USPS to announce Saturday service cuts in effort to slash costs

[Redfairen]

Source: CBS News

Get ready for some big changes in your mail service. After losing $16 billion last year, the postmaster general will make announce Wednesday that the Postal Service intends to halt Saturday delivery of first-class mail by this summer, Aug. 1, CBS News has learned. That means most mailers, letters and catalogs would not arrive on Saturdays, ending a 150-year tradition.

The plan to shrink delivery from six days a week to five would only affect first-class mail, while packages, mail-order medicines, priority and express mail would still get delivered on Saturdays.

Sen. Tom Coburn, R-Okla., says the move will save the struggling postal service $2 billion a year. "It's a proper business decision and (in the) long run, good for the Postal Service and good for Americans."

The Postal Service has lost $41 billion dollars over the past six years as more and more Americans turned to private shippers, email, and online banking.

Read more: http://www.cbsnews.com/8301-505266_162-57567845/usps-to-announce-saturday-service-cuts-in-effort-to-slash-costs/

[Botany]

1. The only reason the USPS is losing money is that the republicans made it fund .....

..... 75 years of retirement in advance as a poison pill. Republicans really hate America ....
BTW will UPS or FEDEX service small rural mail routes?

[naaman fletcher]

2. That's not technically true

Last year the Post Office lost billions in addition to the liability funding requirement.

[Doctor_J]

4. It didn't "lose" money, any more than

any public service does. And 2 billion dollars is about what the pentagon spends every hour in Afghanistan.

[naaman fletcher]

5. Hold on:

1. Yes, it lost money. It cost at least 2 billion more to run it then it took in.

http://bigstory.ap.org/article/post-office-reports-record-loss-159b-year

If you want to say "so what", you can say that. If you want to compare it to Afghanistan, that is fine.

However, people should at least be aware of the basic facts. Everyone is running around saying that the only reason is loses money is the pre-funding requirement. However, that is simply factually incorrect.

I made no argument one way or the other, I simply posted facts.

[Doctor_J]

7. and like I said, it is a public service

if SS would stop taking in money tomorrow, it too would "lose" money this year. You are missing the point. USPS didn't lose money, it was underfunded in the budget

[naaman fletcher]

8. You can wish it to be that way,

But for many, many years now it has operated as a separate entity that is on it's own.

If you want to change that, go ahead. But at some level people need to be talking the same language.

I responded to someone who said that "the only reason it lost money is because of the pre-funding", by pointing out that that was not true, it lost at least 2 billion in operations.

If you want to come in and say "well, it could spend 100 billion more than it takes in, and that is not a loss", well, that's fine. But that's a whole different argument.

[Katashi_itto]

14. +1

[bitchkitty]

70. I can't plus one the original

post, because someone couldn't handle the truth and went crying to the report button, but I plus MILLION the original statement.

Some people - every wonder why certain people ALWAYS take the right wing point of view?

[mac56]

19. +2

[RKP5637]

51. +4

[Bay Boy]

66. 4 people give a thumbs up to a comment and the comment is removed?

That's weird! Sure has me curious as to what was said.

[RKP5637]

68. Someone called someone else a troll. n/t

[Bay Boy]

69. Why can't everybody just get along?

[RKP5637]

72. It's DU!

[bitchkitty]

71. You can still read it, you just can't reply to it.

It was a post stating the obvious...

[Katashi_itto]

15. Main reason for problem

In 2006 Congress passed the Postal Accountability and Enhancement Act, which requires that the Postal Service pre-fund 100 percent of its health benefits for 75 years. Not just that, but the USPS was given only 10 years to accomplish the task. That's something no other organization (public or private) is required to do. Prior to the 2006 act, USPS generated a profit; now, with the additional $5.5 billion a year it must pre-fund, it's facing a budget shortfall.

