US Postal Service Ends Saturday Delivery in August

[OntarioVanMan]

About time...gee whiz....

The United States Postal Service says it will stop delivering letters on Saturdays beginning in August, the agency announced. Package delivery, which has seen growth in recent years as online purchasing booms, will continue on Saturdays when the plan is implemented. The plan could save the USPS $2 billion a year, according to the report.
USPS officials said that fewer letters are being delivered because of email, but that the number of packages being delivered has risen since 2010. Congress likely will have the last say on the plan.
The volume of First Class mail has declined sharply since 2008 as more people pay their bills on line, Postmaster General Patrick Donahue said. Last year the postal service had a $15.9 billion loss and defaulted on its pension plan contributions. USPS has also reached its borrowing limit, he said.
“It’s put a tremendous financial pressure on the postal service,” he said.
The postal service previously had cut costs be eliminating 193,000 jobs and consolidating 200 mail processing centers. The service cutback will enable the postal service to cut more jobs, which Donahoe says can be done through retirements, buyouts and routine attrition.
“We take no tax dollars. We do not want tax dollars,” he said.
The six-month lead time will allow businesses to adjust their production and delivery schedules, Donahoe said.
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Read more at US Postal Service Ends Saturday Delivery in August | CDL Life

 

[layoutshooter]

The government should sell off the post office. It is a drain on the economy. They could use the proceeds to fund the pensions that they committed too but never funded. Then arrest those who did not fund it and charge them with fraud.

 

[Turtle]

The government should sell off the post office.

The government doesn't own the post office. It is a self-funded independent agency of the federal government, mandated by the Constitution, so for it to be sold by anyone we'd need a Constitutional Amendment to do so.

It is a drain on the economy.

In what way? How? It received no public funding, and it's cheaper to send letters and packages by mail than any other service. If anything, the USPS is critical to our economy, not a drain on it.

They could use the proceeds to fund the pensions that they committed too but never funded. Then arrest those who did not fund it and charge them with fraud.

You want Congress to arrest Congress and charge them with fraud? Huh? That makes no sense, especially when you consider the fact that the pension payments mandated by Congress are being paid, so to say they never funded it is incorrect.

 

[layoutshooter]

"By June 2011, the USPS saw a total net deficit of $19.5 billion, $12.7 billion of which was borrowed money from Treasury (leaving just $2.3 billion left until the USPS hits its statutory borrowing limit of $15 billion). This $19.5 billion deficit almost exactly matches the $20.95 billion the USPS made in prepayments to the fund for future retiree health care benefits by June 2011."


It is unlikely that this money will ever be paid back to the treasury. That is money WE the People had to borrow to loan to the Post Office.

What I meant about pension funding is that, as most government or sorta government agencies, they did not provide funding, as in setting up and paying into those accounts, over the years as required.

I saw this when I was in government, I was with the "CSRS" retirement system. I paid 7% of my wages into my retirement, NOTHING into SS, since one was either with one or the other. It became clear that the government had NOT been putting the required matching funds aside as they said they would. That was ONE of the reasons that Clinton started gutting certain agencies. He knew that they could not cover the retirements that were coming down the pike, do to lack of funding.


Self supporting? How? They lose BILLIONS a year. The Post Office is a dinosaur that as outlived it's usefulness.

As to congress arresting itself, great idea! They should hang themselves too. What they have done with pensions and SS is little different than what Maddoff did. Take about ponzi schemes.

I have NO problem amending the Constitution to get rid of that anchor.

 

[LDB]

god I hate the color and size options on this forum that make posts difficult to read, especially when they are more enticing than crack to an addict for some people.

 

[denny2010]

More great news for Americans..No more work for you..Let's flood the unemployment offices. Try and find work. As other people say they don't care that the post offices close down...I wonder if the people working at the post offices say they shouldn't have expedite services anymore? And all of us will be out of work also.

 

[layoutshooter]

How can it continue to operate at a lose and why should tax payers be stuck borrowing money to keep them afloat? Where is it going to come from?

