Moving away from door-to-door delivery saves a lot of money. Right now, 35 million residences and businesses get mail delivered to their doorstep.
It costs $353 per stop for a delivery in most American cities, taking into account such things as salaries and cost of transport. By contrast, curbside mail box delivery costs $224, while cluster boxes cost $160, according to a report from the Postal Service’s Office of Inspector General.
Delivering mail is the agency’s largest fixed cost — $30 billion. Ending such door deliveries would save $4.5 billion a year. That’s more than the $3 billion it would have saved from ending Saturday mail service, according to government reports.
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That’s why ending door delivery has drawn industry support from groups like the Greeting Card Association, which supports Saturday service.
But unions say it’s a bad idea to end delivery to doorsteps and will be disruptive for the elderly and disabled.
“It’s madness,” said Jim Sauber, chief of staff for the National Association of Letter Carriers. “The idea that somebody is going to walk down to their mailbox in Buffalo, New York, in the winter snow to get their mail is just crazy.”
Yet postal officials say everything’s on the table, when it comes to cost-cutting. Earlier this year, it tried to end Saturday mail delivery, but later reversed its decision.
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