Posted on 05/10/2011 3:36:03 PM PDT by Beaten Valve
The U.S. Postal Service posted a $2.2 billion net loss in its second quarter and said it might be unable to pay its debts by September.
The agency, which has been battling falling mail volumes and competition from FedEx (FDX.N) and United Parcel Service (UPS.N), said it expects to hit its borrowing limit by the September 30 end of the fiscal year, and will have to default on payments to the federal government unless Congress intervenes.
"The Postal Service continues to seek changes in the law to enable a more flexible and sustainable business model," said Chief Executive Patrick Donahoe in a statement.
The Postal Service -- which posted a net loss of $8.5 billion at the end of fiscal 2010, its fourth straight year of losses -- has asked Congress for permission to cut Saturday mail delivery.
The agency lost a bid last summer to raise rates on first-class mail beyond the pace of inflation.
The mail carrier, which delivers about 40 percent of the world's mail and does not receive tax revenue, announced in March that it would eliminate 7,500 jobs and close 2,000 post offices in an attempt to cut costs
(Excerpt) Read more at reuters.com ...
I hope they aint to big to fail
A government entity spending more than it takes in. What is this world coming to?
there are laws which require the use of mail. ie first class mail, or certified mail.
PARP ...
Postal Asset Relief Program!
Ned 2.2B, ah heck we’ll give you triple that.
/sarc
Bankruptcy and failure sounds better.
I'm not going to defend the way the Post Office is run, especially at the upper levels. But this reminds me of the way social security payments were also kept level last year and this year, because Obama's gubbermint said there was "no inflation." That, of course, is a flat out lie, as anyone who has been buying basic necessities such as food and fuel is well aware.
Major candidate for privitization, IMHO.
Hand the mail off to the private sector and the 2.2 billion would be the 1st 3 months profit.
$32.76.
B F D! All I get is junk mail anyway and it goes right to the recycle bin.
Aging workforce, increased health insurance and pension costs?
Knock ‘em if you want to but sending a letter across country for 44¢ is a bargain.
and unions
They should sell them off, I know that I could deliver the mail for less.
People want cheap reliable mail service, what they have is expensive, unreliable,....
The problem is the post office needs to remove all sorting from local sites and go to a hub and spoke model. This means closing 99% of post office sorting rooms and laying off thousands. They just don’t want to survive if it means doing that.
I've got an idea, just tax other carriers like FedX and UPS to make it fair and add a tax onto the tax for business' to post mail!
That should work!
Doesn’t the postal service have some sort of contract workers now? Used to be a job with the postal service was great - good pay and benefits. Not sure it’s like that these days.
This isn’t possible. According to Obama, monopolies provide better services at lower cost. It is the benefit of the monopoly which drives the whole argument in favor of single-payer health care. If the postal service monopoly can’t break even, then will we soon hear stories of how Amtrak is losing money too?
Let it die.
>I won’t miss ‘em...
It’s not that simple. We ship parcels to Asia and Europe and USPS is the cheapest when it comes to tracking and insurance. Fedex and UPS are THE highway robbers. Only domestically that the latter 2 becomes a no-contest.
What I despise are the unions and their ridiculous retirement packages which they bleed dry from the taxpayers. It’s the smug “I cannot be fired because I am union” attitude you can read from their clerks that pisses me off.
They can’t be broke.
We haven’t been taxed into serfdom.
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