USPS Facts
 

Neither snow nor rain nor heat nor gloom of night stays these couriers from the swift completion of their appointed rounds. Many of us have clear childhood memories of that mailman.
People are spewing wildly inaccurate statements. USPS is losing money now, but not for the reasons most often claimed. USPS did not use any tax dollars for years. The steep drop in mail volume and laws/rules from congress are like a python squeezing the air out of USPS. Amazon and Vote-By-Mail are not suddenly spiking a need for capital.
Mail Volume (The Volume Falls but the Fixed Costs Remain)
• Internet banking and email resulted in a massive (-33%) reduction in first class mail, marketing mail (-7.5%) in the past decade (severe revenue loss)
• COVID-19 caused an enormous drop in advertising revenue, including mail for USPS (marketing mail -36.4%) (severe revenue loss)
• Package volume including Amazon helps revenue. By law, USPS cannot offer package discounts at a loss (Amazon and other online sellers are paying their lawful share on the books). Package costs will go up after the next regulatory update of overhead allocations.

Congress/Regulator Laws and Rules (forced USPS to comply with rules no competitor has)
• They require USPS to deliver mail to everybody, rural or not, at the same price.
• USPS cannot just raise or fix prices (regulatory review required). Until 1970 it was a regular, tax supported agency of the federal government.
• There are many cost-saving actions that USPS is not allowed to take. For example, regulations prohibit them from buying and operating their own fleet of airplanes (to save money like FedEx/UPS do), weren’t allowed to cut Saturday deliveries.
• In 2006, USPS was given 10 years to fund retiree healthcare for 40(+) years in advance (NPV). The law took cash that should have funded more automation and efficiencies. No other firm or government agency has to do this. USPS defaults started in 2012.

Postmaster General (PMG) Actions (Making Mail Slower)
• Forbes reports that PMG dismantled and removed over 600 sorting machines, which each process 35,000 pieces of mail per hour. Forget any claim of innocence you may hear.
• PMG prohibited overtime and (replacement) hiring despite staffing shortages from COVID-19.
• Former Attorney General, Eric Holder said that anyone who “willfully obstructs or retards the passage of the mail” can face fines and imprisonment of up to six months.

Additional Remarks:
• USPS bankruptcy would damage people and businesses. People depend on delivery of prescriptions, social security checks, and legal documents and much more.
• Only USPS is set up to deliver your mail (not FedEx, UPS or anybody else). Almost all countries have government run postal systems. USPS has been with us since Ben Franklin became the first Postmaster General in 1775.

It’s elementary, Dear Watson. We have found the contract killer. Now we must uncover the suborner. Let’s follow the money and see who would profit by privatizing the post office.

The PMG would profit by seeing the USPS destroyed. He and his wife have heavy investments in competitors - and used to be the CEO of one of them (XPO Logistics).

If the USPS fails, his investments could quadruple within a month.

some of the nicest people I've come across in my life have been folks working for the USPS

The U.S. Postal Service should not be a business

"There was no hard economic reason for hiving the Postal Service off from general government funding. Nevertheless, this division became the conceptual basis for treating the U.S. Postal Service as a market participant, same as a private business, that needs to keep its finances in the black.

Except the Postal Service wasn't really transformed into the equivalent of a market firm: It's still required to provide mail service to every corner of the country, for one thing. Its private rivals — FedEx, UPS, Amazon, etc. — are under no such obligation.

If you live out in the rural hinterlands, and providing you service isn't profitable, those companies simply don't run delivery routes out to you. Only the U.S. Postal Service does."


Our postal system is a service to our country and like in most other developed nations, shouldn't have to pay for itself any more than any other governmental agency (USDA, DOT, FEMA, military, Etc.).

Our grandchildren will profit by bringing USPS to cost neutral regardless of Ben Franklin's involvement. Yearly cost over runs are being added to national debt we all know we are not paying, our grandchildren are. You imply the USPS service is being treated unfairly due to being forced to fund future retiree healthcare cost. All public service retirement plans should be mandated to do this. We have become dependent on spending more than we take in with taxes and are very comfortable with letting next generations worry about it. USPS needs to be brought into 21st century. IMHO

It should plan to more or less break even. The effiiencies now in it should be fixed with the money coming from congress and stop having to fund pensions so far in advance or even stop the pensions altogether and let people have 401 or IRA's like most of us

I wish people would stop saying that the USPS delivers Social Security checks. They don't. All payments are made by direct deposit. It's mandatory.

Playing politics with the postal service is shameful.

In so many ways the post office is incredibly inefficient. It should be brought up to date to meet 21st century needs not continue on its current path.

