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Wednesday, November 16, 2011

The Postal Service Says It Lost $5.1 Billion Last Year



It's less than the $10 billion in losses previously estimated. But that's only because an annual payment of $5.5 billion the post office owed the federal government was deferred. It's now due this Friday, and postal leaders say they may still not be able to make the payment. A weak economy and increased use of the Internet has driven down mail volume. Postal officials called the financial situation "dire." Postmaster General Patrick Donahoe has warned of a postal shutdown next year unless there is congressional action to help the agency's long-term money problems.

Publishers Notes: SHUT IT DOWN! If it were ANY other private business losing that kind of money they would have shut down long ago.

9 comments:

Anonymous said...

They lose money because the government regulates them in a way so that they can't make the necessary cuts and changes.

They want to reduce their costs, but the government won't let them. The answer is not SHUT IT DOWN but rather LET THEM DO THEIR JOB.

Anonymous said...

Wow Joe, way to support local businesses. It does not need to be shutdown, it needs to be reorganized correctly, the way they are going about it is all wrong.

Anonymous said...

I agree with the Publishers Notes. If it WERE any other business it would of been closed without anyone having any say. If it's not closed rates will go up again which they have already said is coming. Stop Saturday delivery. My mail is delivered six days a week. If all the junk mail and local menus were to stop I would only receive mail approximately once a week. It's amazing how much junk mail I have thrown away each month. Why do local places send out menus more than once a month? If the menu hasn't changed there is no need to mail them out so often. It's just my opinion. Thank you.

Cathy said...

i was at a post office in salisbury the other day. i won't say which one, but i will say that the postal employee is one of the nicest ones i've EVER had the pleasure of dealing with. and I've dealt with this person on more than one occasion.

i was standing in line and these 2 young guys were trying to mail something. they had it all packaged up and their total was close to $20. now the postal employee, being NICE, suggested to them to put their stuff in a flat rate package, which would ship for just a little over $10. as a consumer, this is very appreciated. this has happened to me too and i was very greatful.

but with all the talk recently of the post office losing all this money and possibly shutting down, i couldn't help but think to myself "those guys were willing to pay the almost $20 to ship their stuff and now the USPS is missing out on like $9 because of a caring employee."

its a double edge sword if you look at it from both sides. there are approx 31,000 post offices in the US. if each one of those post offices had a transaction like this just once per week, that'd be $279,000 that they were saying goodbye to.

now i do think its different if a person goes in there and asks what their cheapest way to mail something is, but these guys had their package ready to go.

just a thought...

Unknown said...

1:02 PM has the answer.

The USPS is spending all this time (and money) trying to figure out how to keep doing what they are doing and not lose money. Fact is, they can't. The objective should be to figure out what is it they can do in the way of a service and not lose money. Spending money on Ads that claim your Utility Bill may get a virus if emailed is both silly and stupid. If USPS cannot find a way of not losing money, then outsourcing should be looked at in the same way it has in other Government organizations.

Anonymous said...

you have the union to thank for that

Anonymous said...

5:58 PM

What I was thinking also.

Anonymous said...

Retirement and pension plans were promised to veterans (who became Postal Workers) but the money was never saved. ie. The government lied to the Postal Workers.

People were tempted into jobs under government control instead of private sector jobs - but the government made promises that the private sector could not deliver. As it turns out - the government could not deliver either (or did not deliver).

It is simple criminal fraud

Anonymous said...

Shut it down. Currently, the USPS is calling on cuts of about 225K workers, and closing a couple thousand offices. But guess what? That still won't get them out of the red. They make their money off of junk mail, I for one am sick of the junk mail I get everyday. Why continue a system that has become nothing but a real life spam folder?