Poll: 71% support ending Saturday postal delivery

By Sarah Dutton, Jennifer De Pinto, Anthony Salvanto, and Fred Backus

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Postal Service to drop Saturday mail delivery

The U.S. Postal Service announced last week that it may end Saturday delivery of mail, but would continue to deliver packages. Most Americans support this proposal.

Seven in 10 favor ending Saturday deliveries of first class mail as a way to help the USPS solve its financial problems. Only 24 percent are opposed. A similar question asked in June of last year was met with the same level of support.

Majorities across all age and income groups support ending Saturday delivery of mail, but those with lower household incomes less than $50,000/year are less likely (64 percent) than those earning more than $100,000/year (87 percent) to support that. Both Republicans (75 percent) and Democrats (67 percent) favor ending mail delivery on Saturday

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Just 34 percent of Americans say they use the U.S. Postal Service all the time, for all their correspondence and bills, but another 38 percent use it sometimes, mainly for bills. Ten percent use post office services only around the holidays, and 18 percent say they almost never use it. The percentage who almost never use the U.S. Postal Service has more than doubled since last year (7 percent said "almost never" in June 2012).

There are differences by age: Americans under 30 are the least likely to use post office services, and in fact, 30 percent say they almost never do. But among those ages 65 and over, nearly half (47 percent) use the post office all the time, for all their correspondence and bills.

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This poll was conducted by telephone from February 6-10, 2013 among 1,148 adults nationwide. Phone numbers were dialed from samples of both standard land-line and cell phones. The error due to sampling for results based on the entire sample could be plus or minus three percentage points. The error for subgroups may be higher. This poll release conforms to the Standards of Disclosure of the National Council on Public Polls.

[aldrich617]

Has no one realized that lack of delivery on Saturday combined with a Monday
or Friday Holiday is just a blankety-blanking retarded and totally
unacceptable degradation of service? At the very least, provision
must be made for a Saturday delivery in either of those cases.

No mail service for three days in a row several times a year is just
plain nasty and foolish.

[Augy-Doggie]

Isn't Postmaster General supposed to ask Congrees if it's okay to stop Saturday mail Delivery?
Typical under the Obama dictatorship cabinet.

[sjc_1]

Republicans need to stop looting the USPS pension fund, requiring it to be funded 70 years into the future for people that have not been hired yet.

[Augy-Doggie]

Baloney!
Where's your source.
The pension fund is what is helping cause the USPS billions in loses each year.

[TimeToEvolve]

The stupid people, mesmerized by the Wall Street barons, don't even realize that this is part of the right wing plan to get rid of the nations largest union and further consolidate the powers of The Corporation that runs America.

Can we say Heil yet?

[mrleet60]

I disagree with the Poll - as with any polled question, I could get the opposite results by polling a different demographic. The USPS has serious issues financially, not only due to the prefunding for retiree health costs that is in place - that needs to be rescinded.

The USPS wastes money hand over foot. Why it is necessary for a postal worker to drive a large, uneconomical box truck, stopping ever 10 feet to put mail in a box, opposed to parking at the end of the block and walking is beyond comprehension. The wear and tear on the vehicle and fuel costs due to frequent starts/stops has to be astronomical. How they functioned for decades with the right hand drive 4 cyl jeeps and the postman stopping at the end of a block and walking the deliveries is unfathomable - A postal worker actually walking - we don't want that.

In my very small town, the USPS renovated an existing facility at obvious huge expense approximately 7 years ago - 18 months later they leased and renovated a large vacant store in a strip mall less than two miles away. To date both facilities remain open - very little traffic, and both were a total waste of money.

The postal worker unions are what is killing the postal service - fat wages and benefits for a low skilled job.

[DZBOSS]

Fat wages? And where do you get that information from? As a walking carrier, it took me 15 years to reach top pay, and that is only $57,000 and change per year. Doesn't exactly put me in the 1%. The job does require skill also, just not anything learned in college, though I do have a 4-year BS in Economics. Try walking a route for a few years, that pay is earned walking in rain, snow, cold, heat, and for doing as much as you can, as fast as you can. That pay is for having my body beaten by the constant physical demands of the job. My joints feel like they are those of a 65 year old, not a 50 year old. And for your information, the 4% in raises we have over our next contract are offset by an increase in what we pay for our health insurance. So MRLEET60, don't talk about what you don't really know.

[mrleet60]

I know that many many Americans would be thrilled to make 57K a year after 15 years. Many work a lifetime and don't approach that wage and don't have the vacation, federal holidays and pension that most postal workers receive. Money is wasted, almost profanely.

If you choose to be a postal worker with a BS in Economics, you really have no cause to complain over working conditions - you were aware of them when you took the position.

[Nate650]

I suspect Saturday delivery is an incentive to choose USPS as the shipping service when one orders goods online. I wonder if this would affect revenue.

[tsigili]

As long as window services remain open on Saturday, mail delivery is not essential.