Agency faces losses and a deep financial crisis
WASHINGTON — The post office wants to increase the price of a stamp by 2 cents to 46 cents starting in January. The agency has been battered by massive losses and declining mail volume and faces a financial crisis.
Postal officials announced a wide-ranging series of proposed price increases Tuesday, averaging about 5 percent, and covering first class, advertising mail, periodicals, packages and other services.
The request now goes to the independent Postal Rate Commission which has 90 days to respond. If approved, the increase would take effect Jan. 2.
"The Postal Service faces a serious risk of financial insolvency," postal vice president Stephen M. Kearney said.
Kearney said the agency is facing a $7 billion loss in 2011. The rate increase will bring in an extra $2.5 billion, meaning it still faces a $4.7 billion loss.
The rate increase is part of a series of money-saving plans announced in March. These also include reducing mail deliveries to five days a week, closing offices and making other cuts in expenses. Congress must agree to eliminating deliveries on Saturdays.
While the cost of a first-class stamp would go up to 46 cents, people who bought "Forever" stamps at lower prices will still be able to use them for first-class mail without paying the difference.
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15 comments:
As a spouse of a local Postmaster let me share this with you.The Post Office makes an employee from every Post Office go to each office every Saturday to do a computer entry that their mail was picked up by the trucks that do this.This is 2 hours of overtime or straight time in some cases,for each Post Office I assume in the US.How much does this cost in wasted dollars each year,not to mention the person who has to wait around at home and then drive back to do this entry.I mailed a parcel to Japan a couple of weeks ago that weighed 2 pounds and it was 40.00--how much more can they increase the rates?
why do they keep messing with this? make it $0.50 or even $0.60 and be done with it for a while. if they screw it up after that, too bad!
maybe Obama will bail them out
If thats what it takes DO IT .
Ask any businessman(or woman), moving to a 5 day delivery schedule will only further erode businesses from using the USPS. In todays 24/7/365 world, a 5 day schedule just won't work. They will continue to lose more revenue if they go down this path.
The Postal Service needs a total re-engineering. They were originally designed to be delivering primarily letters but the market has shifted to parcel delivery with fewer letters. Too make up for the shortfall in First Class letter revenue, they have shifted into selling their services to the advertising market. That is their boat anchor. If you look at UPS and FEDEX, they use large delivery vehicles, and fewer delivery people. They can do this because they don't need to stop at every address. FEDEX might deliver to 500 addresses over a large area but the Postal employee has to stop at 500 contiguous addresses because all must get a copy of the local grocery flyer. Without significant capitol investment, they can never be fixed. Their delivery fleet is too small to handle any significant increase in parcels and God help the Rural carriers who must drive from the wrong side of a car. The USPS could eliminate all but First Class mail and, like FEDEX, deliver to 500 addresses (skipping those that don't have any First Class deliveries. The delivery route would be longer but there would be fewer delivery people needed. As for the larger parcels, outsource that to FEDEX, UPS, or other commercial delivery businesses.
This is ridiculous! They want to CUT more services but yet they still want to RAISE the rate!
I'm so sick of this BS!
I'm glad I've changed to paying more and more of my bills online!!!
The Postal Service is the greatest deal in the world. If they charged a dollar for first class stamps, it would still be a great deal.
Ask any local kid to run an errand or pick up something from the store. They want $10....$5 for gas & $5 for their trouble. For less than 50 cents, the postal service will deliver your letter anywhere in the continental U.S. in 3 days or less...Now that's a fuc*&in bargain!!!
Here we go again.
It just never stops.
3:34 - That's part of the problem. They TELL you they'll deliver something in 3 days or less but when was the last time you mailed something that needed to get there in 3 or less and it didn't make it?
We sent something overnight a couple of months ago, paid the overnight fee and it took it FIVE DAYS - from Maryland to Wilmington DELAWARE!
So don't tell me it's a bargain!
Amen 3:34!!!
4:15,
Sorry for your bad experience. Honestly, for the last 15 years, I have been bad about waiting till the last minute to send payments. I send off about 10 bills a month with 3 days to get there. I've never had even one cost me a late fee for not being there on time. So my experience has been that it is an excellent deal and reliable service.
If you paid for overnight delivery and it didn't get there, I think the post office must refund your money if you saved your receipt.
I'm amazed at how efficient and reliable the postal service is. Of course, I'm amazed that I have a phone that fits in the palm of my hand, it has no cord, can play music, go on the internet, and take & send excellent pictures....how T F can we do that and we can't drill safely for oil?
All the top executives from British Petroleum should be executed in public! They had many more procedure and safety violations than all the other oil companies combined last year...now we are all paying a terrible price for their sloppiness!!
That's it, take away our Easton hub and charge us more for less. Brilliant!
How about charging first class postage rate to the companies that send me all the junk mail that I get. The junk mail never makes it past the garbage can on the way up my driveway fromt he mailbox but we all subsidize the "bulk mail" rate for these people.
5:28-Ask anyone who runs a business. I have(and not the type of businesses closed for the weekends or on sundays, I'm not referring to Mom n Pop type shops). The fact is, a business is not going to waste their time or their (perspective) clients time going through a postal service that only runs 5 days a week. I'm a fiscally conservative type of guy, but I have family members that are plant managers of large manufacturing facilities. Who, once they heard of this, began switching over all of their mailings. Businesses don't have time to waste, and why use the USPS when you can use a round the clock delivery service, without the down time, that will cater to your business for your business. The best way to attract more people to use the USPS isn't by cutting down service, all that will do is make other delivery services more attractable. And hey, nothing wrong with a sensible discussion.
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