Another mail in the coffin: USPS faces $238 billion shortfal

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(March 18, 2010) — “Here’s a good one,” joked Carman Aria at a recent meeting at Rutherford’s 55 Kip Center. “Have you heard the one about the postal worker?”

Deacon John DiMeo, who heads the weekly current-events group at the senior facility, smiled at Aria and followed along. “No I haven’t,” he said.

“One postal worker says, ‘We’re going down to three days of delivery.’ Another postal worker says, ‘Oh yeah, where did you hear that?’ He says, ‘I heard it on the Internet.’ ”

DiMeo laughed, while Aria chuckled at his own joke — a simple quip that encapsulates the trouble the United States Postal Service is facing.

On March 2, Postmaster General John E. Potter announced that the USPS may have a cumulative $238 billion shortfall during the next decade. Coupled with the news of the pending crisis, Potter said the Postal Service will kick off a 10-year campaign to address declining revenue and unprecedented volume declines.

Customers can expect changes — perhaps drastic ones.

In 2006, 213 billion pieces were mailed in the United States. In 2009, that number dropped to 177 billion. In 2020, the Postal Service is expecting the number to drop again to 150 billion.

“The crisis we’re facing gives us an historic opportunity to make changes that will lay the foundation for a leaner, more market responsive Postal Service that can thrive far into the future,” Potter said. “The future depends on a suite of solutions that takes a balanced and reasonable approach, one that cuts across every aspect of our industry.”

For local residents in the South Bergen area, news of the Postal Service’s struggles comes with expectant trepidation. Will my local post office close? Will I receive mail on Saturday? Will there be any more blue collection boxes on the corners?


Delivery daze

In the USPS 10-year plan, there is mention of adjusting delivery days “to better reflect current mail volumes and customer habits.” The Postal Service certainly seems to be leaning toward a five-day delivery week. “Survey data show that the public favors five-day delivery over using taxpayer funds and other alternatives,” a press release states.

If one day of delivery is cut, the Postal Service will save $3.3 billion in the first year. Post offices would remain open six days a week.

Postal workers in the local area failed to comment on this story (citing a clear hierarchy for dealing with the media).

Among other proposals, a modest price increase for postage will likely take effect in 2011.

If postage facilities close, delivery is scaled back or the price of a stamp rises, hardest hit may be senior citizens on a fixed income.

For Rose Pantoliano, a member of the current-events group at the Kip Center, gone are the days of America’s nostalgic past. “They used to deliver twice a day,” she remembered. “Now they want to cut it down to five days.”

“That’s not our fault, that’s the computer’s fault,” chimed in Dominick, who declined to offer his last name. “Most of my mail is garbage anyway. … I guess I’ll be getting fewer bills. I don’t want them to send me all these hospital bills.”


Feeling blue

One fading reality for local residents is the decline in the number of collection boxes on street corners.

DiMeo said he has a strategy that has kept the blue box near his house operational. “I use it as much as I can, so it’s not taken away,” he said with a laugh.

George B. Flood, spokesperson for the USPS, told The Leader that “the collection box network has been adjusted over the last decade in response to the changing lifestyle of Americans. The old, familiar blue collection boxes are no longer the primary way people deposit mail. Most people mail their letters, bills and other correspondence from their workplace or home.”

Although historical statistics are unavailable, the current number of blue mailboxes makes them seem as rare as catching a glimpse of a Northern Shrike in the Meadowlands.

Lyndhurst has 32 boxes covering a population of 19,383. Rutherford has 28 boxes for a population of 18,110. North Arlington (population 15,181) has 11 boxes; East Rutherford (population 8,716) has 15; and Carlstadt (population 5,917) has 12. Wood-Ridge (population 7,644) has only six boxes, while Teterboro has zero.

In terms of municipal residents per individual collection box, for every 1,380 residents in North Arlington, there is one collection box. For every 1,274 residents in Wood-Ridge, there is one collection box.

Flood mentioned that the number of street collection boxes, their locations and the frequency of service are determined primarily by mailing patterns and mail volume generated in each community. He added that, generally, a collection box that receives fewer than 25 pieces of mail per day may be considered for relocation.

With the growing reliance on e-mails, text messaging and Web-based billing, sending a letter through the mail feels like an event for the history books. But enough people rely on the USPS that any change will require a change in their own lives.


Post offices

One thing that will not happen right away is the closing of post offices in the South Bergen area, despite rumors to the contrary. But the future may be an entirely different issue. “It is increasingly clear that the Postal Service does not need as many post offices,” according to a USPS press release.

According to Flood, they are “in the early stages of reviewing all of our real estate options in the Rutherford, East Rutherford, Carlstadt and Lyndhurst areas.”

This assessment is standard procedure, though “the economy and changes in consumer habits have accelerated the need to expand this review process.”

Flood said, “we expect these facility reviews to help identify opportunities to consolidate back door operations like delivery and mail processing while preserving customer access to postal retail services.”

There are 32,000 post offices operating in the United States. Only 6,000 of these are profitable.

With the changing times, the USPS has changed as well. Customers can now conduct business online, including purchasing stamps, scheduling a carrier to pick up the package, ordering shipping supplies, tracking packages and looking up ZIP codes. According to Flood, http://www.usps.com" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false; receives on average more than one million visits per day. “Like Bob Dylan’s song: ‘The Times they are a changin’,” Flood said. “This is not your grandfather’s Postal Service anymore.”

One participant in the current-events group at the Kip Center was worried about traveling to a different town to mail a package. Another member was unsure what would happen to her busy Netflix account if they cut mail delivery. Another senior questioned delivery of her medicine.

DiMeo asked the assembled members to raise their hands if they use a computer to e-mail. Only two of the 15 participants extended their hands into the air. “I am computer illiterate,” one man said. “I write letters.”

“My daughter pays all her bills on the computer,” DiMeo said. “With a press of a button, her income tax is done. Me? I’m still messing with paper.”

“That’ll teach you,” said a gentleman.

The rising cost of postage — stamps currently cost 44 cents — was one definite concern for the group. DiMeo likened the escalating price tag to gasoline. “We always say $10 per gallon would be enough; I’ll start walking at that point” he said. “Well, $1 a stamp, $2 a stamp. When is enough?”

All of the members of the group were astonished at the gargantuan size of the shortfall the USPS is facing.

“$238 billion shortfall by 2020 is what they say.”

“That’s OK, I’m not going to be here by 2020,” one woman said.

“Oh, you’ll be here.”

One woman who sat in the back offered her 2 cents on the $238 billion problem. “You know, I still look for the mailman,” she said. “I always think maybe there’s something in the mail that I’d like to get. It’s just part of America.”

With that, the current-events group changed topics to Tavern on the Green becoming a sushi restaurant and whether the automobile industry will have to pay back their bailout money.