. The Census Bureau has had a large campaign in print, television and radio to get the word out about the 2010 Census.

We will find out soon enough how successful the campaign actually was. But, if the USPS is making as big of an operations change as dropping Saturday delivery, the USPS needs to do what they can to inform the consumer. And being that it is almost April, the USPS should start now.

Consumers need to be advised that if they have important documents to mail, they might need to reconsider when they put them in the mailbox. Having no Saturday delivery could mean late fees on credit card, cable and phone bills for those who don't utilize online payments. That one day can make all the difference.

Consumers need to be advised that they can still go to their post offices to mail things on Saturdays, but the lines might be even longer than they were before.

Let's be honest though, what do we usually get in the mailboxes on Saturdays? Ads, catalogs, "junk mail." They are usually things that find the way to the trash can. But, that would probably mean that companies that send out the junk mail are all going to have to shift their marketing strategies so the junk mail gets to you faster.

And, companies whose billing cycles are on certain days may have to readjust their billing cycles to include no Saturday delivery.

The bottom line, let the USPS do it. Save money. I can respect wanting to save money, especially for a service that is starting to fade away. But, it is still important enough of a service that consumers need to be properly and adequately warned, so they aren't caught by surprise when they look out at the mailbox on some Saturday in early 2011, and like forgetting to change the clocks to Daylight Saving Time, slap themselves on the forehead and say, "that's right, no mail on Saturday."

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