Cutting the mail chain could have ripple effect
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Chris Harris, left, and Caleb Miller hustle to put mail sorted by a multiple-line optical character reader at 30,000 pieces per hour into flats for delivery to the post office. -
Fred M. Smallhoover, vice president of sales at Pittsburgh Mailing, says his company has invested in the software and technology needed to compete.
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Inside the 85,000-square-foot Pittsburgh Mailing warehouse, mail is zipping along. Sorters that can handle 30,000 pieces per hour send Duquesne Light bills flying into rows of boxes in one room, while employees bind piles of magazines going to Robert Morris University alumni in another. Bins hold stacks of a Sheetz flier ready to be glued.
The old building is outfitted in high-tech equipment programmed to find the lowest mailing costs for the company's big customers, as well as assure that pieces are delivered to the U.S. Postal Service at the right moment to ensure the best chance recipients will see them and respond.
Fred M. Smallhoover can't recall a time when Saturday services weren't factored into those calibrations.
"Forever, it's been six-day-a-week delivery," said the vice president of sales for the Baldwin business that handles between 5 million and 12 million pieces of mail weekly, depending on the time of year.
Forever might have an expiration date.
Proposals to end Saturday delivery -- launched in 1863 -- have been beaten back before, but this time could be different. Support for the change that the Postal Service estimates could save $3 billion is coming from the president and some in Congress.
The postmaster general has calculated the nation's postal service could be in default by the end of September. Among the proposals to ease the problem include closing numerous branches, trimming positions and generally slowing down the mail.
The Direct Marketing Association in August applauded the cost-cutting proposals, saying insolvency of the USPS would "harm the $1 trillion 'mail' segment of our nation's economy and the millions of jobs it supports." Rallies are planned by unions that represent postal service workers, arguing Congress created the problem -- in part with requirements for pension funding passed in 2006 -- and it must fix the problem.
In a speech in Tampa, Fla., last week, Postmaster General Patrick Donahoe praised his workforce for already having cut costs by $12 billion and 110,000 employees in the past four years. He blamed the financial losses on an "overly restrictive business model" and said it was not a statement on the value of mail.
Meanwhile, Mr. Smallhoover finds himself closely following the news reports and industry updates to try to figure out what it will end up meaning for his business and its more than 500 active customers.
First Published September 27, 2011 12:00 am
