USPS to lose $14B this year

[rolltide]

don't understand why they just raise a stamp to $0.50 and scale mail to 5 days/week. They'd save $11B in operational costs by knocking out a single delivery day and, since they sell 27B stamps per year, the .06 increase would be another $1.6B or so. Either that or just whine and bitch and look for a bailout or blame postal unions. Would you stop using USPS to mail letters because of a $.50 stamp? i wouldn't...

USPS Loses $3.3B last quarter

The U.S. Postal Service said it lost $3.3 billion in the quarter ended Dec. 31 -- typically its strongest -- and that it expects to run out of cash in October unless Congress agrees to cuts in facilities and employees.

“If the Postal Service is unable to reduce its operating costs by $20 billion a year by 2015, we may not be able to return to profitability,” Postmaster General Patrick Donahoe said at a board meeting in Washington today. “We may become a long-term burden to the taxpayers if we are not able to make these reductions quickly.”

The ninth consecutive quarter of losses may increase pressure on Congress from the Postal Service and customers to approve legislation intended to return it to solvency.

“We have a Postal Service that essentially is living from paycheck to paycheck, which is a very risky proposition for the American economy and the 8 million private-sector workers whose jobs rely on the mail,” Art Sackler, coordinator of the Coalition for a 21st Century Postal Service, said in an e-mail. “Each day Congress fails to enact postal reform, this problem grows more difficult and perhaps more expensive to resolve.” The coalition’s members include Bank of America Corp. (BAC) and FedEx Corp. (FDX)

Cash Projections
The Postal Service, which doesn’t receive U.S. taxpayer funding, last year reached its $15 billion borrowing limit from the U.S. Treasury and has forecast a record $14.1 billion loss for this fiscal year. The service wants to eliminate as many as 220,000 jobs and close as much as 12 percent of its post offices, among other changes.

The loss for the period that includes the Christmas season widened from $329 million in the year-earlier period. Revenue fell 1.1 percent to $17.7 billion as mail volume declined 6 percent, Chief Financial Officer Joseph Corbett told the board.

The service’s daily operating costs are $220 million, or $1.3 billion for a six-day work week. Cash on hand will fall below one week’s expenses by August and run out, without help from Congress, after it makes a workers-compensation payment to the U.S. Labor Department in October, Corbett said.

The cash position would temporarily improve after October and then run out again by October 2013, according to a presentation at the meeting.

The Postal Service predicted in November the amount of mail it will deliver in fiscal 2012 will fall about 6 percent, exceeding the drop of about 2 percent a year earlier, for a decline of more than 20 percent in the past five years. Revenue will probably decline to $64 billion in the year ending Sept. 30 from $65.7 billion in 2011, Corbett said at the time.

 

[fletchisrhsm]

Raise your prices, cut staff, scale back future sweetheart deals to retirees who haven't started yet (ie grandfather those already in), Drop Saturday or even Friday if you have to. Imagine if they did that. That would save 440 Million per week. Get creative, if they were concerned about saving money and surviving they would take whatever steps necessary to survive like any business. Either that or...

Just whine and bitch and look for a bailout or blame postal unions. The OP is correct with this last sentence, thus i stole it and put it into my rant. .

 

[billhill999]

700,000 give or take USPS workers nation wide

 

[Dave007inVegas]

700,000 give or take USPS workers nation wide

And at any given time, they’ll all on break.

 

[billhill999]

And at any given time, they’ll all on break.

Newman called in sick when it rained.

 

[Dave007inVegas]

Newman called in sick when it rained.

Oh the humanity.

 

[billhill999]

^
Steinbrenner wanted his calzone.

 

[russ1945]

In todays world there is probably two things that stand out as old school and trending towards extinction. Land telephone lines and the postal service. Cable companies continue to include land lines in their bundles and penalize you for excluding it. Postal services could be limited to one day a week for all I care, the burden on retirement and benefits knocked them out. USPS cannot compete with UPS, Federal Express, etc, why not let them take over postal delivery also. Comparing UPS and Fed Ex to the USPS is like comparing the pony express to the telegraph. Time to move on.

