In a last-ditch effort to save itself from bankruptcy, the Postal Service is forging ahead with plans to close half of its 500 mail processing centers and roughly 3,700 of its post offices. The result: Deliveries will take longer.
Postmaster General Patrick Donahoe has announced his latest initiative to save the post office from bankruptcy. (Hint: Improving customer service isn't a part of it.) His master plan: Hike the cost of mailing a letter for real people, and cut prices for junk mail.
It'll cost a penny more to mail a letter next year. The cash-strapped U.S. Postal Service announced Tuesday that it will increase postage rates on Jan. 22, including a one-cent increase in the cost of first-class mail, to 45 cents.
The U.S. Postal Service released a list of nearly 3,700 post offices that it will consider shuttering. The USPS lost more than $2.2 billion last quarter, and has warned that it will run out of money in September, so such closures are probably inevitable.
The U.S. Postal Service warned that it will miss federal payments totaling an estimated $6.8 billion by October, unless the government steps in.
The U.S. Postal Service's attempt to raise the price of a first-class stamp to 46 cents from 44 cents was unanimously rejected today by an oversight board, which said the Postal Service failed to sufficiently quantify either the effect of the recession on operations or how much mail shipments would decline if rates were increased.
