District post offices at Hell, Bodden Town, North Side and East End will no longer be opened on Saturdays, as of 15 February.

As North Side and East End postal customers are aware, those post offices have been closed on Saturdays for periods varying from a few months to over a year, but this announcement makes that decision permanent. However, post offices such as Savannah, Airport, General, Seven Mile Beach and West Bay will remain open on Saturdays, as will all post offices on the Sister Islands.

This decision comes after the issue was raised by MLA for North Side Ezzard Miller in Finance Committee when the 2013/14 budget was being considered.  Mr. Miller recognized it as an ineffective operation of the Postal Service and subsequently a financial review was performed on Grand Cayman facilities to determine the revenue collected on a Saturday.  The review found that for the last five years, CIPS collected less than 3 per cent of its revenue on Saturdays. Even when value-added services such as utility bill payments were included, it was still less than 5 per cent of revenue coming in on Saturdays.

Postmaster General Sheena Glasgow stated that at present, it is increasingly difficult to justify keeping the post offices in North Side, Hell, East End and Bodden Town open on a Saturday when these facilities collect less than 1 per cent of their annual revenue on that day.

“This was a collaborative effort with North Side MLA Ezzard Miller. He raised the issue because he recognized that it is very costly for the Postal Service to conduct Saturday business. This is particularly true for the district postal facilities that have smaller business volumes,” she said.

“Continuing to keep district post offices open on Saturdays has also been challenging for management as the number of postal staff has reduced significantly since 2008 and staff have never been paid overtime for their Saturday hours since Saturday hours resumed in 2008.” she said.

“I would venture to say that few private sector companies, if any, would continue to stay open for Saturday business year after year while earning less than 1% of their annual revenue on that day. As a compromise, this is why some of the larger postal facilities will remain operational on Saturdays.”