Posted on 08/05/2010 9:41:55 AM PDT by Zakeet
The U.S. Postal Service reported a $3.5 billion loss in its most recent quarter Thursday, as mail volume plummets and retiree health care costs mount.
The USPS, a self-supporting government agency that receives no tax dollars, said operating revenue declined 1.8% to $16 billion during the fiscal 2010 third quarter compared to a year earlier, while operating expenses spiked 4.2% to $19.5 billion.
The quarterly loss was the fourteenth in the last sixteen quarters, the postal service said.
"A significant portion of USPS losses in the past few years has been due to an unprecedented decline in mail volume -- down more than 20% since 2007," the USPS said in a statement. "The replacement of letter mail and business-transaction mail by electronic alternatives continues to cause downward pressure on mail volume."
"Securing the fiscal stability of the Postal Service will require continued efforts in all of these areas, as well as further review of retiree health benefit prefunding," said postmaster general John Potter.
"It also will require that the Postal Service gain flexibility within the law to move toward five-day delivery, to adjust our network as needed, to develop new products the market demands, and to work with our unions to meet the challenges ahead," he added.
(Excerpt) Read more at money.cnn.com ...
In some periods they've borrowed directly from or through the Treasury. At other times they've sold bonds. Sometimes they've paid down mortgages all over the place, and then borrowed against those assets later on in the cycle.
They usually have a surplus in the early part of any new rate cycle so they have cash resources available to cover costs later on as costs exceed revenues.
Do you know Willie Green? Y’all have a lot in common?
Isn’t their solution is to cut one day off from delivery but keep paying the employees the same?
Over the period of years when I worked for Post Office Department/USPS, there were probably over 3 million people came and went as employees. I might well have met a Willie Green ~ but the name doesn’t ring a bell at the moment.
Netflix is shifting more and more to streaming, so even they won’t save the Post Office...
At least you announce the reason for your bias. No, Willie is a train lover here, a Socialist through and through. He loves trains, as long as someone else pays for them.
You mean how much worse it will be, once Netflix shifts everything to streaming and concedes the physical disk business to Redbox...
I have a plan for total privatization on my computer somewhere. First thing that happens is you have to go farther to get the mail you don't like, and no, the users ~ that is "the senders" ~ are paying for the service ~ so the recipients will still not get a choice in what is delivered.
Time to make money!
Remember when he compared health care to the post office?
We are SUNK!
Lol.
“I suspect that if it weren’t for all the junk we get that we don’t want, most of us would get virtually no snail mail other than maybe a couple of monthly bills.”
You’re right on the money there. I get a ton of mail, and maybe there’s on average one piece a day that is something actually meant for me (occassional greeting cards, and the few bills I don’t get electronically).
Seems like rather than raising first-class mail postage rates, they need to raise the rates of what they charge for bulk mail (that might also help cut down on all the darn catalogs and requests for donations that clog my mailbox).
Not really, since all we normally get is junk mail, and we’d feel no need to pick it up.
Even if we did have to, it’d be thrown away there, increasing their “trash” cost.
And, if no bins were offered, I drop it on the floor.
USPS has a government mandated monopoly on mail delivery and a governance model that allows them to raise rates whenever they deem it necessary.
Seems to me that a self-supporting government agency shouldn't need to have a bill passed (HR 2918) that allows it to postpone required payments into their pension plan ($4 billion worth) just so they can keep their head above water.
They also went fro $0 debt in 2005 to $10.2 billion on 2009 (out of a statutory limit of $15 billion) and racked up another 3.5 billion in losses in the last quarter alone.
Self supporting indeed.
Your profile informs me:
After 38 years with USPS I retired just over 6 years ago
Tells me all I need to know.
time to take your shots old-timer
Don't mind if I do ..
Imagine being shot down for spilling the ADVO pack. Oh the humanity.
Sounds like a working argument to me ~ and so typical of the government.
The letter mail monopoly covers letters as the general public imagines them, AND checks. It does not include non-communicative correspondence ~ handbills, broadsides, newspapers, magazines, and so on.
The Postmaster General is authorized to grant exceptions ~ which is why you have express letters handled by FedEx and UPS (and others).
At the same time for purposes of security the law allows the Postmaster General to require that intended recipients of mail maintain a receptacle not available to others. Technically speaking, you are the guy who keeps private delivery services out of your mailbox, not the post office.
If I’m not mistaken, their prices have gone through the roof. Same as post services everywhere. And now they’re surprised?
I do.
UPS stores are great. That’s where I go if I have to send a package or (very rarely) fax something. Convenient, quick and courteous. I like my mailman too don’t get me wrong.
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