Not surprisingly, the 2006 legislation was favored by industry lobbyists who wanted to privatize the mail industry. Not only did the bill add the burden of pre-funding benefits, it also made it more difficult to make additional funds, prohibiting the USPS from branching out into non-postal services. Previously, the Postal Service had experimented with offering services like online bill pay, but abandoned those efforts under pressure from Congress. Private companies like FedEx have poured money into lobbying Washington, giving them influence over rules affecting the USPS as well as netting them government contracts.
http://current.com/groups/news-blog/93753691_its-not-the-internet-the-real-reason-the-post-office-is-struggling.htm

[naaman fletcher]

16. I'm perfectly aware of that.

And I made no argument at all against that.

[mac56]

20. Umm... you told me that the 75 year requirement

was "just some guy's assertion."

Please get your story straight.

[naaman fletcher]

21. I told you

That YOUR link to some blog was.

Even from this link, it is not clear what pre-fund for 75 years means precisely, in actuarial terms.

But, that is immaterial to my point which was simply that it is not the case that the post office is only losing money because of the pre-funding requirement.

[Katashi_itto]

27. It's a 75 year current Liability

Assets=Liability + Equity

Meaning at the beginning of each fiscal year. The Post Office starts out. 5.5 billion in the hole. BEFORE you figure in interest expense and health care adjustments.

So they start in debt. One sec into the new year.

In financial accounting, a liability is defined as an obligation of an entity arising from past transactions or events, the settlement of which may result in the transfer or use of assets, provision of services or other yielding of economic benefits in the future.

"At the heart of the matter is a 2006 Congressional mandate put on the US Postal Service contained in the “Postal Accountability and Enhancement Act of 2006” to pre-fund healthcare benefits of future retirees, a 75 year liability over a 10 year period.

This provision costs the Postal Service $5.5 billion a year. When you add in an adjustment that was made in how workers’ compensation costs were calculated based on interest rate assumptions and long term predictions concerning health care and compensation of $2.5 billion (a non cash accounting adjustment), you come up with $8 billion in cost.

Actual loss was $500 million and when added, comes to the $8.5 billion reported for 2010. While $500 million is a lot, it doesn’t compare with $8.5 billion and is down from the previous year loss of $1 billion.

If you took out the onerous pre-funding mandate, the Postal Service actually shows a $700 million profit over the last four years instead of the $20 billion loss.

The Postal Union has been trying to get Congress to authorize the transfer of the Postal Service’s money estimated to be between $50 billion and $75 billion overpaid in the Civil Service Retirement System transferred into the PSRHBF."

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[naaman fletcher]

28. OK thanks

I didn't know if it was a current liability or what. than you.

[Katashi_itto]

29. I am working on my CPA...its rated as a "current" liability

I had a good laugh about that...

<iframe width="560" height="315" src="

" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe>

[naaman fletcher]

32. I have no problem,

with requiring a funded pension plan, but yeah this is ridiculous.

[Katashi_itto]

33. I agree, hell I didnt even know you could classify an obvious long term Note as a "current Liability

I mean jessuz... no wonder the Post Office is hurting so bad.

Republicans must have Wall street accountants working for them.


I mean this is simply abject sabotage.

[mac56]

18. yup

http://namebrandketchup.wordpress.com/2012/11/28/let-us-now-praise-the-united-states-postal-service/

[michigandem58]

54. 2 billion an hour??

2 billion x 24 hours x 365 days = 1.75 trillion a year(?)

[joeglow3]

60. No. 17.5 trillion a year. Kind of expensive.

[michigandem58]

61. Ha! Thanks, I slipped a decimal

Expensive indeed.

[Doctor_J]

3. Why can't the new Dem Senate and WH overturn that law that Bush & Issa cooked up

to deliberately kill the USPS?

[madrchsod]

12. why?..i`m betting they do`t really care

[beerandjesus]

24. One of my biggest beefs with the Democratic party

is that they didn't do precisely that when they had the House. That should have been relatively easy to accomplish, but if they even considered it, I didn't hear about it.

[think]

52. If they did they'd say something

But crickets........

