In an effort to reduce costs, the U.S.
Postal Service is changing the way it delivers
mail to rural America.
And regional air carriers aren't happy
about it.
Eight regional airlines this month
formed Save American Airmail, a coalition
working to make the USPS reconsider its
plans to overhaul its rural mail delivery system
by May 2003.
Today mail is delivered to rural areas via
small, regional air cargo carriers. Those carriers
pick up the mail in larger cities, such as
Reno, and fly it into smaller towns, where it
is distributed locally by mail carriers.
The USPS wants to stop using planes for
that last leg of the journey and transport the
mail by trucks between the larger metro
hubs and rural spokes.
The change is part of the USPS' sixmonth
old Transformation Plan, a widereaching
strategy to help the postal service
cut its mounting losses, projected to be $1.5
billion this year.
The USPS says it costs between $20
million and $25 million to deliver mail to
rural areas through its so-called ASYS-R
contracts with regional carriers. But the
postal service hasn't disclosed how much can
be saved by switching mail delivery from
planes to trucks, according to Save American
Airmail.
The coalition's goal is to get the USPS to
extend the ASYS-R contracts a few more
years while an independent third party conducts
a study to compare the costs of delivering
the mail by plane and by truck.
"USPS announced the changes in spring,
to be effective this May," said Kent Craford,
spokesman for the coalition. "But there was
such an uproar from cargo carriers that they
extended it to May 2003."
At the time, the USPS tried to eliminate
the ASYS-R contracts and put the regional
air carriers under the same ASYS contracts
as the major airlines, said Stan Kirkpatrick,
senior vice president of marketing at
Western Air Express, a Boise, Idaho, carrier
that serves selected cities in Washington,
Oregon, Idaho and Utah.
Those contracts, however, cover large jets
and pay the carriers much less per pound of
cargo because it costs less to carry freight on
big planes, said Kirkpatrick.
"In order to participate, you had to have
an ASYS contract," he said. "And that is
simply not feasible for the regional carriers."
So the USPS extended the ASYS-R (the
R stands for rural) with the regional carriers,
but has already moved some mail delivery to
ground transportation for any area less than
900 miles the distance covered by the
small airlines, said Kirkpatrick.
"Our contract is still in place but the way
it was renewed there are no guarantees for
minimum volume," said Kirkpatrick. "It
used to be a rare day that we carried less
than 500 to 600 pounds.Now it can be as
low as 15 to 20 pounds."
The result, claims Kirkpatrick and the
coalition, is a delay in delivery of mail.
"Already the business community [in
rural Idaho] has told me they see a difference
in their mail service," said Kirkpatrick.
"It's very important to small business,"
said Gene Mallette, CEO, Alpine Air, a
Provo, Utah, cargo carrier that serves Utah,
South Dakota, Montana and Texas. "You
add an extra day to getting an invoice and
another to getting payment. That's two extra
day, or 10 percent of a month's working
days, added to a small business' collection."
Save American Airmail hired a lobbyist
and already has three congressmen prepared
to sign a letter requesting the USPS to further
research the issue, according to Craford.
