US Post Office, 2010 losses at 8.5 Billion

[Team Sergeant]

US Post Office, 2010 losses at 8.5 Billion.

Our government is a joke. It's time to put the US Post Office in private hands.

Wait until obamacare starts, the losses will be in the trillions.

How's that for hope and change.


Postal Service Eyes Closing Thousands of Post Offices
Published January 24, 2011
The Wall Street Journal


HOLMES MILL, Ky.—The U.S. Postal Service plays two roles in America: an agency that keeps rural areas linked to the rest of the nation, and one that loses a lot of money.

Now, with the red ink showing no sign of stopping, the postal service is hoping to ramp up a cost-cutting program that is already eliciting yelps of pain around the country. Beginning in March, the agency will start the process of closing as many as 2,000 post offices, on top of the 491 it said it would close starting at the end of last year. In addition, it is reviewing another 16,000—half of the nation's existing post offices—that are operating at a deficit, and lobbying Congress to allow it to change the law so it can close the most unprofitable among them. The law currently allows the postal service to close post offices only for maintenance problems, lease expirations or other reasons that don't include profitability.

The news is crushing in many remote communities where the post office is often the heart of the town and the closest link to the rest of the country. Shuttering them, critics say, also puts an enormous burden on people, particularly on the elderly, who find it difficult to travel out of town.

The postal service argues that its network of some 32,000 brick-and-mortar post offices, many built in the horse-and-buggy days, is outmoded in an era when people are more mobile, often pay bills online and text or email rather than put pen to paper. It also wants post offices to be profitable to help it overcome record $8.5 billion in losses in fiscal year 2010.http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2011/01/24/postal-service-eyes-closing-thousands-post-offices/?test=latestnews

[mojaveman]

Other than just letters I stopped using the U.S. Postal service years ago. The private postal businesses provide better and more services.

[ZonieDiver]

At the least, home delivery should be cut back to not more than four days per week.

Better yet, let Domino's, Pizza Hut, Papa John's, et al deliver the mail along with the pizzas every seems to buy. (I actually suggested contracting the 2010 Census to these organizations in my AAR of Census 2000... and got no reply...nor a re-hire offer :D)

[1stindoor]

I just finished reading that article on the WSJ website this morning. Sadly, it's not news, the USPS has been bleeding cash for a long time. A good object lesson in government subsidized entities with no competition.

My suggestion would be: 1) cut down delivery to your home to 3 or 4 days; other than that you could still go to the main office and pick up if you were so inclined; 2) start shutting down the smaller offices...yes I know ma and pa kettle still drive down to the one on the corner and worry that they'll be disconnected from the rest of the world but we had those same worries with pony express, telegraphs, etc.

[rubberneck]

My mailwoman won't deliver mail if she has to get out of her truck. On occasion the garbageman will throw the empty garbage can in front of the mailbox making it impossible for the postal carrier to pull right up to the mail box, on the days that happens I don't get my mail.

When I asked her why she said it was in her union contract. I called the postmaster to complain and he confirmed that it is in their contract that mounted routes don't have to get out of their truck unless they have an item that requires a signature. He also told me that they are not allowed to back up either so if they can pull into deliver the mail but there isn't enough space to pull out straight ahead they won't deliver either. With that sort of approach to doing their job I am not surprised that they are bloated and inefficient.

Almost all of my bills and statements are done online and any package that I need to be shipped goes UPS or Fedex. I think I buy one roll of stamps every six months or so at this point. If I could I'd stop using them altogether.

[Sohei]

My mailwoman won't deliver mail if she has to get out of her truck. On occasion the garbageman will throw the empty garbage can in front of the mailbox making it impossible for the postal carrier to pull right up to the mail box, on the days that happens I don't get my mail.

When I asked her why she said it was in her union contract. I called the postmaster to complain and he confirmed that it is in their contract that mounted routes don't have to get out of their truck unless they have an item that requires a signature. He also told me that they are not allowed to back up either so if they can pull into deliver the mail but there isn't enough space to pull out straight ahead they won't deliver either. With that sort of approach to doing their job I am not surprised that they are bloated and inefficient.

Almost all of my bills and statements are done online and any package that I need to be shipped goes UPS or Fedex. I think I buy one roll of stamps every six months or so at this point. If I could I'd stop using them altogether.

That contract is absolutely sad. It's also one of the reasons why they are hurting so bad. Like many others, I have just about completely quit using them for anything except a letter or two. They will just continue to fall deeper into debt IMO. Last month they shut one of our offices down and the mail has already began to fall way behind, not to mention, 50% of the mail I receive is not mine.

[MVP]

I really really hate USPS. That said, I find them much easier to deal with than the others when it comes to shipping long guns. I have had USPS clerks try to invent new requirements but have always been able to surmount the obstacle employee by going to the Post Master and asking them to show me the new requirement in writing.

MVP

[1stindoor]

I really really hate USPS. That said, I find them much easier to deal with than the others when it comes to shipping long guns. I have had USPS clerks try to invent new requirements but have always been able to surmount the obstacle employee by going to the Post Master and asking them to show me the new requirement in writing.

MVP

Doesn't that make you an Enabler...when the guys go "postal?":D

[GratefulCitizen]

The Page UPS hub now delivers more pieces to the post office than any other single stop.
They even passed Walmart.

