People, technology and the post office

Nancy Whelan, a correspondent for the Sebastian Sun of Sebastian Florida, responded to a reader's question by quoting USPS spokesperson Joseph Breckenridge about why the the Post Office has changed its hours, closing earlier than it had in the past .

Breckenridge says in the article, "... the Postal Service has not laid workers off, but decreasing Post Office hours helps reduce some costs, like wages and energy usage. And, through attrition, the size of the work force has been controlled. "



The US Postal Service today is the third largest employer in the United States, only behind the U.S. Department of Defense and Wal-Mart, and it operates the largest civilian vehicle fleet in the world with 260,000 vehicles.

According to Breckenridge, "...about 700,000 Postal Service workers today deliver 210 billion pieces of mail. The same number of workers back in the 1970s delivered only 60 billion pieces of mail. However, automation makes that possible."



Shown above is a 1973 stamp (SC 1491) showing how it used to be when mail was sorted manually.

To read the entire article, click here.