Greeting Card Association Applauds USPS’s Decision To Continue 6-Day Mail Delivery Service
The Greeting Card Association (GCA) is pleased with the decision by the USPS Board of Governors, announced yesterday, to postpone implementation of their modified 5-day delivery proposal. We agree with the Board’s conclusion that the language in the Continuing Resolution passed last month restricts the Postal Service’s ability to move to a modified delivery schedule.
More important, however, we believe that eliminating Saturday service would be short-sighted and self-defeating. There are much better alternatives that will generate the needed cost reductions and lead to a stronger Postal Service without significantly and negatively impacting the citizen mailer through counter-productive service cuts or unjustifiable rate increases, including:
Consolidating processing services, as is already underway by the Postal Service;
Restructuring Postal Service health insurance, retiree health and retirement programs to bring them in line with the private sector;
Refunding overpayments by the Postal Service to retirement health and pension programs and ensuring that future prefunding payments are based on current labor and cost projections; and,
Further consolidation of USPS infrastructure and labor to right-size the organization for today’s and tomorrow’s reduced mail volume. This includes closure of some post offices, but only those that are redundant and for which other post office options are conveniently available to consumers.
“We are pleased that all of the GCA’s hard work to influence the U.S. Postal Service’s decision to continue 6-day service has paid off,” states GCA Postal Affairs Committee Chair George White, President & COO of Up With Paper. “We look forward to working with Congress, the USPS, the Postal Regulatory Commission (PRC), and the mailing community through the legislative process to develop and implement much needed reform legislation to ensure the long-term financial health of the Postal Service, which is of vital importance to our industry.”
About the Greeting Card Association
The Greeting Card Association is the U.S. trade association of the greeting card industry. Established in 1941, the GCA represents greeting card and stationery publishers, as well as suppliers to the industry. Additionally, the GCA’s annual LOUIE Awards competition honors creative excellence in the industry, with winners announced at a gala in New York City each May. For additional information, please visitwww.greetingcard.org.
