Some Virginia post offices are cutting their hours

Tough times for the U.S. Postal Service are translating into reductions in some post office hours for Virginians.

"We're trying to find ways to cut our costs and provide more efficient delivery," said Cathy Boulé with the Postal Service's Richmond District, which covers most of the state except for Northern and Southwest Virginia.

More than 80 of the 928 post offices in Virginia have seen their lobbies' retail-service times shortened, she said, though none in the Richmond area are affected yet.

The changes are being done on a case-by-case basis after discussions with postmasters and customers, the Postal Service's David Walton said.

The Postal Service lost $2.8 billion on revenue of $75 billion in fiscal 2008, which ended Sept. 30, according to spokesman Gerald McKiernan. Cutting into earnings were a $5.6 billion payment required by the Postal Act of 2006 to pre-fund retiree health benefits and more than $500 million each in employee raises and additional fuel costs.

"We saw a decrease of 9 billion pieces of mail in 2008 compared to 2007," McKiernan said, and most of that mail was advertising for the housing and financial industries.

"It's a clear sign of the breadth of the recession," said Hugh Keogh, president and CEO of the Virginia Chamber of Commerce. "The price of a stamp continues to go up regularly, and if they're not getting enough revenue that way, they have to get it some other way."

However, postal officials said the service will not be closing offices or firing workers. "In 225 years, we've never laid anyone off," Boulé said.

The Postal Service has offered voluntary early retirement to 156,000 of its nearly 685,000 workers, McKiernan said, and so far, at least 3,685 have accepted the offer.

In Northern Virginia, 49 offices are having their lobby hours cut, officials said, while four are staying open longer.

Only three post offices in the Richmond District, which extends north to the Fredericksburg area and east to Hampton Roads, have seen their hours reduced recently, Postal Service officials said. More adjustments could come after Jan. 1.

The hours of the Great Bridge station in Chesapeake were shortened by 90 minutes in September. The Witchduck station in Virginia Beach is closing 30 minutes earlier daily and the Stafford Post Office's hours shrank by 30 minutes a day.

Peter Bacqué is a staff writer for Media General’s Richmond Times-Dispatch.