In written testimony to PRC regarding USPS’ request for five-day delivery, Michael Crew on behalf of NALC wrote:
Ending Saturday delivery will cause mail volume to drop, will likely produce unanticipated transition costs and could threaten the long-term viability of the Postal Service. Moreover, once Saturday delivery is eliminated, it will likely be irreversible. Rather than abandoning a valuable part of its enterprise, and cutting service to its customers, the Postal Service should seek other means to address its financial challenges, including by focusing on making its services more accessible and attractive to its customers.
I conclude that implementation of the proposal may cause a far more significant drop in mail volume than the Postal Service projects and that such a drop in volume could erase a substantial amount of the savings that the Postal Service hopes to realize by ending Saturday delivery. In addition, I conclude that implementation of the proposal may cause the Postal Service to incur larger than anticipated transition costs, further eroding the potential savings that its proposal is designed to produce.
More importantly, by ending Saturday delivery, the Postal Service would be abandoning a valuable part of its enterprise, giving existing or future private-sector competitors the opportunity to fill the gap in service. By allowing others to take part of its business, the Postal Service’s plan to implement five-day delivery could aggravate, rather than ameliorate, the Postal Service’s financial condition and in the long-run could threaten the Postal Service’s viability.
Rather than take a step in the wrong direction — a step which in practical terms would likely be irreversible — I believe the Postal Service should consider other means to address its financial challenges. In particular, it is my opinion that rather than cutting services, the Postal Service should make its services more accessible and attractive to its customers.
Read full document submitted to Postal Regulatory Commission