Posted on 09/05/2011 10:57:27 AM PDT by tobyhill
The head of the U.S. Postal Service said in an interview that the organization will default -- perhaps as early as this winter -- unless Congress intervenes.
Postmaster General Patrick Donahoe's comments reflect a well-known reality that the Postal Service is in dire financial straits. The rise of email and online bill-paying has steadily eroded its profits over the years while labor costs soar. Donahoe is calling for a host of changes, including the elimination of Saturday delivery, to close a deficit projected to top $9 billion this year.
But he said Congress needs to step in to help keep the service alive.
(Excerpt) Read more at foxnews.com ...
Eliminate the Postal Rate Commission. Eliminate binding arbitration.
All of those things will require Congressional action.
Congress IS the bad management. They only thing they can step in and do is their own cr*p.
That’s essentially what I was arguing. Force them to become competitive. If they are so confident that they can be successful, privatize them and allow them to go public.
But do you really think that’s what the government has in mind for them?
All they want is to infuse some stimulus to the tune of 50 or a 100 billion dollars or whatever magic number they can convince people is “the fix.”
Do you really thing the USPS is so fragile that it absolutely MUST be rescued? I think that is hogwash. They have cash flow. They have assets.
The idea that it is "either/or" is ridiculous. They have options like every other business. They are too stupid or lazy to examine them because they can talk Congress into "mo money".
USPS is not allowed to make a profit.
End of story in that regard.
Frankly what's happened is the senior members of Issa's committee who knew anything at all about USPS all retired. Now he's got no one there who knows anything.
I'd be happy to help him out but only on a contract basis ~ and that starts at ONE HALF MIL per year and goes up if I get threatened physically.
There are organizations who do business with USPS who are quite intimidating and dangerous. When I retired I gave up messing with that crowd, but they're still there.
BTW, I want to find out what you think are saleable postal assets first, then we'll talk.
Vehicles. Real Estate. Mail processing equipment by the mile. Fork lifts. Data.
They'd all make great collateral.
And real estate? How much real estate do you think they own? $1 billion, $2 billon, $3 billion? It's a lot less than you imagine. They don't have a land bank for future expansion.
Used forklifts ~ all battery powered. You have to build a battery room with a blowout wall to use the forklifts USPS uses.
Mail processing equipment ~ while you're selling off postal assets what do they use to sort mail?
And finally, "data" ~ like what other people are mailing?
To start with most postal real estate is RENTED. USPS has leases up the ying yang. I suppose you could sell some of them in the Great Obama Recession (/s). BTW, the large HCR vehicles ~ tractor trailer combos ~ those are all private property. Then there are the national landmark buildings ~ they are not for sale.
Keep your postal service going. Fire the income recipients of public schools and planning and building regulators.
The Dept of Commerce uses FedEx exclusively, even for letters.
Departments are allowed to subcontract and the PO lost out because they were so expensive.
The public unions will take the PO to its grave, can't be stopped.
If the PO couldn't eliminate Saturday delivery, that has been proposed for over 20 years, they are obviously unable to save themselves.
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