Some post offices trim hours, routes
Postal Service reports $2.8 billion loss; Priority Mail rates will go up in January

By Marisol Bello
USA TODAY

Battered by the worsening economy, the U.S. Postal Service is shrinking staff and cutting mail routes and retail hours in some post offices.

The Postal Service announced last week that it ended the 2008 fiscal year on Sept. 30 with a $2.8 billion net loss. To close the gap, the agency is reducing employee work hours, adjusting routes and instituting an early retirement program for 156,000 eligible employees, spokesman Gerald McKiernan says. "We hope these changes go unnoticed by the customer," he says.

Changes happening in some communities include:

•In the Great Lakes region, several smaller post offices are curtailing hours, says Jim Mruk, a spokesman for the region. The DeKalb, Ill., office reduced its hours on Nov. 15, opening 30 minutes later and closing 30 minutes earlier on certain days. Sycamore and Hillside, Ill., also are shrinking hours in December.

•Detroit cut hours in two post offices that had been open for 24 hours, says Ed Moore, a spokesman for the region.

•The postmaster in Wausau, Wis., is considering opening a half-hour later and closing a half-hour earlier on weekdays and eliminating two hours on Saturday.

•This fall, Larry Dauby, postmaster in South Bend, Ind., eliminated five routes in his area but says the cuts won't affect customers.

Nationwide, mail volume during the 2008 fiscal year fell by 4.5%, or 9.5 billion pieces, McKiernan says. Most of the falloff has been from industries hit hardest by the economy, including banks, housing agencies and retailers, he says.

Dauby says his four post offices have seen a drop of 4.5 million pieces of mail in the last year. "As volume goes down, you have to evaluate the routes," he says.

He's not considering reducing office hours. Even so, he says, it's been a tough year that won't get easier soon.

"We'll be cutting costs any way we can for the next year or so," Dauby says. "It's rough on the employees, but the good part is we are still employed."

The changes also mean an increase in the cost of shipping services beginning in January, including a 4% increase on packages shipped through Priority Mail and an 8.5% hike for international shipping services.
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