Many parcels you recieve from the USPS will have tracking codes for them and for us.
It's cheaper for them to use UPS than to use their own distribution system.

[Richard]

I use the USPS and haven't had any issues with it.

...it is in their contract that mounted routes don't have to get out of their truck unless they have an item that requires a signature.

Certainly isn't that way around here...and our carrier leaves larger envelopes and packages on the front porch like UPS/FEDEX. A couple of years ago during a windy day after a lengthy drought period, there was a fire several miles away and the wind carried hot embers which spread throughout the neighborhood and started roof fires on several houses with cedar shake shingles. Our mailman, a retired Army MSG, saw what was happening, notified the fire department, and started fighting one of the fires with a garden hose - saving the house and several others. We all threw a neighborhood party for him and collected $$ to send him on a vacation as a way of saying 'Thanks' from our community. We also had a big party for him and collected $$ to present to him when he retired last year. Our new mailman is of a similar personality - I can't imagine what we'd do to somone like your carrier who won't get out of the vehicle...but there are lots of large oak trees around here and plenty of good ropes available.

From the 2010 USPS Strategic Plan for 2010:

The Postal Service responded with aggressive cost reductions, producing $6.0 billion savings in 2009 and another $3 billion this year. It used 75 million fewer work hours in 2010, 6.0 percent fewer than last year. However, the savings were insufficient to counter continuing declines in mail volume combined with the obligation to pay $5.5 billion to prefund future retiree health benefits and a $2.5 billion charge that resulted from discount rate and actuarial changes on the Postal Service’s workers’ compensation liability.

The Postal Service has communicated to Congress and all stakeholders that it expects current trends to continue. Without fundamental changes to its
existing business model, cumulative losses could reach $238 billion by 2020.

To help prevent this outcome, in March the Postal Service published Ensuring a Viable Postal Service for America, a 10-year plan that provides a conceptual framework to address its financial viability issues for the longer term. The
plan was the product of more than a year of dialogue with members of Congress, the Administration, the business community, employee groups, and the general public. Supporting the effort were three consultants — Accenture, The Boston Consulting Group, and McKinsey & Company — whose analyses were incorporated in the action plan.

The plan proposes changes in two areas. First, it outlines a series of actions within management’s control — in product and service initiatives, productivity, workforce improvements, and purchasing savings. These will reduce projected net losses by a cumulative $123 billion. To eliminate the remaining $115 billion in projected losses through 2020, the plan identifies seven areas where legal changes are needed — in retiree health benefits prefunding, delivery frequency, access, workforce flexibility, pricing, product offerings, and oversight.

Since the plan was introduced in March, Congress has held several hearings and the Government Accountability Office (GAO) issued a report containing recommendations on the postal business model. Progress has been made in several public policy areas outlined in the plan, most of which is included in draft legislation sponsored by Senator Thomas Carper. Descriptions and updates of necessary legislative and regulatory changes follow.

http://www.usps.com/strategicplanning/cs10/CSPO__12_2010.pdf

And so it goes...

Richard :munchin

[Cynic]

I feel the urge to defend the USPS simply because it originated as a way to support an informed populace, an adjunct to the infrastructure, which is essential to a healthy Republic. Aside from national defense, there isn’t much more the federal government should be involved in, IMHO.

Unfortunately, the USPS ceased to keep up with the technology and became unionized. Now, it no longer performs a function necessary to our Republic and has become irrelevant. Although, it does allow for uncensored communication unlike the airwaves and Internet. :munchin

[Monsoon65]

I work for the USPS. At times, it's as bad as it seems.

When I started there in 1996, Marvin Runyon started as the Postmaster General after leaving Coca Cola. Before he arrived, any profit that was made by the PO was put back into the PO for modernization, etc.

Once he started, tho, he decided that the profit should be divided amongst the corporate wheeler-dealers and supervisors. So much for modernization.

In my opinion, the PO was not doing well before he arrived, but that sure didn't help things. They are starting to close smaller offices, planning on cutting back delivery days (and I don't think anyone I asked their opinion about this seemed to mind), etc, but we are still bleeding money. I work in what's called Maintenance Control (think supply and Job Control combined). Our inventory went from about a million dollars to something like $30,000. Parts aren't being used, why spend the money on stocking them? If needed, we'll order them when needed.

Of course, the supervisors, etc, sure are giving up their bonuses.

Here's a good example of one of the recent screwups that's costing money. We had to have our employee parking lot repainted. The lines were faded. OK, no problem, it needs to be done. So, they repainted all the lines over two weekends.

About a week or so after, they blocked off 1/4 of the parking lot. They decided to make it a drivers test area for the PO. Yep, you guessed it; the freshly painted lines in that area were painted over in black paint.

Now, don't tell me that the redesignation of that part of the lot was something that was just thought up that day. They knew about it, but it was just a case of the right hand not knowing what the left hand is doing.

The supervisors and management in the PO are the "worse case" examples that any one of us read about while going thru PME at one time or another.

I don't know about going private; as someone said, who would buy the Post Office?? And we really aren't under complete government control. I think the Government only claims the PO when it's in their best interest.