By Tom Wakefield, PostalMag.com, 5/17/2010

The hearing was held in a basement/lower level auditorium at Dallas City Hall on May 17th, 2010 at 1:00 PM. There were 56 people in attendance, not including the commissioners, panelists and a few reporters who left after about 10 minutes into the hearing.

There were no protestors waving banners, signs, etc., although there were a few presidents and other officials of local and state postal labor unions. Everyone sat quietly as the panelists read their statements and the commissioners questioned the panelists.

Roy G. Robinson, current chairman of the board of the Texas Press Association, and Phil Major, publisher of the Wise County Messenger, gave similar testimony about the negative impact ending Saturday mail delivery would have on Texas newspapers, especially for those in outlying areas. Mr. Major, for example, talked about how Friday night high school football is big in Texas, and such news which is now delivered on Saturday  would be regarded as history by Monday. Both men had good points about how the Internet has less of an impact in outlying areas, where in fact there is less Internet access (and less high-speed Internet), making newspapers and mail delivery perhaps a more important medium than in urban areas. Mr. Major acknowledged that 70% of his mailings are via Standard Mail.

Both Robinson and Major noted they would seek to hire a private carrier workforce to deliver their newspapers on Saturday if the USPS were to end Saturday delivery. In fact, this wouldn't just be a workforce to deliver the Saturday newspaper, but for six-days so as to justify 40 hours worth of work for the private workforce, Mr. Robinson stated. Postal Regulatory Commissioner Mark Acton asked the obvious question concerning the affordability of their private carrier plan and both newspapermen acknowledged they had not looked at the affordability aspect. Postal Regulatory Commissioner Dan Blair asked the other obvious question concerning the Postal Service's monopoly on the mailbox. Mr. Major stated the private carriers could just throw the newspaper in the front yard, as Major did when he was delivering papers when he was thirteen. Robinson added that perhaps a plastic sleeve (attached somewhere on a property) could be used for delivery of the newspapers.

Should the USPS be worried about their private carrier workforce proposal? Perhaps. Major's Wise County Messenger spent $283,000 last year on postage. Quick math will tell you they could potentially hire seven full-time people earning $40,000 each per year to deliver their newspapers. (But that's not considering fuel and other related costs, such as benefits, employee taxes, injury compensation costs, etc.) Or many more could be hired using a contractor-based business model. However, it's not clear if $283,000 will be enough to provide delivery service to 22,000 stops, especially in this rural area, unless... they join with other businesses to deliver their products also, which would undercut the USPS further.

Next up was Bruce Sherbert, Election Administrator for Dallas County, and then Suzanne Henderson, County Clerk for Tarrant County. Their testimony touched on voting by mail and the implications ending Saturday delivery would have on voting by mail. I generally ignored this testimony as it really has no implications. Just make the deadline Friday, instead of Saturday, for mailed ballots, if it comes to that.

The next panel started with the well-spoken gentleman USPS Southwest Area Vice President Ellis Burgoyne. Mr. Burgoyne stated the Dallas District has experienced a 15 percent cumulative increase in total operating revenue over the five-year period from quarter 1 of fiscal year 2005 to  the same quarter in 2010. The commissioners seemed intrigued by this fact. There was some talk about how the economic downturn has been less severe in the Southwest, perhaps because of the area's population growth. Personally, I see this as a potential indicator that mail volumes and revenue will return to a higher level than expected if an economic recovery takes hold in other parts of the country. After some questioning, Mr. Burgoyne stated that some of the questions should be deferred to the field hearings in Washington, since most of the planning for five-day delivery at this point is focused at USPS HQ. Mr. Burgoyne stated that his main efforts at this time are managing the Southwest Area's day-to-day operations in a challenging economic environment. Interestingly, upon questioning, Mr. Burgoyne briefly described how he mainly reports to his boss Deputy PMG Donahoe and less to PMG Potter. Overall, the commissioners seemed impressed with Mr. Burgoyne's testimony and the ray of sunshine he gave (about the revenue increase) in an otherwise dark cloud.

Later, the "two Carols" gave their testimony, Carol Kliewer, Director, Distribution & Logistics, Order Fulfillment, Harland Clarke, and Carol Bald, Postal Operations Manager, Strategic Fulfillment Group. I believe that both stated, if given a choice, they would rather have five-day delivery than a postal rate increase beyond CPI. After their testimony, Postal Rate Commission Chairman Ruth Goldway delivered some bad news to the Carols. She told them they may not have a choice anyway as the USPS is contemplating/planning both a rate increase and reduction to five-day delivery during the same time frame in 2011.

After the testimony, Commissioner Goldway invited public comments. About ten people lined up and each gave a two to three minute statement.

Overall, I was impressed with the entire hearing. It was accomplished in a professional manner and all viewpoints were respectfully noted. The commissioners, far from being just political appointees, seemed to have a firm grasp on all aspects of the discussion at hand. In fact, their non-postal experiences appeared to provide some useful insights. Goldway for example, former mayor of Santa Monica, California, fully understood perhaps better than anyone in the room the testimony of the county administrators, as evidenced by her questioning of the administrators.