When it ceases letter delivery on Saturdays in August, the U.S. Postal Service expects about 30,000 jobs nationwide to be affected, according to a local sposkesperson. How many Jessamine County postal workers will be included has been undetermined.
Susan Wright, USPS customer relations coordinator for the Kentuckiana area, said no local numbers had been released as of Wednesday morning.
USPS has been trying to make the transition affect as few people as possible, she said.
“The postal service chose Saturday as the day to cut letter delivery because that is the day the agency has the lowest volume of letters,” she said. “There are many, many businesses closed, so the carriers don’t deliver to them on Saturdays.”
Also, the agency has been keeping in mind the anticipated cutting of Saturday delivery in making personnel decisions.
“We’ve not been filling some positions as they’ve become available,” Wright said.
She said the positions that will be affected are the positions that fill in for the carriers who have regular routes on their days off. These carriers are full-time, but, rather than having the same route five days a week, they have five different routes.
These positions will be eliminated, she said.
David Walton, spokesperson for the Kentuckiana region, said as far as mail delivery, not a lot of people are going to see that much difference.
Packages will still be delivered on Saturday, and letters will still be delivered to post-office boxes, he said. Also, post offices that are open on Saturday will remain open.
Many rural communities don’t have delivery to homes. Instead, residents pick up their mail from post-office boxes. Those people won’t be affected at all, he said.
Wright agreed that many people won’t be inconvenienced.
“I think it’s important to note that the majority of Americans support (cutting Saturday letter delivery),” she said. “We’ve listened to the American people.”
A study done by the USPS found that close to 70 percent of respondents are in favor of doing away with Saturday delivery. Wright said a number of other studies have been done since, by other entities, and all have come to similar conclusions.
The postal service has said that cutting Saturday delivery would save $2 billion a year, according to CNN.
Walton said it makes sense.
“If we don’t have to make all those stops (on Saturday), then we’re going to save a lot of money,”¿he said.
The change is scheduled to take effect Aug. 5.
Postmasters for the Nicholasville and Wilmore post offices were contacted for this story but referred The Journal to the regional offices.
