The U.S. Postal Service Nears Collapse

Businessweek ^ | May 26, 2011 | Devin Leonard

[muawiyah]

You start with a base of about 30 billion pieces per year with about 700,000 employees. Try 1969. There'll be a bit of variation around that, but not all that much.

Then leap ahead to about 2004 where there are something like 210 billion pieces per year with about 750,000 employees.

That turns out to be pretty close to a 700% increase in productivity in terms of workhours per piece, or pieces per workhour.

So, what has been your improvement? (I'm guessing it's NOTHING)

[ctdonath2]

A 7x improvement over 42 years? That’s 4.9% a year. Meh.
Remember: $8B in the hole.

In terms of processing rate, my industry saw a 25%/year increase over the same period.
In terms of dollars of revenue, my personal productivity has increased six orders of magnitude since 1969. Beat that.

[muawiyah]

BTW, the Postal Rate Commission approves the postage rates. They are not part of the Postal Service. They denied the necessary increases.

[muawiyah]

Let's see the numbers; name the product; what was it; how much of it was there; how many people worked in the industry.

We'll be the judge of whether or not you did better.

[ctdonath2]

AHHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHHAHAHAHAHAHAH!

[muawiyah]

Freepers almost never use the Tony Weiner defense.

You're not from around here are you!

[ctdonath2]

HAHAHAHAHAHAH! You’ll be the judge - you funny!

[muawiyah]

You are obviously not qualified for the job ~ but I said "we" in the sense of "your audience" and that could be just me, or hundreds of others.

You have nothing to fear. You are among friends. Let's hear about that industry.

[ctdonath2]

Oh, click on my name ... and that's the second ID I've used here.

You're defending a fee-driven government monopoly which is running a multi-billion-dollar deficit and achieves a paltry 4.5% annual throughput increase ... you're not from around here are you?

[ctdonath2]

“Obviously”?

[muawiyah]

Postal productivity over that same period outpaced national industrial productivity improvement.

Yeah, strange eh?

But there are plenty of IGNANT folks out there, like yourself, who imagine they know everything.

[ctdonath2]

See the 25% throughput I referred to. And your $8.5B deficit.

[muawiyah]

Did a regulatory authority ever prohibit you from raising your prices?

[ctdonath2]

Any organization which tells itself to not set prices in a competitive manner gets what it deserves.

[muawiyah]

Your arguments just went off the track. You’re in a ditch. Does not compute.

[Captain Kirk]

“The contract.” I don’t want them to be given a “contract.” All I want is to allow them to compete. You contradict yourself. On the one hand, you admit that UPS and FedEX now deliver “unprofitable” packages to everywhere.....yet you claim that somehow that they would stop this long practice and not deliver similarly “unprofitable” first class mail if given the opportunity. BTW, nothing is unprofitable if differential prices are established.

If you are worried about overly strong unions, then support repeal of the Wagner Act.

[driftless2]

Try reading my posts carefully. I said that if UPS or FedEx HAD to deliver items that turned out be unprofitable, they wouldn’t do it. That’s just pure business sense. The argument is that if profitability is the sole criteria for delivering mail, then many Americans will not receive mail. For instance, there is no way millions of elderly citizens are going to hop into their vehicles (if they have one) and drive twenty or more miles to pick up their mail. Letter mail is not the same as merchandise sold over the internet.

[Captain Kirk]

Again, your point eludes me. UPS and FedEx DO deliver “unprofitable” mail. In fact, one of their strongest advertising points is their mutual boast that they deliver everywhere overnight. This advertisement is one of the reasons for their overall profitability e.g. we all know we can depend on them to deliver to friends in obscure places. You seem to claim, however, that they would suddenly stop doing this if the government required them to do it?! I’ve seen some novel defenses of the postal monopoly but that’s a totally new one to me.

[driftless2]

I feel like I’m beating my head against a wall. Yes, UPS and FedEx can boast they can deliver anywhere, BUT THEY DON’T DELIVER LETTER MAIL!!!! If they did deliver letter mail, with the obligation to deliver all the mail as does the USPS, they’d run into the same profitabiltiy (or unprofitability) problems. Is that clear enough?

[Captain Kirk]

It has always been clear. There is absolutely nothing unique about the potential profitablity of first class mail. Apparently, you didn't read my link about Lysander Spooner. He delivered first class mail and at a substantial profit. The USPS was so angered by his success that they pushed for the current private express statutesto drive him out of business.

By its current behavior, there is good evidence that the postal service agree with me, not you on the profitably issue! That's the most logical explanation for why it fights tooth and claw against any proposal to end their monopoly on first class delivery. The postal authorities and their unions know that if Americans learn the ugly truth that the postal service is not necessary the deliver first class mail everywhere, the USPS will go down the drain.