I'm just glad that our bills are mailed with the USPS, and not sent via FedEx or UPS. The bill itself would increase in cost every month, because instead of 55 cents (or less for bulk mailing) the utility would be paying over $8 per household per month, JUST to send the bill.

And then if you want to send your payment by mail, instead of paying 55 cents, you'd have to pay over $8. For every single bill you choose to pay by mail.

And that's just bills. Imagine if you choose to subscribe to a paper magazine, without the USPS to deliver it to you. The cost to FedEx it to you is more than the cost of the magazine.

Without the USPS - our lives would be significantly and profoundly different from how they are now, and most people don't even think about how much we rely on the postal service, and that 55 cents per envelope.

Sorry, that’s not true
 

Although 99% accurate, there are still 500k checks mailed every month under a few programs.

None the less, stupid time to be cutting, wait till pandemic has subsided.

Usps
 

This is really about voting by mail--whether via an absentee ballot, which has existed for decades, or by the newer form of vote-by-mail. Why the concern? Just mail your ballot soon enough to get to its destination on time! This is not rocket surgery or brain science; it's just common sense. Duh!

Not even the garbage companies come to your house for $0.55

It's hard to imagine the politicians have screwed up yet another thing that was working fine. 99% how the problem is a law requiring pensions be fully funded for USPS. We will have heard about Amazon getting a great deal for delivery packages but do you know until this year the international Postal Union then we belong to required us to accept Chinese mailed packages for as low as $0.50 going 12,000 miles to our homes but our own postage a 1000 times more going to China???

Pony Express motto:
"The mail must go through"
and it still does.
Thanks to all postal workers!

Who uses "snail mail" to pay bills? It's much more efficient to pay on line and not have to worry about your mail getting there late or being lost.

The USPS is just another example of a poorly managed Gov run business. The Gov. should keep it's nose out of business, since it has no clue how to manage any form of business efficiently.

95% of the mail delivered is junk mail that goes right into the trash > then landfill.

The PO needs to charge more for Junk mail
Stop amazon deliveries that lose money

PO needs total overhaul & 75% reduction in size.
It’s not the 1800’s
We have internet mail & Bill delivered
PO is horse & buggy it’s time has pasted

Without the post office our lives would be profoundly different?

How?

I wouldn't even notice.

I haven't sent a payment by mail in at least 10 years.

I occasionally get a check in the mail and that's only because there was a fee for a direct payment. Eliminate the USPS and those fees would disappear.

Sure, I get Amazon deliveries by the mail, those would flip over to the Amazon truck or Fedex/UPS.

If I need to send someone money, it's Paypal, Venmo or Zelle.

Just because YOU haven't caught up to technology, doesn't mean there are no alternatives to the post office.

Sure, we could hail it's passing with a flag and a monument, just make sure the first 50 feet are straight sided and sheer or some woke doofass will try to pull it down.

Spot on!!!

I agree, the US Post Office is a vital service and should not be tampered with. When I was in the military during the Viet Nam war, we used to send classified documents by registered mail, that is how safe and dependable our mail service is. The US postal service does an amazing job and should not be used as a political tool by any party.

Believe it or not, it’s not just ABOUT YOU!!!! There are millions of people in this country who depend on the USPS. MILLIONS who receive their medication through the USPS. MILLIONS who receive paychecks, necessary packages, legal documents, etc. through the USPS.

People like you need to learn a lesson in this world....there are other people living here other than you and you are not the be all and end all. Wake up.

post office break even
 

if it was your pension you would want it funded properly.

Can people please stop "reply with a quote". We all read the long article and it doesn't need to be reposted over and over again

Bills in the mail
 

I get ALL my bills sent to me electronically through e-mail, with the exception of the Villages Utilities. I can see that bill coming by e-mail in the future. Also pay all my bills electronically, so the USPS is not involved in any way. That is one reason the USPS is doing less first class mail as “paperless billing” is becoming more prevalent.

Millions of people who don't have internet service. Thousands of people who don't have electricity (and therefore no method of powering their devices or even charging them).

Maybe a visit to the Ocala Forest would do you some good. You'll learn something new.

As a retired 25 year Postal employee I can say as a fact that my actual pension is peanuts. The bulk of my retirement is from my investing as much as possible into the Thrift Savings plan which is a 401K. Most of my actual pension goes into paying for my medical insurance.

That junk mail is why you only have to pay 55 cents to mail a 1-ounce standard envelope anywhere in this country.
Amazon deliveries are why the Postal Service is still up and running at all. Without their revenue they would have shut down a few years ago.

