Post Office costs, it’s time for us to change our expectations and ask, do we require daily mail delivery? Face it, information transfer requirements have changed; presently, many legal documents and most payments of bills are transmitted electronically; funds transfer by paper check is all but an anachronism. We, citizens, need to step back and determine our present individual needs from this governmental function of ours, as it’s going broke from not being used as originally intended, our only method of transferring information and smaller packages.

Nevertheless, the Post Office does perform important functions for us with its delivery of personal communications, periodic vouchers, advertisements and the delivery of items … but do these need daily delivery? When was the last time you mailed a communication that was absolutely time critical by one day? You haven’t; you’ve phoned or transferred your information electronically. Why then do you and I hang onto our absolute daily delivery requirement when it would resolve major financial issues for our Post Office?

Consider this straw man: mail delivery every other day. You would receive mail Monday, Wednesday and Friday or Tuesday, Thursday and Saturday; the Post Office delivery staff could then be diminish by at least one third to one half but save billions per year! Yes, such a change might require some organizations to change their mail processes and yes, we’d all have to change our expectations, but we’re talking about changing mail delivery by just one day and none of their other functions.

As citizens, we have obligations to assist our governments, resolve issues and adjust levels of service based on our essential requirements. Receiving mail every day versus every other day? My opinion, that’s an insignificant difference versus an essentiality. Saving $5 billion per year? That’s significant; we should make the change.

Stephen Gorden
Yar mouth