Postal Service to keep rural post offices open after strong community backlash

In this photo taken Sept. 7, 2011, Allison Fisher, 25, visits a post office to mail textbooks in Worthington, Ohio. / AP Photo/Kantele Franko

(AP) WASHINGTON - The financially struggling U.S. Postal Service sought Wednesday to tamp down concern over wide-scale cuts, revealing it will seek to keep thousands of rural post offices open with shorter hours.

At a news briefing, Postmaster General Patrick Donahoe said the mail agency was backing off its plan to close up to 3,700 low-revenue post offices sometime after May 15. Citing strong community opposition, Donahoe said the agency will now whittle down full-time staff but maintain a part-time post office presence in rural areas, with access to retail lobbies and post office boxes.

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Under the emerging strategy, no post office would be closed. But more than 13,000 rural mail facilities could see reduced operations of between two and six hours.

The Postal Service intends to seek regulatory approval and get community input, a process that could take several months. The new strategy would then be implemented over two years and completed in September 2014, saving an estimated half billion dollars annually.

"We've listened to our customers in rural America and we've heard them loud and clear — they want to keep their post office open," Donahoe said. "We believe today's announcement will serve our customers' needs and allow us to achieve real savings to help the Postal Service return to long-term financial stability."

Under the new plan, communities would be given the option of keeping their area post offices open but at reduced hours. Another option would be to close a postal office in one area while keeping a nearby one open full-time. Communities also could opt for alternatives including creating a Village Post Office in which postal services are offered in libraries, government offices or local stores such as a Wal-Mart, Walgreens or Office Depot.

"At the end of the day, we will not close rural post offices until we receive community input," said Megan Brennan, the Postal Service's chief operating officer. "We believe very few post offices will be closed over the next few years."

The latest move comes as the Postal Service is making a broad push for Congress to pass legislation this summer that would allow the agency to move forward on its multi-billion dollar cost-cutting plan, which include an end to Saturday mail delivery.

High concern in rural communities over proposed cuts has been a principal barrier to the cost-cutting effort, with residents in the sprawling and remote areas expressing fears about their ability to get timely mail delivery of prescription drugs, newspapers and other services. That has raised the ire of rural-state lawmakers in particular in an election year.

Due to rural opposition, the Senate last month passed a bill that would in part impose a one-year moratorium on shuttering rural post offices and place additional restrictions afterward, a move that the Postal Service later denounced as "totally inappropriate" because it kept unneeded facilities open.

Senate passes bill that would keep post offices open

In the House, hesitancy among rural lawmakers is helping to stall a separate bill that would allow for far more aggressive postal cuts.

Most of the 3,700 post offices that had been under review for possible closing had been in rural areas with low volumes of business, with as many as 3,000 only having two hours of business a day even though they are open longer. Currently the post office operates more than 31,000 retail outlets around the country.

The mail agency said it expects to save more money off the new plan, mostly by weeding out full-time postmasters who don't have labor contract protections and replacing them with part-time workers. It plans to offer buyouts for the nation's more than 21,000 postmasters, noting that more than 80 percent of its postal costs in rural areas are labor-related.

The Postal Service has been grappling with losses as first-class mail volume declines and more people switch to the Internet to send messages and pay bills. The agency has forecast a record $14.1 billion loss by the end of this year; without changes, it said, annual losses will exceed $21 billion by 2016.

It also is pushing Congress to pass legislation by early summer. If the House fails to act soon, postal officials say, they will face a cash crunch in August and September, when the agency must pay more than $11 billion to the U.S. Treasury to prefund future retiree health benefits. Already $13 billion in debt, the health payment obligation will force the mail agency to run up against its $15 billion debt ceiling, causing it to default on the payments.

[craigh9]

There will be backlash no matter what they do - the fact of the matter is they need to change to survive. They need to think outside the box to get overhead costs under control and once they devise that plan forward regardless of the fallout.
Place post offices within grocery stores like banks have done to lower overhead while keeping availability. Reduce number of days mail is delivered homes/offices to reduce overtime. Establish P.O. Boxes in places other then Post Offices with easy access for those seeking daily delivery.
This has been at least a 2 decade battle - it's time someone within the USPS takes charge of the situation.

[rightbehind]

NO Thanks!! The post office provides a valuable service and good jobs. Not like the crap jobs the private sector provides. i worked for one of those so called successful private companies years ago. Most of the jobs are part time with no benefits. Many of the employees required supplemental help like welfare or they lived at home with their parents. I've seen these so call mini contract post offices in other stores. Shut them down. Quit trying to disassemble our US postal service and wasting money on trying to make it seem insignificant.

Call your representative and demand they repeal the republican law that broke our postal service!!

[rightbehind]

The republicans wanted to kill two birds with one stone. They wanted to kill the US Postal Service and line the pockets of their insurance buddies at the same time. That's why our postal service was forced to pay for health care insurance 10 years in advance. Can you afford to pay for insurance 10 years in advance? Did the republicans require any other business to pay for health care 10 years in advance? Republicans are economic terrorist.

For less than 50 cents our US Postal Service will come to your home, pick up a letter, and mail it more than 3200 miles from coast to coast. That's a bargain even at 2 dollars. It takes an act of Congress to change the cost of mailing a letter.

Call your representatives and demand the republican law that's breaking our post office be repealed.

[petesis]

Republican morons want to do away with the post office. They acknowledge no value in anything the government does except the military which they would fund infinitely...

[tallison46]

I believe it's the Democrats that you're have issues with...

[involved_indi]

The Post Office has 250,000 too many employees based on what they do at a minimum. UPS is on the same path. Both are victims of Unions. UPS has been seeking to force FedEx to have to unionize so that UPS can remain competitive.

[retm-w]

Fedex is a slave shop with part time employee's, which is what republicans want

[Skruffy1]

It is stupid to cut hours. That reduces service while the Postal Service still has to pay rent. That makes what service remains cost even more.

[rightbehind]

Smart thinking!

[jmn122736]

When I was growing up in rural Missouri the cost of a standard postage stamp was 3¢ and mailing a standard postcard cost 1¢. That price stayed the same for several years.
I know that the management of the postal service has changed since then, but it would be interesting to know how much the top managers are making today, compared to what they were making back then.

[jmn122736]

Wow, it is amazing some of the things that get censored.
That should have read 3 cents for a postage stamp and 1 cent for mailing a postcard

[Lerianis4]

Taking inflation into account? Less than they did back then, to be blunt and final on the matter.

[republicansrdumb]

This is yet another symptom of the American disease the demand for the best of everything in the fastest way but also do not charge me what it actually cost to make it happen. The same is true when they hit a pothole or their kids have to play sports in worn uniforms - this is not sufficient but make it happen and do not raise the price of a stamp.

[KnowerseekerReturns]

It would not be a good idea for the postal service to disappear. A physical letter is still treated more seriously by its recipient than e-mail and is more appropriate in professional, governmental, or business situations than an e-mail message. Also, you cannot send packaged materials by e-mail (including checks to entities that don't have bill-pay), and the postal service costs a lot less than FedEx or other private couriers when you don't mind how long it takes for the package to arrive.

[JavMD]

the COST of providing a service....

do the google map of 'Unionville" OHio.. and check out that old post office...

one day i went in and said 'can i have a stamp' and he replied like a good english teacher should... i don't know ..can u? lol, lol. Needless to say.. being embarrassed I won't go in that one again. Thats customer service for u

[jjawacs]

Once again, no political will, not in my backyard attitude nothing ever gets done