U.S. Postal Service posts $2.8B loss... may "Have" to cut one day's mail delivery.
 

I am really surprised that these guys have held on as long as they have delivering "Snail Mail" with the number of people now using email as their primary mail source.

After last year's $2.8 loss things aren't looking to good for this year either...
"If current trends continue, we could experience a net loss of $6 billion or more this fiscal year," Postmaste General Potter said in testimony for a Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs subcommittee.

Dan G. Blair, chairman of the Postal Regulatory Commission, noted...

"A revolution in the way people communicate has structurally changed the way America uses the mail," with a shift from first-class letters to the Internet for personal communications, billings, payments, statements and business correspondence.

WTF has this guy been living in a cave for the last 15 years :(

Full Story: http://finance.yahoo.com/news/Postma...-14185857.html

they need a bailout!!

Why not just slow down mail at the shippers? Instead of shipping/flying/trucking mail every day, slow it down until there's enough for a full shipment. So instead of being able to send a letter in 2-3 days across the country, it takes 4-5 days but keep every day delivery.
WG

It's not about living in a cave, it's simply that there isn't an easy solution...

Mail is something people take for granted... but nowdays they don't use it, only businesses use it. Maybe rise the price or something...

Funny that they always leave out the part about the interwebs increasing shipping volume on packages and other net order stuffs. Boohoo...

And fuel prices are down, so their costs on that are lower now.

lol ....everyone does .......

zillion buck bailout and new gold car :)

Most people use UPS and Fedex thought

that's really too bad, as a business owner who spends several thousands with USPS monthly i hope they get things worked out. i am a big fan of USPS

Best solution so far, and add in a boosted rate on getting it there quicker. Then up postage and bingo. Jumping a stamp 30 cents or so isn't going to kill anyone. If it does? Try emailing your Aunt Dorothy that Christmas fruit cake.

cut saturday, copy canada. Who really expects mail delivery on saturday?

The US has Saturday delivery? Wow. I never knew. Cut that day out asap.
WG

1st class mail is 5-7 days, priority mail is 2-3 days

My mail carrier already takes off on Wednesdays.

We never get mail on Wed, but there's always a TON on Thursday.

As far as I can tell from the "snail mail" that I have received the past few years it looks like the insurance companies/medical field and credit card companies have been keeping them in business.

Use to be not a day went by that either me, my wife or one of my kids was getting an offer for a new credit card but that has dwindled down to about two a week now.

As far as the insurance companies it still seems like I get the same thing mailed to me at least three times for every claim filed. Talk about inefficient. Only the U.S. government generates more mail than these guys.

:(

Um. If you are running a fucking loss. Cut your goddamn advertising and marketing budgets. :disgust

I do not need to see USPS sponsorship on cycling teams, or advertising on the television.

Not to mention when I moved, they have apparently partnered with endless magazine, and other offers. You get this whole pamphlet of crap you could or could not use. Cut back delivery. Cut some jobs, days from the delivery schedule. This is a government agency, and I can assure you that there is plenty of pork in there somewhere you can cut.

:2 cents:

I recall in 2000 that the US mail service talked about starting a e-mail system that would have been protected just like snail mail. in other words you would have had an address like [email protected] or what ever. Then if someone got into your mail it would have been a federal offense. They were going to charge a small fee.

They should have done it..

cutting marketing to solve things like this has proven to not work. restructuring logistics/operations/workforce makes more sense. there are typically 38-45 human touchpoints on a 1st class letter to get from point a to b

Ever think about how much the Post Master General makes???

Would you pay for such a service? I never would.
WG

i believe canada cut out saturday urban letter carrier delivery in 1969 ....

I dont think its UPS that have a problem is the USPS. UPS have clients like Amazon.com who send out millions or books each month. I think USPS should start chasing some big accounts like Amazon Shopnbc.com who must spend billions on mailing out stuff :2 cents:

Why dont the government give them a chunk of the billions they are dishing out then instead of taking a day off, fuck that.

I could do without saturday deliveries. Hell if I were waiting to get a check or something that I needed to deposit that day I wouldn't get it until after the bank was closed anyways. Don't worry though, they will pry just raise shipping costs once again.

my wife is going to be pissed she loves getting the mail. lol

I think before they decide to cut a day they need to assess what it will cost in "lost money" for businesses and such. I am convinced that having so many federal holidays where banks and Mail is closed for the day costs a lot of money to businesses and commerce. I would like to see some numbers on that.

And they are talking about cutting a Tuesday or a Wednesday as opposed to Saturday... I think that would be better. Take one day breaks as opposed to two day breaks.

They need to drop the price to compete, rip it 50% - 75%... I haven't sent a letter in my mailbox in years. If it wasn't for junk mail, I wouldn't need a mail box. Snail Mail - the only legal way to get spam.

Since they are part of the Gov, costs of oil, gas, cars, ect should be contracted in for years. Then they need to restructure to use our airports more and backbone off of other carriers.

Then go to one day a week mail, like trash service. If you want it more often, charge daily like the paper.

The more they charge, the more they go out of business. It's a very clear pattern to follow.

Arnt they the most common shipper for ebay people, and I think they also have netflix right?

I do know they need some sort of sorting fix. If I mail a letter to pay my electric bill (located in town) the mail actually leaves town and then comes back.

I also know many people really squeeze them hard on both media mail and the flat rate boxes. Like borderline abuse.

Charge 80 cents for a stamp... Problem solved.

The United States Postal Service is operated by an autonomous public corporation that replaced the Post Office Department in 1971.

their prices are ridiculously low in comparison to any of the other carriers.

Sending a letter than is 50 cents or whatever the hell it is, is far from cheap. Weight + time vs cost, it's very expensive. Now the cheap package service they have, is kick ass if you don't mind waiting half a month for your package, if you get lucky.