Millions of people still rely on the postal service to deliver and send actual mail. Not everyone has internet service, not everyone even lives in an area where internet service is available - even if they could afford to have a computer, laptop, tablet, or smartphone to receive and send mail and other communication.

Some segments of this country are "off the grid." The USPS is their lifeline to the outside world.

Amazon chooses to use the USPS for some of their deliveries because of a monumental savings in shipping fees. That is WHY you can get 2-day delivery free if you're a Prime member. The cost for their UPS, FedEx, and Amazon-owned deliveries is offset by the low price of USPS deliveries.

If they didn't have USPS deliver much of their envelopes and small packages, there would be NO free delivery at all for MOST packages shipped by Amazon.

Also, FedEx, UPS, and DHL services don't ship to certain locations at all. USPS is required to ship to every single address in the USA. People living in rural areas where FedEx doesn't cover - rely on USPS to get things to them.

I agree with that statement as fact, at least in our lives-count 2 towards that statistic.
However, the statements of every month Deposit comes by USPS, they insist to deliver the statements every month by USPS mail.

Now, there are medications that doctors prescribe, like Florida Cancer specialists that do come by mail, you have no choice, according to their policy. So how many other doctors offices insist on certain specialty meds must be delivered via mail!? We found this out the hard way. So those policies must be changed! - give us a choice, instead of no choice.

I agree. Look at the historic records.. the gov can’t do it right!

Maybe they could let you get it via FedEx delivery. It's only an extra $8.50 per package (unless it's far away, then it's more).

Sure you might pay more for shipping than the value of the contents of the bubble envelope, but hey - let's just gut the USPS so that the Postmaster General's wife gets a nice fat dividend check from her investments in FedEx.

Is there another pension in this country that was funded like this is?

"Playing politics with the postal system is shameful." So true. Especially when the current Administration IS IN THE PROCESS of making it much more efficient and responsive. A lot more than previous "talkers" !

One of the most inefficient arms of government
 

the Post Office is the most inefficiently run business in Government, why do you think made UPS, FedEx, and others successful, better faster delivery And a much better business model. Remember at one time they did not exist, a good business person would not allow it and would become more competitive and efficient.
USPS is inefficient and loaded with PORK, in any town you have several post offices, reduce them, pay mail carriers a per mile allowance for use of their vehicles, Instead of paying $45,000 plus for the vehicles it uses, new sorting equipment, eliminate double staffing at some of the Post Offices and staff the reduced offices right, stop the vacation (after 5 years they get one week per week of service) I had a mail carrier in Virginia that had 27 weeks of vacation. Congress has failed our Country in so many ways, they have done nothing for the last 3 years except work against our Country success. Finally it’s impossible to fire or demote an employee for anything, including destroying mail, this Union is killing their own employees by failing to negotiate for a better business model to compete with the others, remember the others were born out of the inefficiencies of the Post Office.
God Bless America

No company is required to put aside money for pensions/medical insurance 75 years in the future. USPS is self funded by revenue from stamps postal fees just like Soc Sec and Medicare is not subsidized by fed tax dollars it’s done with payroll tax.

People don't have a problem with getting a ballot via absentee voting because the voter is requesting a ballot. The issue I have is states (mostly blue) sending out ballots to everyone on the voter rolls which aren't maintained in real time. So, when someone leaves a household through divorce, adult kid moving out, death, moving to another state etc., the ballot will still go to the address of the voter and fraud "can" occur. That's not acceptable to me.

For example, a husband and wife go through a nasty divorce. Husband moves out and forgets to register again. His and her ballots are mailed to the house. Wife fills out both ballots for her candidates and sends them both in.

Or how about kid graduates from high school and goes to college in the fall. He's registered to vote at his folks address. But, being busy with college, doesn't re-register and won't be home for the election, and really isn't going to vote. Dad fills out his ballot along with his own and sends them in.

Doing important things usually takes some effort and voting is important to a lot of people. The little bit of effort required, like requesting an absentee ballot and sending it back, voting early, or going to the polls on election day isn't too much to ask.

Come on people
 

For the same low price, I can mail a first class letter to Nome, Alaska, Honolulu, Hawaii, Key West, Guam, American Samoa, and even APO's in Europe!
Of course this 2006 "Postal Accountability ..." Act pushed thru by Suzie Collins et al to fund Retiree's health care 75 years into the future is an absurdity that nor other business nor any entity is, nor could be, required to be mandated of. Also, someone check with the "bookkeeper" (that's how they got Alfonso Capone) where that money was actually intended to pay of/for - the incursion into Iraq?!?! maybe.

So checks
 

Not true. Some folks are still receiving checks. I know them