(September 9, 2014) WASHINGTON – First class mail processed and delivered by the US Postal Service in the last 10 years is down more than 50 percent, because more and more people are paying their bills and corresponding by e-mail.

Conversely, package shipments by the post office are up by double-digits.

Those figures come from USPS Chief Operating Officer Megan Brennan on Monday. She was flying to New York for a meeting with postal service commercial customers in White Plains on Tuesday.

She told MidHudsonNews.com by phone that they are trying to reinvent themselves, to develop “a more adaptive business model.” The postal service needs congressional approval, though, and to date, lawmakers have been unwilling to allow it to reduce first class mail delivery from six to five days per week.

More: Post office trying to reinvent itself in the Internet age.