Losses are getting steeper for U.S. Postal Service

Many USPS employees and USPS independent contractors have college educations. What most people who criticize the system need to do is to accompany the postal workers for a few days to actually see what work is done and how difficult it is. Ride with an independent contractor sometime in the middle of a blizzard 60 miles from nowhere, or get attacked by a large German Shepherd, get out and change two flat tires in one day on a regular basis, work six days per week without a sub or without any vacations or without any retirement or medical coverage, or without Workman's Comp, or pay for two engines and a transmission in one year plus exorbitant rural maintenance costs, try paying for thousands per year auto insurance, self employment Social Security taxes, or hiring and training a sub (3 months minimum to properly train at your expense) so you can take a day off or vacation or attend a funeral or wedding, and forget about sick days because they do not exist for IC's.

Next time you criticize USPS, remember that not all postal people are created equal and some must bust their tale to exist on peanuts in order for a faulty system to cover the costs of prior retirees. Despite the faults and failings, the system is still sound functionally and financially and can be fixed but only if enough people can understand what makes it tick in the first place. Just because there exists a lot of "junk" mail (this is Business Class mail which is bought and paid for by customers who provide income to USPS) does not reflect on those who deliver it. You think postal carriers like to sort, case, and deliver 30 or 40+ bundles of this per day in addition to First Class mail, packages, accountable mail like Certifieds, Registered, Postage Dues, Fix It Notices, etc. any more than you like to receive it? Or how about new phone books 3 or 4 or 5 times per year?

Carriers do their job because that is what is expected of them. Some people get on mailing lists so that they get every possible piece of this type of mail that they can and we deliver it and they never ever read any of it. Other people can opt out of it simply by either filing the proper forms or by contacted each company that mails it out as you receive it and most have a toll free number to do this. You would also get the pleasure of listening to disgruntled people complain about all the things that you the carrier have no control over, or when you return to the PO you would get to be chewed out for things that occurred on your route that you also have no control over.

Now, folks, we in the US do have some real problems to complain about and there are numerous things that need to be corrected, but the USPS is way down at the bottom of the list in terms of important things that are wrong or going wrong with everything from our economy, our politicians, restrictive governance, or even conversely ignorant governance, loss of freedoms, and even some corruption. Someone once sang that "until we start to make a move to make a few things better, things will stay the same" (Johnny Cash/Vietnam album?) or maybe even get worse. We can catch more flies with honey than vinegar. AdamSmith37

The huge loss is there since the USPS offered early retirement buyouts to certain levels of people. The bulk of the $8-9 Billion loss likely stems from the vast amount Congress has ordered them to set aside to cover retirement programs for this year and deferred years. Operational finance of the whole operation, aside from the Congressionally ordered set aside is probably sound and in the black. Also, the costs of operation are seriously affected by each cent increase in fuel costs to the tune of around $8 Million per day per cent, so that is a huge part and is going to get worse. The Postal Rate Commission is way off base by not allowing more flexibility in the pricing of services.

Nobody seems to understand that it is nearly impossible to operate a business when your hands are tied as to pricing. People need to compare the USPS with all of the other countries in the world. They will find that we are way too cheap and that despite our problems, we still have the best service in existence. Try sending an item to Mexico for example and you have less than a 50/50 chance of it even arriving at the recipients address. Cutting service by even one day will only make things much worse. First off, the employees only work a five day week so the remaining subs and part-time workers will next be eliminated. The volume of mail despite postal assertions has not decreased but has increased. They tinker with how they measure this stuff since they already know when the seasonal volume will be the lowest and that is when it is measured. They also shift volume somewhat so that it shows up in the period following the measure periods. Perhaps First Class is down, but other types are way higher so it simple equates to more work for the average worker, who must hand sort around 25,000 pieces of mail per week plus packages. That will not change due to ending Saturday or any other day delivery.

The Independent Contractors of which well over 3,000 exist in the western US alone, will take it in the shorts since they are already the bearer of a raw deal. Supposedly at some time in the past a collective bargaining agreement was put together to deal with IC's, but probably only the USPS upper echelon and the IRS were present, maybe with some planted stooges because they are ripping these IC's big time and once they are "hooked", they "owe their soul to the company Stowe".

The USPS is making a guesstimated minimum of $150,000 per contract above what it would cost them to perform these routes in-house. Now they nickel and dime the contractors with shorting fuel reimbursements, eliminated COLA's, eliminated uniform reimbursements, renewing contracts by cutting vehicle maintenance in half when the costs are at least doubling, etc. IC's receive no vacation time, no sick leave, no retirement system, no health insurance, no real union representation, little to no training, but if they hire an employee, they are required to provide all of this to their employee. IC's cannot even purchase Workman's Comp for themselves unless they specify their wages at something like an artificial $100,000 per year which is twice the amount of the entire contract in most cases. Verbal promises are regularly made and broken because the contracting personnel are switched so often that they know nothing of the prior person's dealings.

This goes on and on but you get the gist of it. Since many IC's are barely breaking even after they pay their expenses and Self-Employment Taxes, cutting by one day or 1/6th of their present income will push most of them over the edge. Besides that, the USPS will then have to rehire people or pay more than they are now for people to work less when the work load is actually increasing, and they will simultaneously lose the vast amount of money they are now saving by virtue of using IC's. IC's are basically busting tale in order for the USPS to garner enough money to set aside retirement for high paid employees and upper staff bonuses. -- AdamSmith37

Mismanaged, run by the government. How is this deficit being paid? By the printing press with pelosi dollars.

The USPS is being killed by the Internet and gasoline prices. They do need to scale back. Get rid of saturday service. Charge more for mail. Switch the fleet to EVs because the gasoline costs are going to become MUCH worse.

You want to know why USPS can't make it? Look at the cultural makeup of thier work force....

Charity Search Engines

PRIVATIZE! NOW!!!

wasteful spending

The USPS operates like a lotto winner. They get more $, and in a year they are in debt. I don't buy into the email is cutting back on postage @#$%. As an online seller (and I'm a small guy), I used to spend $500+ a month on postage. Prior to the internet and web sales, I would spend less than $30 a year on postage for Birthday, Christmas and Thank you cards. And that was pre .44 cents postage. I now use billpay for my bills, and still send Christmas and Thank You Cards as needed. As a consumer though, I will always shop for the best value (price and service). Businesses that can't provide that don't deserve my business. While I am frugal, I don't mind paying more for good service. I don't think I need to remind people the "service" they get at the USPS. While I usually have a pleasant experience because I know most of the clerks at the post offices I frequent, I still get major attitude from some (even a supervisor) for no apparent reason I see other than the associates personal problems in life. Just my 2 cents.

USPS will have to be totally restructured. The new USPS will undoutedly look very different from the one we have come to know and love over the past 235 years. The key objective has to be to preserve first class mail at a reaosnable price. Perhaps Tuesday and Thursday delivery should be eliminated. Eliminating Saturday delivery would result in three days of mail volume to be handled for delivery on Monday, not good. Good Luck.