Two local post offices face possible closure
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Post Offices Closing?
Two post offices in Southern New England could close.Published: August 3, 2009
Updated: August 4, 2009
NEW BEDFORD, Mass.—The postal service is considering closing as many as 1,000 local offices as it battles staggering financial problems.
Two post offices in Southern New England are on the list to be studied: the Valley Falls branch at 197 Broad St. in Cumberland, and the Mount Pleasant Station at 748 Mount Pleasant St. in New Bedford.
Customers said the Mount Pleasant Station is vital to those who live in the north end of the city.
“Closing this part of the post office is terrible. It’s not right,“ said Roland Carreau, of New Bedford.
Several customers said the branch should stay open because of its ample parking.
“The post office downtown is very hard to get a parking space, so a lot of people come here. This is one of the best for the New Bedford area,“ one woman said.
One customer said whatever happens will happen.
“Everybody has a car, just go to the next branch. It’s no big difference one way or the other. You still got to go to the post office,“ said Danny Gonzalez, of New Bedford.
The post office has been struggling with a sharp decline in mail volume as people and businesses switch to e-mail both for personal contact and bill paying.
The agency is facing a nearly $7 billion potential loss this fiscal year, despite a 2-cent increase in the price of stamps in May, cuts in staff and removal of collection boxes.
More may be added, the postal service said. The current list of potential candidates can be viewed here (.pdf)
The postal service said no decisions are expected before Sept. 30.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
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Reader Reactions
Save on fuel! Those wild horses out West that are being squeezed from their sanctuary and it is said one remedy could be to look to the public for adoptions.
Bring back the Pony Express! ;~)
I missed that the bulk stuff going to each individual address costs the mailing party less than three cents a piece.
Well, for one thing, they could well increase bulk mail rates. The bulk stuff to each address goes into the post office by the many pallets. The bulk mail addressed to individuals goes in by the poallet also, and that charge is less than 20 cents per piece.
Those two sorts of mail make up about 80 percent of the delivered mail, and yet pay less than half of the bills of the post office. Add to that the new buildings they’ve been putting up in the past ten years, and you have a whopper of a drain on the revenues.
You want to cut costs and make the post office more efficient? Cut mail delivery to three days a week, splitting the postal zone in half and delivering the routes on alternate days. That way, the postal employees are on a strict eight hour day instead of pushing ten or twleve hours sometimes, and the cost of the fuel saved on the delivery trucks is also added to the plus column.
How should they become competitive? I deal with the post office weekly. They will supply boxes for shipping, pick packages up at your door with a payed printed shipping label, They have online tracking for your package. I can ship a package to Washington and have it there in 2 days priority mail for less than the cost of UPS. The post office staff I deal with are always friendly and helpful. I’ve gone to the UPs store wasn’t impressed. If you ship from a UPS store you are going to pay more than at the post office. Try finding one close to your house. Not that easy. I won’t even get into Fed Ex and their tracking it’s a JOKE
Time for the post office to become competitive with FedEx and UPS! Why not? All the facilities are in place…
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