Update: earlier this afternoon, Lisa Bowes replied to the USPS statement on her blog
The US Postal Service has responded to yesterday’s “deconstruction” of the USPS’s plant consolidation announcement on the Intellisent Postal Affairs blog:
If Lisa Bowes would have spent more time reading the materials the Postal Service provided on its website about Phase 2 of Network Rationalization http://usps.com/ourfuturenetwork and less time doing her own “deconstruction,” she would have a much better understanding why the Postal Service is taking this action. First, this is not new. Yesterday’s notification to mailers is a continuation of the network rationalization activity approved by the Postal Service Board of Governors in 2011. The consolidation of 141 mail processing facilities in 2012 and 2013 was highly successful and resulted in annual cost savings of approximately $865 million. After ensuring the efficient operations of our network following those changes, the Postal Service is ready to move forward in January 2015 with Phase 2 of Network Rationalization, which is expected to generate an additional $750 million in annual savings. The reason for moving forward is not a mystery – in the last three years, the Postal Service recorded financial losses of $26 billion and we continue to face significant financial challenges associated with the decline of First-Class Mail volume and revenue, wage and benefit inflation, increasing operating costs, as well as legislative mandates and significant debt pressures. In addition, the uncertainty regarding legislative reform and review of postal rates in the courts continues to delay needed capital investments in network operations and undermine the future financial viability of the Postal Service. Moving forward with streamlining our mail processing operations is part of a broader strategy to position the Postal Service for the future so we can continue to meet our customers’ mailing and shipping needs.
Dave Partenheimer
Manager, Media Relations
U.S. Postal Service