Any of the normal package services, are as cheap, often cheaper, and are at least twice as fast. So even at a dollar or two more, the cost on time is still cheaper.

that's just completely incorrect. i ship more than 1000 parcels per month with USPS (up to 2000 some months) and have been doing business with them at this level for almost 6 years now. they consistently ship prioorty mail on time and always cheaper than fed ex or ups for 2-3 day service. UPS calls me ~1x every 6 months or so wanting my business, their rep drops by my warehouse and i ask him to match USPS pricing and i will switch. they cannot.

and their international shipping is just as accurate and 2-3x cheaper than UPS.

Any government that would not subsidize snail mail is insane.

If you think we have a recession now then jacked mail service will show you what
a recession really is.

If we can spend $500 billion in Iraq then we have the billions to keep the mail moving.

Fuck a auto industry bail out, keep the mail moving.

Further, cutting mail service means layoff for mail carriers. Do we need to lose more
jobs? No we don't.

They did that once . . . .wasn't well received.

Everyone is going to jump on the bailout bandwagon.

My experience with postal workers is that 5 out of 6 are dumb and lazy. Just maybe if they hired some people with brains they would be more cost efficient. I spent almost an hour waiting on line with 8 people in front of me...no wonder they are losing money.

My friend is a mgr at one of the post offices...and really can't yell or threaten to report anyone....because then the workers report the mgr. and he can get fired. So he needs to take shit from these low lifes. I said you should not have dropped out of law school. :1orglaugh

Get WalMart to come in and stream line it.

Eliminate human's, and start assigning everyone in America a bar code system. You can pay your postage online, and print out mailing labels with bar codes eliminating hand processing.

Offer cheaper postage for those that do it. Over time, problem solved.

:2 cents:

If the government would actually start forcing their fleets of cars for all government, fed and state, to hybrids, solar, etc. Then car companies would actually take the government seriously on this whole "green" thing.

:2 cents:

I've thought this numerous times. The federal government alone purchases tens of thousands of vehicles every month... what about state, county, city etc. etc. etc.

I've also wondered... if the government gives, say $5 billion in research money to car companies to establish a more energy efficient car. Do they get a discount on purchasing said car after it is created?

The government has tremendous power... good power, in influence... they should use their influence more as opposed to demands.

because the employees are so slow most of the time

They already get huge discounts.

My old college roomie works for homeland security. He has told me about many things the 'G' gets for steep discounts... cars, hotel, flights, and so on. Not to mention some of the added benefits on said things.

I can understand it. For the reasons you point out. They have many employees, and purchasing power. However, as I said, if the government actually committed to the military, and ALL branches of government going 'green'. There would be some major fucking changes.
:2 cents:

That is the beautiful thing about being a Federal employee (not all, but most). You can only be fired essentially one of two ways.

1. You do not report for work for 6 months.
2. An act of Congress.

:disgust

Welcome to now.

That statement pretty much sums up just how out of touch with reality our government is. The postal service is just NOW catching onto this new revolution called the internet?

Wait until they find out there are two of them. :1orglaugh

i agree with the comments re: the postal employees. very slow, unionized, etc. virtually impossible to get fired from there. i use click & ship for our domestic shipments, we go online and create labels, print them and drop off on the dock at the local center but international makes more sense to take them to the center and have them processed. the employees are generally nice, esp. after they get to know you but they are all very slow.

they have a remarkably well thought out service called click & ship. it works off a database of every viable shipping address in the united states and runs in real-time. quite impressive.

and it prices shipments at a slight discount over counter transactions at the post office.

fuck USPS those assholes are useless. Anything that can be paid online gets paid online the rest via phone. 99% of the mail I get is crap anyway.

I can't remember the last time I even touched a stamp.

They should do anything but cut a day. Hell, I wish both the post office and banks were open 7 days a week. They're the lifeblood of business.

Seriously? Wow... have never gotten mail on a Saturday. Stooopid. :2 cents:

I have been thinking the same thing for years. Every time I see a USPS ad on tv or a huge billboard at a ballpark it makes me laugh. There are so many ways this monopoly could cut costs and add creative services without building new infrastructure. Unfortunately government agencies love wasting money and keeping things status quo.

The counter workers are also more interested in their lunch break or shutting down the window gate at the end of the day than helping a line of 15 people trying to use their services. I want to say that DMV workers probably move quicker then these people.

The government is about controlling their budgets and theifdoms. Nothing else. Case in point, the road commissions on the state level. The military on the Federal level. Followed by the DEA, and on and on.

A lot of pork, and big budgets going to agencies who's 'success' is marginal and open to interpretation at best. If you knew about how the CIA/FBI/Homeland Security/Customs work together, or do not. That would burn you even more.

The whole point of this new bloated bureaucracy (H.L.S.) was to get ALL intelligence centralized. It isn't. It's the same as before. FBI/CIA/HLS.... none of them work together. All think the other is going to steal credit for their shit, and so forth. Fucking ridiculous. Now you just have the S.S. (HLS) waiting to goose step down Michigan Ave. Which seems to be their real function.

:disgust

There have been some interesting documentaries on this type of stuff. Especially when it comes to the Pentagon, and DEA. Their budgets, and insane amount of government waste.

delivery 6 days a week is a huge pain in the ass, especially as employees only work 5 days a week and you have to have a huge group of employees covering their days off..

the most cost effective way is to cancel saturday delivery and let the delivery employees work M-F....the draw back is delivery volume would be a little higher on Monday and thus a small amount of overtime may occur...

the larger question is what are you going to do with the surplus employees that would result from going to 5 day delivery....in most cases they would be federal employess, so they would be expensive to get rid of...a hiring freeze and expedited buyouts/retirements would be required and that takes years to work through the system...