USPS Saturday Delivery Cut

June 24, 2010

Bloomberg News — Angela Greiling Keane in Washington reports that Netflix backs U.S. Postal Service Saturday delivery cut while Amazon was opposed to such a cut.

Netflix Inc., which says it’s the largest-growing first-class U.S. Postal Service customer, gave its support to ending Saturday mail delivery.

The approval of Netflix, which has more than 14 million subscribers, follows that of Time Warner Inc., publisher of more than 20 U.S. magazines including Sports Illustrated and People. The Postal Service, which says eliminating Saturday delivery would save $3 billion a year, wants to reduce the service to five days a week. The proposal is among a suite of possible changes to plug its deficit.

“A well-functioning Postal Service, positioned over the long haul to meet changing customer and consumer demand, is more important than maintaining current delivery frequency,” Andrew Rendich, Netflix chief service and DVD operations officer, said in his testimony before a joint U.S. House-Senate hearing about postal customers and workers.

Everyday digital delivery is becoming more and more the norm for all things that can be transported and accessed via the Internet including certificates of insurance and automobile identification cards.