The U.S. Postal Service needs a major overhaul to avoid threats to the universal mail service, Postmaster General William Henderson said today, according to wire service reports.
The USPS, recently announced an array of cutbacks and is exploring the possibility of ending some Saturday mail delivery and closing some post offices.
Henderson, testifying before the House Government Reform Committee, said that during the holiday season, first-class mail volume dropped for the first time in years and Priority Mail is also in decline.
Henderson said, “Can we reasonably expect at this point that the Postal Service will regain the steady progress it made in the 1990s without a major modernizing reform? I doubt it.”
Henderson said laws regulating post office operations must be changed to provide more flexibility in setting rates and services to contend with rising costs. Currently, it takes almost a year to change rates.
