Posted on 09/30/2010 8:32:56 PM PDT by MamaDearest
The U.S. Postal Service is losing billions of dollars a year, but its regulator has denied a requested postal rate increase, saying the Postal Service failed to justify it.
The Postal Service had sought a rate increase on mailings averaging 5.6 percent, well above its statutory price cap, which is tied to the consumer price index.
“The commission finds that the Postal Service has shown the recent recession to be an exigent circumstance, but it failed both to quantify the impact of the recession on its finances and to show how its rate request relates to the resulting loss of mail volume,” said Postal Regulatory Commission Chair Ruth Goldway.
The commission did not buy the Postal Service’s claim that the recession is partly to blame for its current financial woes, saying the Postal Service’s cash flow problems would have occurred whether or not the recession happened. It also said a postal rate hike would not solve the Postal Service’s problems.
The Postal Service’s fiscal third quarter net loss swelled to $3.5 billion, and has warned its liquidity problems will reach critical levels by next year.
The Postal Service wants to end Saturday mail delivery and restructure payments to its retiree benefits funds to reduce expenses – both of which will require Congressional approval. It has already cut the equivalent of 36,000 jobs and plans to close hundreds of post office locations across the country, including eight targeted for closing in the District.
kewl so will they strike, riot, or go on a shooting spree?
Back in the day, we’d get our mail about 10 am. Now, some aren’t getting theirs until nearly 5 pm, too late in the day to act on any business.
I've lived with that late in the day delivery for years.
Two solutions:
Just resolve not to touch the mail until first thing the next morning, or rent a Post Office box and pick up the mail when you want it.
I would submit that the problem here is quite different from what it seems.
The rate of increase of postal rates is linked, apparently by law, to the Consumer Price Index. They’e asking for an increase in excess of the CPI.
The CPI has been “massaged” over the years so much that it is honestly losing it’s meaning. It used to be that the CPI was calculated based on some presumed ordinary “market basket” of products, and the prices thereof.
Lately (like, the last couple of decades) the “market basket” has been so perverted by the process that it has lost all it’s meaning. Now they decide first what rate of inflation they want to report, and then they build a market basket of products that reflects that rate.
I simply don’t trust the “inflation rate” that we’ve being sold. Something is rotten.
The Postal Service needs to be revamped completely. Consolidation would be a start. Where I live there are about a half dozen post offices all within a few miles of each other. If they consolidated to 1 or 2 it still wouldn’t inconvenience that many customers. Do that nationwide and they could probably put themselves back in the black. Privatization is also an option. Today postage can be purchased on the Internet and packages shipped right from home with carrier pickups. Very little need to even go to the post office these days. I know, just one thing stands in the way. Unions.
...”that we’re being sold”.
Dang. I wish we could edit those things. Typo there. Sorry.
I recently received a piece of first-class mail. The sender mailed it (postmarked) on a Sunday, and I got it on Monday, the very next day, even though I live in another state 600 miles away. Bizarrely, it was addressed correctly to my parents, who live in another state, and not to me. (My parents do not share my first name nor my house number nor my street name.) The mail originated very near their home. Ironically, my parents often complain that they only sporadically receive THEIR mail. This correspondence represented the first and only time I have received mail so addressed.
This level of “first class” service clearly costs lots of money. Scattering mail very quickly to random addresses in other states costs lots of money. Unfortunately, it doesn’t serve the intended recipient addressed on the letter, or, by extension, the sender of the correspondence.
This is a first. Usually the PO gets what it asks for. Astonishing.
Now, back to the Postal Rate Commission ~ we have a PRC saying they really don't believe the Greatest economic collapse since the Great Depression has anything to do with current USPS financial problems.
All I've got to say is that those people on the PRC who think that are as luney as Nancy Pelosi!
Yup, the USPS is not immune to the effects of the economic collapse.
When I read what the PRC mouthpiece person was saying I started laughing. What an idiot she is. I'm embarrassed. I've had cousins on that board and then total cretins come along like that ~ OH THE HUMANITY
Yup ~ that'll happen sometimes.
The secret ingredient is that it's all done through the magic of computerization and robotics. Next time you move outta' your mom's house, don't submit a forwarding order ~ then this will never happen!
How about they build simple, functional post offices instead of these lavish extremely large buildings. Houses in really nice neighborhoods don’t look as nice as all of the new post offices around here.
First, third-class mail is the most profitable mail to the Postal Service. The markup on third-class rates is much higher than first-class mail compared to cost incurred.
Second, putting Time magazine out of business by forcing them to pay the cost of delivery -- Time magazine is second class mail. Congress intends for it to have a subsidized rate (that is to say a lower markup than first and third-class mail). Unites the country and all that crap.
Sadly, that can take an act of Congress.
And had a career in the Postal Service. Are the two related? Who have you had on the board, pray tell?
Privatize! Then rates will be set where the market demands.
At the very least, there ought to be different methods of mail delivery with different pricing options. Oops, that wouldn’t be “fair”.... just realistic.
And had a career in the Postal Service. Are the two related? Who have you had on the board, pray tell?
And I have personal contacts in the Postal Service as well (long time service).
Bill introduced to protect postmasters, postal supervisors
Snip: From the National League of Postmasters web site:
“Senator Akaka D HI and Congressman Gerald Connolly D VA have both introduced a bill that would add language to title 39 that puts into law that postmasters and other supervisory personnel shall have a reasonable and sustainable workload and schedule. These bills both address the unreasonable overload that the Postal Service has placed on managers over the last several years. The bills would also clarify certain provisions concerning consultation and changes or terminations in certain proposals.- The League, along with Napus and Naps, supports these bills.”
This will undoubtedly be revisited, so get those forever stamps now.
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