[hack89]

26. Because it was a bipartisan bill that received unanimous Dem support in the Senate?

that would be my guess. Henry Waxman was the cosponsor in the House.

[anokaflash]

6. Mondays?

Saturday is such a vital option for the M-F worker. I think cutting Monday and doing Tuesday Through Saturday would make more sense.

[naaman fletcher]

9. I think they are keeping the post offices open saturday

but just halting delivery

But I'm not sure on that.

[subterranean]

38. That is correct.

Post offices will still be open on Saturdays, and items other than first-class mail will still be delivered.

[dixiegrrrrl]

44. If they are racking up delivery costs, why not deliver 1st class mail then?

I do not get why they can deliver everything but 1st class mail on Sat.

[sketchy]

46. +1

[heaven05]

10. yeah

and having to prepay into the retirement fund, something no other agency has to do. Repugs can't wait for privatization so they can give their buddies huge contracts with postal peNsion money. Who are they fooling? NOT ME!!!!

[RoccoR5955]

17. No other agency? Try no other entity!

Having ANYONE have to fund retirement for 75 years is unheard of. Think if it. The RapeubliCONs made the law that would kill the P.O., so that their lobbyists from Fedex and UPS would take over. Does Fedex and UPS have to fund their retirement for 75 years? Does ANYONE?????
This is just unreal, and MUST be stopped!
They aren't fooling me either.
I don't care what the trolls here say about the PO losing money, because they wouldn't be "losing" money if they didn't have to fund THREE GENERATIONS of workers' pensions!!!

[madrchsod]

11. death by a thousand paper cuts....

welcome to third world america.

[Brigid]

22. I just wish they would quit filling up my mailbox with junk mail.

It's all I get anymore, and it's a real nuisance.

[mac56]

23. Junk mail is annoying.

Unfortunately it's keeping USPS from going even further into the red.

This is yet another reason why Congress needs to do something to unburden USPS.

[They_Live]

59. You can get it stopped.

You need to contact the people sending it though, not the post office. I have done it and it really works.
There are some online opt out sites for those giant piles of ad/coupon circulars (i.e.: Red Plum). Credit card offers were a little more complicated, but it can be done (again contact the sender and they will instruct you on the steps to take). I only get a few random junk mail things now.

[Brigid]

63. Thanks.

I'll try that.

[mac56]

30. A must-read on the topic, from back in 2007.

http://ftc.gov/os/comments/USPS%20Study/529332-00004.pdf

"The Strange Story Of Postal Reform"

[onehandle]

31. Just stop delivering mail to Republicans. nt

[napi21]

37. I wonder if they can stop checking the mail for contaminents?

Remember the anthrax mail sent to Congress? I know no mail goes irectly to congress anymore, and it must be thoroughly screened before it's forwarded. That's got to cost a lot of money each year. I don't think there's any laws mandating that the post office do this? If we're going to make an impact on Congress to force them to do something about the PO, we HAVE to inconvenience or PUT THEM AT RISK to move them off their a**es!

[sketchy]

34. How are they going to do this w/out Congressional approval?!

From the AP article:

http://bigstory.ap.org/article/postal-service-cut-saturday-mail-trim-costs


“It was not immediately clear how the service could eliminate Saturday mail without congressional approval.”


This looks like quite an unsettling power grab, on top of everything else wrong with it.

[Nye Bevan]

35. Isn't it good news that mail carriers will now get Saturdays off? (nt)

[Gregorian]

36. And once the Republicans have their way, the new privatized service will be GREAT. NOT!

This really sucks.

I've been pondering moving to a place that only has a post office box. And the thought of having to come to town to get mail is a pretty big deal.

I've been talking with my mailman, and his comments about how much privatized mail service might cost are just maddening.

I hate republicans. Fucking hate them.

[tclambert]

40. Germany and Japan tried it. First class postage is about double what we pay. And Japan went back

to government control of the post office, because the private version was so hated.

