Targets for the delivery of first and second class letters were missed in the bitter row over jobs, pay and services.
At its peak, there was a backlog of more than 100,000 items of post, including 14,800 unopened recorded delivery letters and 13,600 unopened first and second class letters containing crucial information and documents about cases.
However, the company met other targets, including delivering 98.5% of second class letters within three days of collection.
The only price cap would be the charge for second class letters, which is currently 36p, to a range of between 45p and 55p.
Overall revenues were up 2% over the three months to the end of June as a result of a rise in election mailouts in the run-up to the May elections and the March increase in stamp prices, which saw the cost of a first class letter rise 2p to 62p.
But the last time a first class letter was $.15/oz was in 1978 -- and that $0.15 in 1978 actually buys you nearly $0.45 worth of goods today.
Instead of sending four different mailers, we streamlined it to one two-way mailer that was USPS approved as a First Class letter, which allowed us to save paper and tens of thousands of dollars in shipping every year.
Ms. Goldway said the postal service had decided not to change its target for delivery of first class letters — now 1 to 3 days — to 2 to 5 days.. "I feel what was missing from this discussion — these were all the engineers talking — is the vital role of the postal service as part of the fabric of the United States in promoting public discourse," she said.
It is less and less a conduit for exchanging first class letters and more and more a broadcast medium, primarily for the distribution of advertisements, periodicals, and parcels.
For example, the Commission might require delivery of individual first class letters to, say, 98percentt of all addresses in the U.S. within three business days at a maximum rate of 50 cents for the next five years.
At least 130,000 first class letters were also opened and photographed by the FBI between 1940 and 1966, all to keep us safe and for our own good in changing times.
