May close four Houston-area Post Offices
By Jeff Clabaugh & Samir Arun Shah
U.S. Postal Service (USPS) has is considering cutting mail delivery by one day per week to save money. The U.S. Postal Service may also close hundreds of offices since people dont send enough letters these days. Four Houston-area post offices are on a list of hundreds the U.S. Postal Service is thinking of closing to save money. (Local & national list below.)The U.S. Postal Service is in urgent need of restructuring and is moving too slowly to cut costs the Government Accountability Office (GAO) said
recently. The GAO also added the Postal Service to its High-Risk list of federal areas in need of transformation.
Mail volume last year fell by 9.5 billion pieces to 203 billion pieces and it is expected to fall to 175 billion pieces this year. The Postal Service anticipates mail volume will continue to remain flat or decline further over the next five years.
Houston-area Post Offices on the list for possible closure are
Addicks Barker (16830 Barker Springs Rd.) Genoa (10935 Almeda Genoa Rd.) Nassau Bay (18214 Upper Bay Rd.) and
Westchase Finance (3836 South
Gessner) locations.
The USPS has been hemorrhaging money since people dont send many paper letters these days and also because advertisers dont send as many circulars.
Magazines sent by post have also gotten slimmer and therefore cheaper to send as theyve cut back advertising pages. This has also hurt the postal services bottom line.
Earlier this year the government put three other local Houston Post Offices up for sale the Houston General Mail Facility at 401 Franklin Street downtown River Oaks Station at 1900 West Gray and Julius
Melcher Station at 2802
Timmons Lane.
The nationwide list of Post Offices being considered for closure
is here.
Many people now pay their bills online a process favored by both payers (who dont have to find a stamp to put on the Post office will not deliver mail without postage" box) and by those they are paying because funds get there quicker.
The service has cut some workers and raised stamp prices to stem its losses but those changes havent been enough and the USPS stands to lose as much as $7 billion this fiscal year.
New technology is profoundly affecting services in both the private and public sectors including traditional mail delivery" said acting comptroller general and head of GAO Gene
Dodaro in a statement.
Compounded by the current recession 
the volume of mail being sent is dropping substantially leading to a sizeable decline in revenue" he said.
GAO recommends the Postal Service work with Congress and other stakeholders to develop a more sustainable restructuring plan.
The Postal Services problems may continue to worsen even after the recession ends. Both consumer and business customers are using traditional mail less and less in favor of e-mail and other means of communication.
The USPS is expected to post a $7 billion loss this year. It has outstanding debt of $10 billion and may have a cash shortfall this year of $1 billion.
In order to meet payroll and other expenses this year the USPS hopes to delay payments to its retiree
healthcare fund. It is also closing post office locations cutting jobs and freezing salaries.
It may also reduce mail delivery from six days a week to fi
ve.
The GAO report says the Postal Service isnt undertaking cost-cutting fast enough. It also suggests it explore opportunities to generate new forms of revenue.
