Washington, DC -- Congressman Eliot Engel (D-NY-17) today criticized the U.S. Postal Service for announcing the elimination of overnight service for First-Class mail. Currently, 41.5 percent of First-Class mail arrives the next day but with the Post Office’s proposed changes, it will go to zero. To get overnight service under the new regulations, the public would have to spend $13 to overnight a letter. In addition to eliminating overnight delivery, the Post Office is also considering consolidating or closing mail processing facilities, including the one in Monsey. They have already closed the Bronx Processing and Distribution Center earlier this year.  The consolidations and closings could result in the loss of thousands of jobs.   

“It is a self-fulfilling prophecy – you provide inferior service, and you drive away business.  This gives them another excuse to curtail even more services, and all of a sudden it’s a downward spiral to poorer service.  This is a business plan doomed for failure.  They should be looking at inefficiencies and finding ways to cut waste rather than eliminating jobs and reducing access to facilities.  It is almost as if they want people to use the private carriers instead.

“It is completely ridiculous that if someone mails a letter to their neighbor down the street, it would not arrive the next day.  It takes longer for me to send a letter from my Rockland District Office to my District Office in Bronx than it would take for me to walk it across the Tappan Zee Bridge.

“This is likely only the beginning of further service cuts unless they change the way they do business.  The ho-hum attitude surrounding the projected post office closures is disconcerting.  The inevitable end of Saturday delivery service is also disappointing.  The nerve of actually raising the cost of mailing a first class letter, but not receiving first class service, is beyond belief. 

“I want the Post Office to succeed, and for the American people to have ample access to facilities, but I need to see that the Post Office is serious about correcting their own flaws.”

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