If we simplified the tax codes and subbed the mail out we would cut thousands of government jobs that exist only because that's the established way. Almost all government agencies are just as inefficient as the USPS they are just not held up to the light of day and scrtutinized often enough. If the USPS can't cut the mustard we have to move on.

 

[snoop]

 

[JohnnyMac]

The Postal Service is just that, a service. It is not supposed to make money. Demanding the USPS to break even is like demanding the US Navy to break even. I, for one, am happy to pay a few tax dollars to have the USPS at my disposal.

 

[snoop]

The Postal Service is just that, a service. It is not supposed to make money. Demanding the USPS to break even is like demanding the US Navy to break even. I, for one, am happy to pay a few tax dollars to have the USPS at my disposal.

Apple vs. Orange. In case you have not noticed, defense budget cut is coming and I have no doubt that US Navy would take a hit as well. A few extra dollar of your tax won't offset ongoing revenue losses to USPS as more people move to paperless environment. USPS needs to change its operation to be more efficient or they will die.

 

[Willie99]

They have to make changes to cut costs, but at the end of the day, the postal services are one of the few responsibilities given the federal government by the constitution. Thus, after waste is cut, it should be subsidized if need be.

 

[rolltide]

Apple vs. Orange. In case you have not noticed, defense budget cut is coming and I have no doubt that US Navy would take a hit as well. A few extra dollar of your tax won't offset ongoing revenue losses to USPS as more people move to paperless environment. USPS needs to change its operation to be more efficient or they will die.

exactly. yet they prefer to do nothing but whine and cry. i couldn't imagine the CEO or CFO of a major company sitting in front of the board saying that they're projecting, in February of the year, to lose $14B for the next 10.5 months and they plan to do nothing differently to change

 

[texansfan]

Post office makes a profit Congress won’t let it keep

Robin Beres’ Commentary column eloquently discussed the value of the U.S. Postal Service but incompletely depicted its financial status. Let me provide some context about an agency that doesn’t use a dime of taxpayer money and hasn’t for more than a quarter-century. Its revenue comes from selling its products and services.

USPS financial problems have little to do with delivering the mail. In the four fiscal years since 2007, despite the worst recession in 80 years, despite Internet diversion, revenues from postal operations exceeded costs by $611 million.

The problem lies elsewhere: the 2006 congressional mandate that the USPS pre-fund future retiree health benefits for the next 75 years, and do so within a decade — an obligation no other public agency or private firm faces. The more than $5 billion annual payments since 2007 — $21 billion total — are the difference between a positive and negative ledger. That’s the elephant in the room . . . not Saturday mail delivery, not labor costs — which have been declining for years. Postal management has consistently praised the unions for their cooperation.

Remove this onerous pre-funding and the Postal Service would have been profitable even during this economic downturn. But we’re not even asking that it be removed. What USPS management, unions and key Republican and Democratic legislators seek is to let the Postal Service stop depleting its operating funds to make these payments and instead allow an internal transfer of funds from its pension surpluses. This transfer, with zero taxpayer involvement, would leave pensions and retiree health benefits fully funded while restoring the USPS budget to financial soundness.

http://postalemployeenetwork.com/news/2011/08/post-office-makes-a-profit-congress-wont-let-it-keep/

 

[goode05]

^ thanks never knew that

 

[goode05]

Oh the humanity.

Love when Jerry had to deliver the mail for Newman! Damn they just don't make tv shows like that anymore

 

[roadreeler57]

Heres an idea to help the USPS.....Send other junk mail back to the junk mail senders in their own postage paid envelopes...

 

[rolltide]

nice to see the Post Office is reviewing my suggestions on therx poli forum...
(<)<

Postal Service Seeks 50-Cent Stamps to Prevent ‘Taxpayer Burden’



The U.S. Postal Service wants Congress to help it raise the price of a first-class stamp to 50 cents, an 11 percent increase, as part of its strategy to avoid annual losses as high as $18.2 billion by 2015.

The Washington-based agency included the increase in a five-year business plan released yesterday. In a separate letter to Congress, the service said U.S. taxpayers will have to cover losses if lawmakers don’t help it cut costs.