 

[Turtle]

{Colored, fonted, and sized for Leo's benefit }

By June 2011, the USPS saw a total net deficit of $19.5 billion, $12.7 billion of which was borrowed money from Treasury (leaving just $2.3 billion left until the USPS hits its statutory borrowing limit of $15 billion). This $19.5 billion deficit almost exactly matches the $20.95 billion the USPS made in prepayments to the fund for future retiree health care benefits by June 2011."

Not sure where you got that, though I have an idea, since it's routinely part of articles headlined "A Manufactured Crisis," but the out-of-context quote is barely one side of the story, and misguided and largely incorrect, at that. The one important part of Ralph Nader's quote that you left off at the end is, "If the prepayments required under PAEA were never enacted into law, the USPS would not have a net deficiency of nearly $20 billion, but instead be in the black by at least $1.5 billion."

The Postal Service does not receive taxpayer funds for its operations and has not in several decades. It operates exclusively on its own generated revenue and frequently borrows for capital improvements and other expenses just like any other business. The Postal Service would have produced a current operating surplus over the past four years if not for the law passed by Congress in 2006, The Postal Accountability and Enhancement Act, which requires the USPS to do something no other government agency and no private corporation must or could do: pre-fund the cumulative total costs of health benefits for future employees covering 75 years in the future, and pay the lion's share of that total cost in the first 10 years. This costs the USPS more than $5 billion each year, in addition to paying for health coverage of current postal retirees.

No government agency, nor any private employer, can currently afford to fund a 75-year future cost of this magnitude in 10 years. All would be driven into bankruptcy, as will ultimately be the Postal Service, by this monumental error of the former administration and Congress.

The Postal Accountability and Enhancement Act pumped these huge payments from the USPS into the treasury, which produced the politicians' intended effect, namely that of making the country's national deficit appear smaller. Couple these payments with the two independent studies confirming the USPS has already been required to pay between $55 billion and $75 billion too much into the treasury for its employee retirement obligations, and you arrive at the all-too-obvious conclusions: the USPS has literally been milked as a cash cow for the Treasury; its current financial crisis would otherwise not exist; and these unwarranted overpayments are what the organization and its employees are requesting that Congress fairly correct. No one is requesting taxpayer money or a taxpayer bailout, and the USPS has not borrowed any money that is costing taxpayers a dime.

It is unlikely that this money will ever be paid back to the treasury. That is money WE the People had to borrow to loan to the Post Office.

Not even. The $12.7 billion loan from the Treasury is not money that the citizens had to borrow, but rather money directly from the money that the USPS has already overpaid into the Treasury. It's a loan on paper, strictly for political purposes, to make the deficit look lower than it is. It's the government, primarily Congress, and its bought and paid for media who is disseminating the notion that the USPS is losing money due to the Internet and the inefficiency of the Post Office. The reality is, if it weren't for that one, single politically motivated Act passed by Congress, the Post Office would be in the black by a large margin.

 

[layoutshooter]

The Postal service, "CSRS" retirement systems, as well as SS all ran surpluses, very large surpluses, for decades. Where did that money go? It was not 'set aside'. Not invested in any instrument that would earn real interest. The government spent it. They put up worthless IOU's in the form of US bonds, which will never be paid. We are bankrupt.

I think 1980 was the last year the Post Office received a direct subsidy from the government.

The Post Office would be out of business if it were private industry. Declining business, greatly in part to the internet. Rising prices, declining service. Also, with each passing day, less relevance in the market. It is not hard to see a day where they will have to fold.

I THINK I got that out of Huffington, I don't remember now, I forgot to put the link in, sorry, I normally try to do so.

 

[Turtle]

The Post Office would be out of business if it were private industry. Declining business, greatly in part to the internet. Rising prices, declining service. Also, with each passing day, less relevance in the market. It is not hard to see a day where they will have to fold.

I really don't think so. It was making money and was in the black, even with declining First Class mail and the rise of e-mail, until Congress stepped in. It's actually the Internet itself that has been a boon to the Post Office, thanks in no small part to packages shipped by the likes of Amazon.com and other online retailers. That's one reason that when Saturday delivery ceases (for First and Third Class mail), they'll still deliver packages on Saturday. First Class mail has been declining about 7.5% per year for the last several years, but at the same time Priority and Express Mail packages have increased by more than 10% each year, to the point now where those types of packages yeild greater revenue than does First Class mail. Remove that 75 year pension shackle and the Post Office is in pretty good shape.

