Postal Service could close 250 mail facilities

The U.S. Postal Service announced on Thursday that is considering closing or consolidating nearly 250 mail processing facilities as part of a plan to cut costs by $3 billion a year.

If the plans go through, the closures would cut the USPS' network of processing facilities by over half.

“We are forced to face a new reality today,” Postmaster General Patrick Donahoe said in a statement. “First-Class Mail supports the organization and drives network requirements. With the dramatic decline in mail volume and the resulting excess capacity, maintaining a vast national infrastructure is no longer realistic. Since 2006, we have closed 186 facilities, removed more than 1,500 pieces of mail processing equipment, decreased employee complement by more than 110,000 through attrition and reduced costs by $12 billion.”

In a press release, the USPS said it was also considering reducing mail processing equipment by as much as 50 percent, decreasing its nationwide transportation network, cutting as many as 35,000 jobs, and revising service standards for First-Class Mail.

"It is no exaggeration to say that we are radically re-aligning the way that we process mail, the way that we deliver mail, and the way that we operate our retail network," Donahoe told reporters at a Thursday briefing, according to CNN.

"Our immediate goal is to reduce our total costs by $20 billion by 2015," he said.

USPS currently operates 487 mail processing facilities, CNN reports, and each facility being considered for closure or consolidation employs between 50 and 2,000 workers. Donahoe said he hopes to achieve any work force reductions through attrition, not layoffs.

According to the Postal Service, mail volume has dropped by more than 43 billion pieces in the past 5 years, and is continuing to decline. Letters bearing postage stamps have declined 36 percent during that time, and nearly 50 percent in the past ten years. If new service standards go through, the window for delivering First-Class Mail would go from 1-3 days to 2-3 days.