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USPS Lost $5.1B


Parsad

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The United States Postal Service lost $5.1B last year, not including a $5.5B payment owed to the U.S. government that was deferred.  It's just another amazing example of how the internet has completely filled and killed another moat.  Cheers!

 

http://money.msn.com/business-news/article.aspx?feed=AP&data-ipsquote-timestamp=20111115&id=14529105

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I wonder how much the internet actually affected it though. Any stats on the actually mail moved around now vs a decade ago?

 

Yeah, we don't send letters anymore really...but did we ever? Granted, a lot of things are e-delivered now. I've sent maybe a dozen letters in my life. People still send cards, get junk mail etc. Plus, there is a lot more shipping than there used to be.  I think it's more of pension/health care costs and somewhat drop in mail.

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Not to sound socialist, but USPS does an under appreciated job and connects the country to rural areas that are not to the benefit of profit.  Also as an example, the USPS delivers on Saturday whereas most other services (or all) do not. 

 

However, I would suspect that we do not need 6 days a week service anymore.  The question is what day do you eliminate service on?

 

Cheers

JEast

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I would be very happy with 3 days a week of delivery.

 

I think that over their history they have provided great value to the country. And even today they provide value, but I believe that the entire concept and their place in it needs to be rethought instead of clinging to what they were in the past.

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We haven't had Saturday deliveries in Canada for decades, and Canada Post is struggling with the same issues and losing money hand over fist as well.  It's a combination of union wages, pensions, lower mail and package volume, and competition.  The last two are a direct result of companies like Fedex and Amazon, as well as the younger generations penchance for email, texting and electronic payments.  I agree with James that the postal service provides a crucial infrastructure program for rural communities, but I suspect even that will change a degree over time.  Cheers!

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USPS is simply hamstrung by Congress. They have a hard time closing post offices or changing the delivery schedule. Its tough....

 

It is the labor structure that is hurting the post offices. They should focus on reduced head count and pension packages versus reducing post offices in my opinion.

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USPS is simply hamstrung by Congress. They have a hard time closing post offices or changing the delivery schedule. Its tough....

 

It is the labor structure that is hurting the post offices. They should focus on reduced head count and pension packages versus reducing post offices in my opinion.

 

LOL they should do it all. They are already planning on laying off a bunch of people. The Post Master wants to also close more offices, as well as drop Saturday service. I would do all that and drop Weds as well. Let these guys do what they need to do and stop making everything so political. I would cut them lose, give them free reign, and potentially let them enter other industries.

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The FBI probably isn't posting a profit either.  Hey, let's get rid of them too!

 

Eric, haven't you seen "J. Edgar Hoover" yet?  According to Hoover, the FBI was the only government entity actually showing a profit through recoveries!  ;D  Cheers!

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If anyone's interested the USPS publishes all of their financials online, here is the 2011 10k: http://about.usps.com/who-we-are/financials/10k-reports/fy2011.pdf

 

In a lot of articles I've seen there is a big fuss about the retiree benefits, but from what I'm seeing on the income statement eliminating those doesn't bring them into the black, it just reduces the deficit from 4b to 2b, the real cost is employee compensation.

 

For all the fuss they were actually cash flow positive in 2011, $494m.

 

It will be interesting to see how this plays out.

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