The Postal Service plans to close a many as 3,600 retail facilities is based on questionable data, Postal Regulatory Commission (PRC) recently concluded.
In a Dec. 23 advisory opinion [PDF], the PRC challenged the methods with which the Postal Service developed its “Retail Access Optimization Initiative,” charging that the USPS lacked sufficient data for determining which closures would reduce costs the most and that it lacked sufficient data and analysis to make the best decisions.
The USPS plan does not “determine the facilities most likely to serve the greatest number, reduce the greatest costs, or enhance the potential for growth or stability in the system,” PRC Chairman Ruth Goldway said in a statement accompanying the report.
The PRC also found the USPS selection process failed to adequately consider whether an alternate post office was nearby. Goldway said that the USPS failed to give “careful consideration” to “each individual community’s needs,” charging that the panel’s review of challenges to closings reveals “a pattern of inaccurate and overly optimistic economic savings calculations and of careless disregard of community concerns.” The USPS, she added, demonstrated “an ongoing institutional bias within the Postal Service that presumes closing small post offices automatically provides cost savings and network efficiencies.”
The PRC’s criticism of the post office closure plan echoes concerns expressed by the APWU, consumer groups, and other mail users in recent months. “Closing post offices and slashing service to the American people is not the answer to the Postal Service’s financial crisis,” said APWU President Cliff Guffey. “The USPS is well aware of the cause of its financial difficulties,” he added. “They cannot cut their way to fiscal health.”
The Postal Service unveiled its list of more than 3,600 facilities post offices, stations and branches — about 11 percent of its retail network — targeted for closure studies on July 26, 2011 and its goal was to make final determinations by the end of 2011. Under pressure from legislators on Capitol Hill, however, the USPS announced a five-month moratorium on the closure of post offices and mail processing facilities. The delay until May 15, 2012, is intended to give Congress more time to adopt legislation that would address the USPS financial crisis without drastic cuts in service.
By law, the Postal Service must request an advisory opinion from the PRC when proposed changes would have a nationwide impact on service. Although the panel’s opinion is nonbinding, it supports the case that the APWU and others are making to Congress that slashing the postal network will hurt service and invite the demise of the nation’s mail system.
OMG, are you kidding me? an impact on service? I work in a city with 30 uncovered routes everyday. have never seen anything like this in 31 years. the postal service justifies these open routes with the availability of UNDERTIME. bullcrap. OT is still off the charts(so that kills their “undertime” argument, grievance money is being paid out at an unprecedented rate, bosses are delivering routes like i’ve never seen, carrier vacations are being recinded, yet according to Issa, and as far as i can see, that 1:7 ratio still exists in the USPS. WHEN IS THIS GOING TO END?? WHEN IS THIS GOING TO END? STOP, AND I MEAN STOP ALL THIS BULL ****, GET THE ROUTES COVERED! GET THE MAIL DELIVERED! GET THESE BOSSES THAT HAVE NOTHING TO DO ALL DAY, THAT ARE BEING HIDDEN ALL OVER THEIR STATES POST OFFICES BECAUSE THEY DON’T HAVE ANYTHING ELSE TO DO, ONTO THESE UNCOVERED ROUTES SO WE CAN GET THE MAIL DELIVERED! CONGRESS: IT CAN’T GET ANY SIMPLER THAN THAT! LEGISLATION IS NOT NECESSARY AS “RIFTING” WILL NOT BE NECESSARY. GET THESE JUNIOR MANAGEMENT PEOPLE BACK ONTO THESE OPEN ROUTES SO THE POSTAL SERVICE CAN FUNCTION AS IT WAS MEANT TO: AS A SERVICE TO THE PEOPLE. MY GOD, DON’T COMPLICATE SOMETHING THAT HAS SUCH A SIMPLE REMEDY.