Posted on 05/18/2009 9:49:40 PM PDT by JoeProBono
The U.S. Postal Service has cut its staff by 25,000 this year as it struggles to reduce massive deficits, Postmaster General John Potter said Monday.
Postal employment is now below 635,000, Potter said, down from about 800,000 in 1999.
Thousands of carrier routes have also been eliminated as mail volume declines, he said.
"We have an infrastructure that, quite frankly, we cannot afford based on the income we're receiving," Potter said.
The agency still faces a potential $6.5 billion loss this year, Potter said, and even with increased borrowing and other changes it could finish the year with a $1.5 billion shortfall.
Postal rates went up last week by 2 cents to 44 cents for a first class stamp. That isn't expected to be enough to offset the likely losses. Regular increases are limited to the rate of inflation the year before and officials feared a larger, emergency increase would result in even more declines in mail volume.
The post office is seeking permission from Congress to reschedule some of its contributions to a retiree health care fund, which would reduce spending this year by $2 billion.
OK.....everybody pony up ten bucks and let’s get this FReepathon over....
Thanks.
In fact, where are the 'green shoots'?
"JERRY'S FAULT!"
Attention all Union Idiots....vote Socialist Democrat again it’s good for Amerika !
I hand deliver cards as much as possible. Why put big bonuses in the pockets of highly-compensated postal managers.
Good! I hope they get rid of my carrier. There's not a day goes by that I don't get someone elses mail in my box. That scares me because she's probably putting my mail in someone elses box too. I filed a complaint with the local post office last month, and since that time, I've got three "warnings" from her. I hope she gets laid off, or fired.
That looks like the post office in Guy, Texas too.
Two years ago postal rates went up because gas prices were climbing to nearly $4 per gallon.
Now, they rates have gone up again...But Why?
Gas prices are down around $2.50 per gallon and now we find out that USPS is also cutting 25000 jobs.
If anything, postage rates should drop, or stay the same!
Why is the government even involved in the freaking mail business?
Uh-oh. 25,000 Postal employees to be terminated; record setting sales of guns and ammo. This could get ugly.
Well, it’s based on the freakin’ Constitution.
It’s based on the Postal Clause in Article One of the United States Constitution, empowering Congress “To establish post offices and post roads,” it became the Post Office Department in 1792.
“it became the Post Office Department in 1792.”
Well, then I’d say it’s high time to get the private sector to do the job, and get these government employees out of the damn way.
We don’t need no stinking bloated government to be involved in the mail business. This ain’t 1792 anymore.
As with other large businesses, overgenerous union bebefits and retiree health care is doing them in.
That, and the fact the fedex and UPS do it better....
Mail is more and more going electronically. I haven’t put a stamp on a bill paying envelope in years.
There is only one bill I cannot pay online - my water bill. It gets paid to a podunk little town one mile from my house on my way to work. And it’s right across the street from my post office!
The heck with it; costs me less to drive it there than it does to mail it.
I mail about 10 Christmas cards a year. The rest of my correspondence goes by email or fax.
You are completely correct to be upset about the misdelieveries. That your complaints are not being taken seriously reflects very poorly on the Postmaster as well as the carrier. No competetant Postmaster tells the carrier who complained, they just repriamand the carrier and put a note in their file. That you heard from the carrier is absurd.
What to do?
Call the Postmaster again. Tell this person you want the phone number for the POO (Manager of Post Office Operations for your area). If the Postmaster does not give you the number, call a large Post Office nearby and tell them you are trying to get the number for the Manager of Post Office Operations. You will get the number.
The POO, (like Winnie the POO), can transfer or demote a Postmaster on his own authority without permission beforehand from anybody. POO’s do want mail delievered correctly. There are regulations about acceptal error rates of delievery. The POO will help you get satisfaction. Your Postmaster will never ignore you again.
“The post office is seeking permission from Congress to reschedule some of its contributions to a retiree health care fund, which would reduce spending this year by $2 billion.”
I love how this is not explained further. 2 billion dollars in savings? Over a retirement account? How could that be?
Unknown to most is that the Pentagon hides part of its budget by causing it to be made law years ago that all military retirees working at the Post Office will have their retirement pay come out of USPS funds. It is a fact.
Fedex and UPS both have a certain percentage of their mail delievered by the USPS. It is highly unprofitable to make delieveries into rural areas. Hence, both Fedex and UPS transfer some of their delieveries to the USPS for areas where it would cost too much to profitably make the delievery. The USPS helps Fedex and UPS to make money. It is a good deal for both.
The primary problem for the USPS is the US Congress which constantly gets in the way of cost cutting and efficiency. The USPS is supposedly independent but the Congress interfers frequently. Efforts by the USPS to have laws passed further limiting what Congress can do to get in their way have failed.
That’s what happens to government-run or quasi-government organizations.
There is almost NOTHING that government does that cannot be done more cheaply and/or efficiently by private business.
Can you say Amtrak?
It is true that government can do almost nothing cheaper than private interests. What I’m pointing out is that a merging of the two, private and public, sometimes can work out very well. One more example is the private contractor mail carriers utilized by USPS. I use to be one. I delievered the US MAIL for about 1/3 the cost of a government employee. I’d like to see the government greatly expand the use of private contractors. The USPS could probably reduce the postage costs of a first class letter to about 30 cents if contractors were used to the extent they should.
By having nationalized postage rates, it protects the smaller communities in the middle of nowhere.
If you’re in Boston, it costs the same to mail a letter to Wasilla, Alaska as it does to Portland, Maine.
Since most small towns in the middle of nowhere vote the same way I do, I won’t complain to loudly, that they’re getting a “break”.
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