Posted on 05/09/2026 4:34:26 AM PDT by Libloather
WASHINGTON, May 8 (Reuters) - The U.S. Postal Service on Friday reported a net quarterly loss of $2 billion as it faces a growing financial crisis and has warned it could run out of cash as soon as February.
USPS said mail volumes fell another 6.3% in the three months ending March 31 as operating revenue rose 2.3% to $20.2 billion over the same quarter last year.
USPS last month said it would temporarily suspend employer payments for a federal pension program to conserve cash and plans to raise the price of first-class mail stamps to 82 cents from 78 cents, effective July 12.
USPS has reported total net losses of $120 billion since 2007 as first-class mail, its most profitable product, has fallen to its lowest volume since the late 1960s. "We are in a cash crisis, and we are now taking serious and appropriate steps to conserve funds to operate," Postmaster General David Steiner said. "To avoid disruption and to sustain our role supporting American commerce and the public, we require urgent Congressional action to expand our borrowing authority and to address outdated constraints on the organization."
USPS's suspension of employee pension contributions will conserve $200 million in cash every two weeks, or $2.5 billion through September 30, it said.
Last month, USPS won approval from the Postal Regulatory Commission for a temporary 8% price hike for priority mail and package deliveries to deal with rising transportation and fuel costs. USPS plans for the surcharge to be in effect through January 17, 2027.
(Excerpt) Read more at reuters.com ...
Patriots, Call Congress
US Capitol switchboard
(202) 224-3121.
Call the White House
Comments: 202-456-1111
Switchboard: 202-456-1414
TTY/TTD Comments: 202-456-6213
Send a letter to the White House
1600 Pennsylvania Ave NW
Washington, DC 20500
Message: The US Postal Service (USPS) is not supposed to be financed with tax dollars,
but on USPS revenue from postage and services, which totaled roughly $80.5 billion in 2025.
USPS Total Expenses (2025): Around $90 billion, driven by employee costs, elaborate overtime schemes and overstaffing.
The US Postal Service brings in an average of $262.5 million daily.
The Postal Service pays roughly $2.1 billion in salaries and benefits every two weeks.
The USPS is currently experiencing a financial crisis, operating at a net loss despite billions in revenue.
How did the USPS reach its legal maximum debt of $15 billion?
I get very little Amazon purchases by the postal service. That said, these high gas prices are going to cause cost increases all around. Many people who are not wealthy are suffering.
The economy is not very good.
> these high gas prices are going to cause cost increases all around <
Yes, there is a ripple effect. And if Iran isn’t wrapped up soon, Trump and the Republicans are going to be blamed.
I get that things were as bad (or worse) under Biden. But here’s the problem. The Biden effect was behind the scenes. The Trump effect is right out in the open: Iran.
(Was the Iran intervention worth it in the first place? That is, I think, for another thread.)
All the money they spent to wash 2020 ballots is gone.
At the heart of all of this are people who feel entitled. Entitled to salary, benefits, overtime, etc. well beyond what their employer (the government = the taxpayers) can afford. Entitled to work inefficiently and then receive 'overtime' to complete work they could have finished during regular hours with reasonable effort.
I'm not dumping specifically on public employees. I'm sure there are many who work very hard. I'm just tired of people feeling entitled to whatever they can get - irrespective of how they get it. The same happens in every sector of society.
We recently completed the Primary election
We received numerous slick, double sided post cards declaring the political messages.
I received a post card with the double sided very fine print advising my auto registration is expired on May 30. The message would be normally delivered by e mail but I changed addresses.
First class mail rates went up to cover costs but customers ceased first class and reverted instead to post cards.
Open the Books has a lot of information on salaries being paid to US Postal Service employees.
Just maybe that is why USPS is losing billions of dollars each quarter.
Mounts? They always are always billions in the red. “Legacy” costs are great
“US Postal Service reports $2 billion quarterly loss as cash crunch mounts”. Go back to the Pony express?
Good the postal service are a bunch of thieves. Try to mail a gift card to your relatives. Try to mail a check for your property taxes. The only thing they do is deliver unwanted junk mail. Shut it down!
Do we even need the USPS?
My mail would go down by at least 90% if requests from charities, politicians, and junk mail were excluded. Bills are important but could be managed with a credit card or check paid at time of service. Heck, take away the USPS legal mail monopoly and I’m sure someone else would deliver a bill.
Do USPS retirees deserve a pension? Yes.
Should USPS continue as a jobs program? No. I don’t think any self-respecting government employee wants to work a job out of charity. Their attitude should be “give me a real job, or let me go.”
We need to abolish the Post Office. Private entities can in fact do this kind of work.
“I read an article claiming that UPS and FedEx take the easy deliveries, and hand off their tougher (more remote) ones to the USPS.”
That would make sense. USPS already has those routes.
Based on personal experience, the USPS transports almost every package from hither to yon, and often back and forth, before it gets to the intended destination. Their hub concept is designed to concentrate sorting in major Democrat cities, which requires schlepping everything to them, then back again, making a 30-mile local delivery take 10 days and +200 miles. The waste of time, personnel, vehicles, fuel, congestion, emissions, etc., has to be astronomical, while guaranteeing SLOW service, more lost packages, etc.
Human error will always be with us, but I suspect that AI could design and manage a logistics concept directed at efficiency rather than politics, that would put even the USPS on a profitable footing. But that’s not the goal, is it...
I’ve never understood the handwringing over the post office P and L. It’s a legitimate Constitutional function. Run it as efficiently as possible and keep it funded.
Should we privatize the Army and Navy too?
“ My mail would go down by at least 90% if requests from charities, politicians, and junk mail were excluded”
Today I checked my mailbox for the first time in 4 days in a centrally located mail center. There were exactly 3 items worth anything out of at least 30 items. All the rest were advertisements, requests for campaign contributions or requests for charitable donations. I would like to know how much it costs to deliver each of these items. If it costs more than what the sender pays to mail it, the price needs to be increased or that class of mail should be treated like the penny and ended.
Taxpayers should not be subsidizing any of this annoying JUNK mail.
A mail route is a mail route - a number of locations for POSSIBLE mail delivery - no matter many pieces of mail (supported by the sale of stamps) are needed to be delivered; the labor costs are the same.
With 100% of businesses encouraging and supporting the push for all communications with them to be electronic, it is no surprise at all that the postal service is struggling financially.
It is particularly the financial industries that have benefited the most for “going paperless”. They have saved billions of dollars yet their fees either did not go down or went up while they give shit for return on any savings with them, and they staff fewer people at their bricks and mortar locations.
The begging industry is completely out of control.
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