Only deliver mail 3 days a week
Use post offices as electric charging stations for vehicles. Convert most mail vehicles to electric. Allow citizens to use the charger during the day and use the charges at night for the postal service.
Decrease mail staff by 50%.
Increase automation.
I agree with mail delivery 3 times a week. There is so much that could be automated.
I like the idea of electric vehicles since the post office is not an essential service.
Let the economics play themselves out. I’m sure if it made sense it would have happened by now.
And why do we bother with junk mail?
As a rural mail carrier, electric vehicles are currently being tested, and are failing. They’re not holding a charge in extreme cold or extreme heat. There is too much stop and go. There are many things the postal service could do to save/increase money that doesn’t involve less delivery days. All postal employees are paid with postage. You buy a stamp, it pays us, yet we give shipping materials away for no charge. Charge! Not some outrageous price, but 2 bucks for 6/8/12 boxes, some money could be made. If mail doesn’t make a delivery truck, send it with the next days mail, have those carriers deliver what they have. 1 delivery per station from the plant per day, pick up outgoing mail from the day before at the same time instead of sending a PM truck to get it. There are so many good ways to actually make the post office make money, and most of those ideas come from the carriers, the bottom of the postal ladder. A lot of people may not respect the post office due to crappy carriers, and rude window clerks, but there are good ones out there who care about their jobs, and want to keep them. Consolidation could work, but not when carriers are having to drive 20 miles from an office to their route. Offices within 5 mile radiuses would make sense, and save money. Another great way to save money is carrier training. Stop sending the new people to sit in a classroom and learn when they could learn in the office with the carriers. It would weed out the good from the bad quickly and save those 4 days of paid classroom training with 1 or 2 days of seeing what we actually do on daily basis, and deciding if it is for them or not. People take advantage of the training pay, and never show up to the office to shadow a carrier. There doesn’t need to be huge changes to save or make money.
I agree with everything u said. City carrier here. Too many people think their tax dollars pay our wages.
I just created a policy for it, I’m sick of getting blamed for upper managements lack of. We do the work. We know what would save money. The good employees outweigh the bad, the bad are the only ones that ever get talked about. So much to say. 
All of your ideas are terrible, and I’ll answer your junk mail question. More automation means more error and more work for the now 50% less staff you’d like to see, more work, more pay, no money saved. That was 2 of your ideas, next, electric vehicles, multiple were tested, and multiple have failed on mail routes. Extreme heat or cold with the stop and go a carrier does, drains the battery too fast. Also, the cost of replacement batteries-thousands of dollars-no savings in the long run when they need to be jumped by a mechanic/supervisor/random person on the street (if that’s even possible with electric vehicles) constantly, resulting is wait time, for waiting for help to get them back on the street, which means more hours, more pay, less savings. And as for junk mail…A business contacts the post office to send out a direct mailer to consumers in hopes that they will then “consume” their product. As they have paid postage, carriers are required to deliver it. I think you also said less delivery days? There are more cost saving measures that would actually work before USPS needs to resort to less delivery days. Some of which I’ve posted in another comment on this thread. If you want to see change is the post office, the people that do the actual work and see how it could be better, are the ones to ask.
Ok. When I gave a green check to 3 delivery days a week, I’m just saying I’m okay with only receiving mail 3 days a week. I assume it would cut costs, but I’m definitely okay with saving money other ways. Same argument goes for the other green check.
The electric cars comment I made was that electric cars probably aren’t a great idea, and if they were we would already have seen most of the jeeps change over.
And as for junk mail, I’ve heard that they don’t pay the full stamp price, that mass mail is subsidized, I may be wrong. But I also don’t see the benefit to make paper and ink, design the graphics, print them all up, have the post office distribute them, for me to just throw them in the garbage. I can’t imagine that helps the morale of the mail-man. If you only delivered stuff people wanted I think you’d feel more pride in your work, which I’ve found helpful in my jobs.
Mass mailers are cheaper than a first class letter, and there are different types. Some have names and addresses, some just have addresses, some are no name, no address, everyone gets them. Cost varies depending on the type. Any postage paid is how I get paid. If people didn’t send them, postal employees would have no paycheck. Carriers and clerks are the faces of the postal service, so the pride I get from my job is knowing that 99.9% of my customers are extremely satisfied with the job I do. I can’t make everyone happy, but I do my best to make sure they get the correct mail and packages delivered safely. They know if they have an issue that I will go above and beyond to straighten it out for them. There is a small percentage of dishonest employees that make the rest of us look bad, and give us a bad name, so it sucks for those of us who do take pride in our job. Most people don’t even talk to their carriers before they make a complaint about a small issue. I recommend everyone do that first. Leave a note asking them to stop and speak with you about an issue, a good carrier will take the time to listen, even though we are micromanaged and rushed. Find out your carriers days off, that will answer a lot of questions. Some substitute carriers don’t take the time your carrier will to make sure things are correct. I’m rambling, here. Sorry. It’s a very frustrating job sometimes. It’s extremely hard on our bodies with all of the repetitive motion. I’m currently typing this with a completely numb right hand. I’ll leave you with one last thing. When you’re driving down the road next time and see a mail vehicle delivering on a busy road, watch how many people pass them unsafely, then Google how many mail carriers have been killed by impatient drivers wanting to pass. It might surprise you.
You’re dumb