In both Japan and Germany, the post offices also function as banks, the most widely used banks in the country. I'm sure you trust bankers to run the mail system for the benefit of the people without any shenanigans, don't you?

[Art_from_Ark]

85. The thing about the Japanese post office

is that it is calling itself a private corporation ("kabushiki gaisha&quot called Japan Post Holdings Company, Limited, instead of its previous incarnation as a public company ("kousha&quot . And yet, it is wholly owned by the Ministry of Finance.

And yes, domestic letter rates in Japan are currently about double what they are in the US (80 yen/85 cents versus 45 cents), but the current rate was set in 1994 (raised from 62 yen to 80 yen) at a time when the yen was experiencing severe fluctuations in the exchange market. Viewed just in US dollar terms, a first class letter mailed in Japan cost $1.00 at one time during 1994, but in the summer of 1998, the same letter, at the same yen rate, could have cost about 60 cents when converted into US currency. And it's interesting that a letter mailed from Japan to the US today (110 yen/$1.17) costs little more than a letter mailed from the US to Japan ($1.05).

And while the Japanese post office has a banking service (which is now an ostensibly separate entity called Japan Post Bank Company Limited), it has provided banking services since 1875.

[Bay Boy]

39. I've read the entire thread and I...

...I think it's still a good idea to halt Saturday delivery. I can still get just as much mail to my box in 5 days as I can in 6.

[uncle ray]

47. you could get the same volume of mail in one day of delivery as well.

heck, we could just collect and palletize your mail and deliver it once a month. just think of the billions saved!

[mac56]

49. Well, as long as you're not inconvenienced any. That's the main thing.

[Bay Boy]

73. I'm guessing sarcasm...

... but nope no inconvenience to me or many others.

[mac56]

76. Guessed that, did ya?

Can't get nothin' past you, no sirree. You're waaaaay too smart for my kind of sarcasm.

[NBachers]

41. As the traitor republicans rub their hands together in smirking glee

[CalFresh]

42. The GOP did not kill the USPS

it was e-mail and other technology. Every Saturday I see my mail carrier drive down my street in her truck dropping off maybe 1 letter in some of the mail boxes. Look at the savings from tens of thousands of trucks off the street. Millions of gallons of gasoline not being used. If you want to help the USPS stop sending e-mails and start writing letters, paying bills by check and mail it. Technology is making it so we don't even have to leave our home. Work from home, shop from home, watch movies from home, pay bills and bank from home. Job are lost everyday.

[mac56]

48. You couldn't be more wrong.

Maybe you do see that letter carrier drop off one letter some days. Big deal. That doesn't negate the fact that the Repos in Congress set out to sabotage USPS. Why? To turn it over to private industry.

Come back and find me when UPS or FedEx charges you $5 to deliver your electric bill payment.

[CalFresh]

56. I pay my

Water bill, electric bill, gas bill, landscaping bill, mortgage all on-line. My banking, investing, insurance, car payment, cable, netflix, Fed and State taxs and CC bills are all payed on line. I put maybe 3 letters in the mail every week. Government saw this coming years ago.

Did you guys cry when the old gas station attendant lost his job to the self pump stations? How about the ten of thousands of bank tellers who lost their jobs to ATMs. Do you see the self check out stations at the super markets and big box hardware stores? Why do you get a upset when it's a government job and not a private job. The California DMV, AQMD, DFG and most government offices are going paperless. The post office will go the way of the iceman, milkman and the buggy whip.

[mac56]

58. There's a very significant difference that you are ignoring.

The Constitution does not require the gas station, bank, and supermarket to exist.

Like I said, come and cry to me when UPS and FedEx charge you $15 for those three letters you mail every week. And refuse to deliver them where it's not profitable.