 

[layoutshooter]

I really don't think so. It was making money and was in the black, even with declining First Class mail and the rise of e-mail, until Congress stepped in. It's actually the Internet itself that has been a boon to the Post Office, thanks in no small part to packages shipped by the likes of Amazon.com and other online retailers. That's one reason that when Saturday delivery ceases (for First and Third Class mail), they'll still deliver packages on Saturday. First Class mail has been declining about 7.5% per year for the last several years, but at the same time Priority and Express Mail packages have increased by more than 10% each year, to the point now where those types of packages yeild greater revenue than does First Class mail. Remove that 75 year pension shackle and the Post Office is in pretty good shape.

Yeah, but they are contracted for that pension. That damage has been done. It won't go away, or at least it should not. A contract is a contract, or at least it should be.

I know what it is like to be "stiffed" on a government contract. It makes a person rather bitter and less likely to perform as expected.

When it happens the individual(s) have no recourse. The government will not give him/them permission to sue.

Just another reason NOT to trust the government, they do no live up to their word or uphold contracts.

 

[Turtle]

They're contracted for the pension, but that's not the problem. The problem is Congress forcing them to pre-fund it 75 years in advance (in order to reduce the federal deficit on paper).

 

[layoutshooter]

They're contracted for the pension, but that's not the problem. The problem is Congress forcing them to pre-fund it 75 years in advance (in order to reduce the federal deficit on paper).

I got that part. I want to know where the bizillions of surplus dollars went to over the last 50 or 60 years. That is what caused the problem. IF that money had been handled properly we would not be having this discussion.

 

[Turtle]

I got that part. I want to know where the bizillions of surplus dollars went to over the last 50 or 60 years. That is what caused the problem. IF that money had been handled properly we would not be having this discussion.

Congress took it, straight up. That's why I noted that for years the USPS has been a cash cow for Congress. Every penny Congress has ever had their hands on, which considering they control the purse strings is all of it, has been handled improperly.

 

[layoutshooter]

Congress took it, straight up. That's why I noted that for years the USPS has been a cash cow for Congress. Every penny Congress has ever had their hands on, which considering they control the purse strings is all of it, has been handled improperly.

I kinda knew that. That is why I said earlier that they should all be arrested, charged with fraud and hung when convicted. We SHOULD confiscate everything they own too.

The Congress took the SS surpluses and the "CSRS" surpluses as well.

Kinda rotten bunch up there.

 

[Turtle]

I'm of the firm belief that the majority of Congress should be impeached for treason. Under the guise of national and economic security, they have made us less secure on both fronts.

 

[sthfl2000]

Shut it down or privatize the USPS...it's ran poorly, unionized, inefficient and the junk mail provisions recently passed are a nuisance to my mailbox...and I'm ok with no Saturday delivery (who really needs to see bills on a weekend..lol).

 

[Turtle]

If you listen to politicians and the media, yeah, the Post Office is run poorly, inefficient and they deliver nothing but junk mail, but the reality can be realized by just taking a close look at what they do and how. You'll see that it's not run poorly at all, at least that which Congress doesn't have its grubby little fingers on, and they are extremely efficient and cost effective at what they do. They are unionized, but so is UPS, and they seem to be doing OK. And the junk mail that everyone hates, I once asked my mailman, who is also a friend and neighbor, what he thought of having to lug all that junk mail around every day. "It's my bread and butter."

 

[xiggi]

Knowing people that work at the main hub in Indianapolis that one at least is far from well run. Many union members slack during the week to assure they get overtime. The central management sends in some supposed expert almost yearly changing how the system flows, junking one or two year old equipment and having new installed to fit their new plan.

We have all had to stand in line while one counter person works and the other two go on break. You take bulk mail to the doc and their system is crazy and rules ridiculous.

I must say the one thing that does impress me is the price they ship your letter or package when compared to ups or the fed.

Sent from my Fisher Price - ABC 123

 

[skyraider]

Just a long line of Americas once proud institutions falling by the wayside because of greed, but America is in the greed lane now and a Presidency in disarray without direction is taking her over the edge.