The letter and business plan reiterated proposals to cut billions of dollars a year in costs by ending Saturday mail delivery, closing facilities and pulling out of a health-care program for federal workers to manage its own benefits. Congress would have to approve some of those changes.

“In the context of the tremendous operating challenges facing the USPS, we believe the plan is comprehensive and balanced,” Lloyd Sprung, senior managing director of Evercore Partners Inc. (EVR), told reporters on a conference call. The service hired Evercore, a New York-based investment-banking firm, last year to provide restructuring advice,

“We believe the plan allows the USPS to preserve its mission while also becoming economically self-sustaining,” he said.

The service said last week it lost $3.3 billion in the quarter ended Dec. 31. It has forecast a $14.1 billion loss for the year ending Sept. 30.

“These prospective losses would be unsustainable and would cause the Postal Service to become a long-term burden to the American taxpayer,” the service said in its letter to Congress. “Such an outcome is highly undesirable and entirely avoidable.”

Postage Increases
The Postal Service says it would save $2.7 billion annually by cutting mail delivery to five days a week and $7.1 billion a year by managing its own health-care benefits.

Raising the price of a first-class stamp to 50 cents would raise $1 billion a year in new revenue, according to the plan.

Postage-rate increases now can’t exceed the rise in the consumer price index. The service wants to make the 5-cent increase over one or more years in addition to annual inflation- linked boosts, Chief Financial Officer Joseph Corbett said on the call.

“The U.S. today is by far the least expensive of any post in the world,” Corbett said. “Clearly we’re underpriced in that area for single-piece first-class, and we would like the ability to move that price up.”

 

[fletchisrhsm]

nice to see the Post Office is reviewing my suggestions on therx poli forum...
(<)<

Postal Service Seeks 50-Cent Stamps to Prevent ‘Taxpayer Burden’



The U.S. Postal Service wants Congress to help it raise the price of a first-class stamp to 50 cents, an 11 percent increase, as part of its strategy to avoid annual losses as high as $18.2 billion by 2015.

The Washington-based agency included the increase in a five-year business plan released yesterday. In a separate letter to Congress, the service said U.S. taxpayers will have to cover losses if lawmakers don’t help it cut costs.

The letter and business plan reiterated proposals to cut billions of dollars a year in costs by ending Saturday mail delivery, closing facilities and pulling out of a health-care program for federal workers to manage its own benefits. Congress would have to approve some of those changes.

“In the context of the tremendous operating challenges facing the USPS, we believe the plan is comprehensive and balanced,” Lloyd Sprung, senior managing director of Evercore Partners Inc. (EVR), told reporters on a conference call. The service hired Evercore, a New York-based investment-banking firm, last year to provide restructuring advice,

“We believe the plan allows the USPS to preserve its mission while also becoming economically self-sustaining,” he said.

The service said last week it lost $3.3 billion in the quarter ended Dec. 31. It has forecast a $14.1 billion loss for the year ending Sept. 30.

“These prospective losses would be unsustainable and would cause the Postal Service to become a long-term burden to the American taxpayer,” the service said in its letter to Congress. “Such an outcome is highly undesirable and entirely avoidable.”

Postage Increases
The Postal Service says it would save $2.7 billion annually by cutting mail delivery to five days a week and $7.1 billion a year by managing its own health-care benefits.

Raising the price of a first-class stamp to 50 cents would raise $1 billion a year in new revenue, according to the plan.

Postage-rate increases now can’t exceed the rise in the consumer price index. The service wants to make the 5-cent increase over one or more years in addition to annual inflation- linked boosts, Chief Financial Officer Joseph Corbett said on the call.

“The U.S. today is by far the least expensive of any post in the world,” Corbett said. “Clearly we’re underpriced in that area for single-piece first-class, and we would like the ability to move that price up.”

Good work. Now fix Medicare and SSI RT!

 

[snoop]

Raising price only force more businesses and individuals to move to paper-less environment faster.

USPS needs radical change, something like getting a license to open "USPS Federal Credit Union", then merge with Fannie & Freddie to handle all secondary mortgage market :grandmais