[CalFresh]

62. I don't think

the Constitution said that the mail must be delivered six days a week or to my front door. The post office will stay but having someone going door to door delivering mail 5 or 6 days a week is ending. Twenty years ago my mail box was full of bills, letters and junk mail. I live in the same house today with more bills to pay than I had then and I get almost no mail at all. I don't like to see ANYBODY loose their jobs. But it's the internet and e-mail that killed the first class mail not FedEx, UPS or the GOP.

Just my 2 cents.

[mac56]

65. The internet is NOT killing the USPS.

http://www.savethepostoffice.com/internet-myth-why-email-isnt-killing-snail-mail

Very little USPS mail is "household" mail anymore, as opposed to business or governmental. The decline in household mail started twenty-some years ago, and is mostly attributable to telephone rates getting cheaper. Don't buy the hype.

Add on edit: I'm not sure how you worked it, but I get exactly the same number of bills in the mail each month as I did 20 years ago.

[former9thward]

74. You are not in the 21st century.

Most people get all their bills online now. And pay them online. You are wrong about the decline starting 25 years ago. The peak year for delivery was 2006 with 213 billion pieces delivered. It is now down to 160 billion pieces.

[mac56]

77. I pay no bills online and I'm not alone in that.

Banking and account information online.. gosh, what could possibly go wrong there.

[former9thward]

78. Hudreds of millions of transactions go on every day.

Almost none of them have any problems.

[mac56]

79. Almost.

I've never had a bill payment get lost in the mail.

[former9thward]

80. There are always people who wish to deny and defy technology.

They die off soon enough and the world moves on.

[CalFresh]

82. Please don't kill

their chicken little moment. The sky is falling! The sky is falling!

Go back to school and learn a new skill. The private sector has been doing it for years. Ask Henry Waxman.

[mac56]

83. "They die off soon enough..."

Classy.

[ChisolmTrailDem]

81. What do you mean by "you guys"? Are you not one of us...

Liberal/Democrat/Progressive that is?

You won't last long here if you're a right-winger.

[tclambert]

43. The USPS would make a handsome profit if it charged the same postage rates as Canada,

about 60¢ for first class. In Great Britain, it's about 66¢. In Germany, 75¢. In Japan, 96¢! That was in 2011.

Before you start, yes, at higher postage rates, people would send fewer letters. They usually figure the trade-off as being 5:4 (for every nickel you increase rates you only get 4¢ more revenue). It's not hard to do this math. But again Republicans in Congress have blocked any consideration of such a rate increase.

[FarCenter]

55. What they need to do is to increase postal rates on other than first class and packages.

Raise the rates on second class, bulk mail, magazines, newspapers and the rest of the junk.

[tclambert]

67. I agree. Business mail should pay for itself, not rely on first class mail to subsidize it.

[former9thward]

84. The exact opposite is true.

Junk mail subsidizes first class mail. Always has. Bulk mail is sorted by zip code and sectional centers prior to delivery to the post office. In some cases it is sorted down to the carrier route. So when the post office gets it there is very little processing that takes place.

[sketchy]

45. K & R

[sketchy]

50. Do they or don't they need Congressional approval for this??

From the AP article:

http://bigstory.ap.org/article/postal-service-cut-saturday-mail-trim-costs

“It was not immediately clear how the service could eliminate Saturday mail without congressional approval.”

[aquart]

53. Once again, privatization fails.

[sketchy]

57. Vicious cycle (good post in another thread by Hay rick)

http://www.democraticunderground.com/10022321264

by Hay rick

Vicious cycle

Stopping Saturday delivery will remove one of the few competitive advantages that the Postal Service has been allowed to maintain. The projected savings will be diminished by an additional marginal loss of business. Not picking up from collection boxes on Saturday will damage delivery standards in exchange for trivial savings. Pushing the delivery of weekend mail will make Mondays, already the heaviest day of the week, unmanageable without further delaying mail.

The real story here is the sabotage of the Postal Service by ideologues and the vested private interests who stand to benefit from this exercise in self-fulfilling prophecy.

[RandiFan1290]

64. They win again!

I'm so fucking shocked!!

[sketchy]

75. kick n/t