Going to the Post Office
Posted: Sunday, August 07, 2011
by Jack H. Schick
My postman left me a nasty note the other day. Well, it wasn’t really nasty. It was an official note card. It said I have to fix my mailbox before they’ll ever deliver to it again. It used to be on top of a metal post, but it rusted and broke. I stuck a 2 by 4 in some cement and nailed the aluminum box part to the top of that. It got kind of wiggly so I hammered in a couple nails and secured it with wire. It’s all wiggly and cock-eyed again. Maybe I’ll get to fixing it this afternoon after the baseball game. I hate having to go to the post office. The lines are so slow.
The U.S. Postal Service always seems to be broke, though. They have to ask Congress for more money again. In the fiscal quarter that ended June 30th they delivered 39.8 billion items—a 2.6% decrease from last year. Online bill paying and independent competitors with lower wages and less benefits to pay have taken a bite out of their business. They lost $3.1 billion in the last quarter alone.
The USPS is under strict control and regulation by the federal government, but does not get tax money. Over the past few years they have been putting out much more money than they take in for postage and other services. They’ve made efforts to overhaul the way they do business as the mail volume decreases, but have not had much success at turning a profit. The federal government has had to chip in funds to keep them above water. Personnel costs are the greatest burden and a huge retirement plan payment is soon due.
“We are experiencing a severe cash crisis and are unable to continue to maintain the aggressive prepayment schedule,” said Joseph Corbett, the postal agency’s chief financial officer. “Without changes in the law, the Postal service will be unable to make the $5.5 billion mandated prepayment due in September.” Postal workers are considered government employees and their pension plans cannot be under funded, by federal law.
Postal officials have asked Congress to change the way the USPS operates. They want more flexibility to close non-profitable post offices, to cut Saturday deliveries and to raise rates. Congress is in recess until early September after a brutal debate about government spending and the debt level and deficit. The Postal Service is concerned about the reception it may get when it shows up with its hand out for more money.
However, they are requesting the money to assure that, in this bad economic environment, Postal Service employees do not have to suffer layoffs or pay cuts, and will be able to have the comfortable retirement they expect and deserve. Congress certainly will not deny that to members of the government workforce.
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Top-level comments on this article: (2 total)This nonprofit of the Post Office has been occurring over the years. My post office was located in one community that was closed down well over 10 years ago. It made some economic sense to close it, but it had been very convenient. I live in a town that has no post office. Half of our town is directed to one post office and the other half goes to another town's post office. Now that makes no real sense especially since the two whose border our town shares is not the one that takes care of our mail. Instead, it goes to another post office whose zip is actually different than the one we use. Confused? Believe me, when I moved here, it took a few weeks before things got straightened out. Never did get a solid explanation - at least one that made sense to me. I appreciated your article about this subject and it will be interesting to see how this all develops as we go forward.Thanks for reading and commenting
Interesting article Jack. I think the mailman is headed for the same fate as the milkman. Or maybe we can survive on one or two mail deliveries per week.Thanks for reading and commenting
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