It comes as no great surprise to hear that the U.S. Postal Service is in financial trouble. The economic downturn has reduced mail volume, electronic bill paying over the Internet continues to have an impact, and last summer's high gas prices hammered the government agency, which has a fleet of 200,000 vehicles to keep on the road delivering mail.

Postmaster General John Potter told the House Oversight Post Office Subcommittee last week "We are facing losses of historic proportions," adding that "we can no longer afford business as usual."

He explained that efforts already have begun to trim expenditures, but to reduce costs further Potter is asking for congressional approval to cut delivery to five days a week from six.

The postal service, which currently operates as a financially self-sufficient agency with no government subsidies, reportedly is planning to offer early retirement to 150,000 employees and cut 1,400 management jobs. There also are plans to close six of its 80 district offices.

Potter's plan to reduce weekly service makes sense and has been discussed before. Earlier talk proposed dropping Saturday delivery.

But it would make more sense to drop a midweek day. The latest proposal suggests ending Tuesday deliveries, but dropping Wednesday delivery would make more sense.

The problem for a dropped day is that mail piles up within the postal service, producing an extraordinary volume of mail to deliver on the day after the non-delivery day or days. That is the basis of the argument against dropping Saturday, which would result in a weekly gap of two consecutive days of non-delivery — which would make Mondays a problem.

And on those weekends when a national holiday is observed on a Monday, the postal service would be confronted with an unmanageable volume of mail on Tuesday, which would require hiring extra workers or renting extra vehicles for delivery.

Dropping Tuesday delivery would make matters worse on those weekends with a Monday holiday.

A better approach would be to drop Wednesday delivery. That way, weekends would not change — with delivery loads on regular Mondays — and Tuesdays following a Monday holiday — remaining the same.

Dropping Wednesday delivery would not cause a significant burden on Thursday delivery either.

If that plan is approved, however, there ought to be some provision for special deliveries to be accommodated on Wednesdays. If someone mailed something that was a high priority and they wanted it to be delivered as soon as possible, even if that meant a Wednesday, then a higher-cost special delivery stamp would be required.

But because it's unlikely that many people would feel the need for such special delivery, the demand on the postal service on Wednesdays would be minimal, and the savings from a non-delivery day would still be substantial.

Potter estimates that dropping to five-days-a-week delivery would save the postal service $3.5 billion a year. And that's significant for an agency that lost $2.8 billion last year and is facing a much bigger deficit this year.

Another idea, likely to be more controversial than dropping a delivery day, is to close some small, rural post offices. This clearly makes sense, when it's noted that some towns that hardly are more than a crossroads, with just a few homes, one traffic light and a gas station, also boast a local post office.

These small post offices are a luxury that the nation can no longer afford. There are sure to be protests by people living in those towns and their representatives in Congress, but at a time when "business as usual" is no longer acceptable, those small post office facilities have to go. And those people will have to drive a few more miles to get to the post office.

And when it comes to rates, the postal service should treat each rate class equally. Recent rate changes have included increases for first and second class, but a reduction for third class, or junk mail.

Also deserving attention in any cost-cutting effort are operating efficiencies of the postal service, as well as further cuts to staffing levels and reductions to salaries and benefits of workers and retirees — just as the auto industry has had to implement.

It's long past time to face reality and make changes to the U.S. Postal Service.