One reason that the usps is losing money
 

they don't provide full postage printing. they let pitney bowes and stamps.com suck up some of their profits. a rep told me that they will not offer full print postage ever. :Oh crap What i think is their getting money from these companies that provide full postage printing service. Who owns the usps? the government says not me, yet a government official runs it :Oh crap enlighten me :helpme

sounds like double talk. what a bunch of legal bullshit. :2 cents:

https://youtube.com/watch?v=Eikb2lX5xYE - Sums it up pretty well :)

The reason it's losing money is because it's run by the government. All other reasons are just results of that.

yep they say so much shit it starts to turn into background noise. but if you don't listen then they got you. :helpme

Probably for similar reasons to why the IRS doesn't offer free filing directly even though they could, and would love to, implement it right now... But legally the IRS can't due to intense lobbying by tax preparation firms - instead one, assuming the person qualifies for free filing (most do), must go through one of numerous "approved" private tax filing companies, such as H&R Block, etc.

The U.S. Postal Service is, regardless of the rhetoric / spin, is most certainly a government agency, but is supposed to be financially self-sufficient.

For those with the notion that the U.S. Postal Service is private, consider the pay-scale they use - looks very governmental, because it is. And here's another one ... UPS and FedEx vehicles get ticketed all the time for parking violations and yet U.S. Postal Service vehicles, which typically aren't even registered / have no license plates, are exempt.

yep :2 cents: :2 cents: and people take it with no vaseline

Yep. Why does the IRS not offer tax prep software? Because due to the way our government is designed to run, (fair, inefficient, slow, and democratic), it would take twelve years and $500 billion to set it up, and $250 billion to update it each year. H&R Block can do FREE simple tax prep and e-file because as a business they aim to be efficient and nimble, not democratic or fair. The boss says do it, it gets done. No political debate, no votes, just get it done, without wasting years and billions of dollars.

The Postal trucks can be ticketed and often are. But the tickets are sent directly to the Post office and not given to the driver. I have even seen the trucks towed back to the post office

that's crazy its the government hurting its big brother. why a city would try to slow itself is crazy :1orglaugh mail truck towed = slowing down mail service. :helpme when will people wake up and question government waste? :helpme

I don't believe that at all. The USPS was one of two government agencies that made money.

The reason the USPS is failing is because of email and paying bills on line. Ten years ago if you wanted to send a message to someone across the country, you sent them a letter. I used to write my mother every week. Now we email. As for checks and bills, I get all of that via email and pay it online. I don't get a cell phone bill; I get a text and I pay via my phone. The only thing I get from the USPS is checks from CCBill and junk mail.

I was thinking about this the other day.... What the USPS needs to do is stop delivering to houses on a daily basis, and make everyone get a fucking PO box and make us come to them.

Their primary problem is that they have $50 billion dollars in unfunded pensions. All these years workers have been retiring from the USPS and the USPS never set aside the money to pay for those pensions. Now the bills are coming due and their revenues are way down.

There is no way they can ever dig themselves out of the hole they are now in.

There's no money in stamps.

Disagree.

The Postal Service is broke currently because of benefit issues and spending issues that they are not allowed to curb. Congress forces the post office to operate in a certain manner that makes it not profitable. The post office is not allowed to operate as a true business, yet at the same time, Congress wants them to act as a business.

The post office is screwed and it's because Congress has its hands involved. If the post office could make proper business decisions, like they want to, they would be in much better shape.

They could cut one day a week of delivery. Congress will not let this happen.

They could make benefits more comparable to private businesses. They're trying to make strides on this, but again, it's not going to happen because they still have a very strong public aspect.

They could close down unprofitable post offices. They are doing some of this, but not near as many post offices as they want because Congress will not let them.

E-mail and online bill pay is only one small aspect. UPS and FedEx are doing well. The post office needs to make changes so that they can operate better based on the current needs of our nation, not based on 100 years of law and politics.

Similar to Amtrak, the government involvement in running a business makes certain that nothing will be done efficiently. Ever.

Yet private business has the option of bankruptcy at various levels just in case?

yeah :( im printing close to 500 labels a month. I hate being attached to a middle man to print my postage :helpme

i cant afford a stamp... :(

:1orglaugh broke muther fucker j/k a guy on last comic standing used that in his jokes.

Very good points. Benefits are pulling down a lot of companies as their work force retires.

yeah right a company making millions is just greedy, if they cant kick in retirement.

actually the reason the post office is having a problem in 2006 :
"Yes, that’s precisely what it did. The congressional notion was that the Postal Service was making lots of money selling its products and services, and so it might be a good idea to put those profits into pre-funding future retiree health care benefits for the next 75 years and do so in a decade. No one else, public or private, does this – but it would put the Postal Service that much more ahead of the game in terms of future liabilities. And so, in 2006, Congress mandated that the USPS do so, at a price tag of about $5.5 billion a year."
http://www.cnbc.com/id/45049636/Fixi...ice_s_Finances
So they had them prepaying 75 yrs of benefits in 10 yrs.They take no tax dollars and congress put a burden on them no private company has.

I was reading the ceo of apple's total comp last year was over $300 million dollars.

The problem is that for decades they have not been kicking in the retirement. In most companies if you have a 401K or some kind of retirement the company adds money to the account every pay period (or quarter or however often they have it scheduled) so that they are adding money into your retirement fund the entire time you are working there so when you do retire and start to draw it, they already have it set aside.

The post office (and many other government entities) didn't do that. They said, "You get a pension." but they never set any cash aside to pay for said pension. So when you retire and you start to draw it, your pension becomes another expense for them. Now as all those baby boomers are retiring it is starting to hurt.

They have changed their course and now are funding pensions as they go, but there are billions worth of unfunded pensions still on the books for them so by funding current pensions and still paying out of pocket for older pensions it has put a huge financial burden on them. Add in that their revenue is declining and it is a perfect shit storm for them.

In my eyes the USPS will never be profitable again and we as a nation will have to decide whether we value the service enough that we will pay for it or of we don't want it anymore and we can scrap it and use other alternatives that will take its place.

The package is closer to $500M, but it's not like he got that all last year. There are a lot of stipulations that cover a period of upcoming time.

I'm not saying that isn't a lot of money, obviously it's a ton. But he isn't getting it simply for one year of service.

I think they have to stream line. Also they should be allowed to ship wine, offer to pack things for shipping, notary public, fax services. All the services you see at a ups store. its fucked up they take no tax dollars but congress sets the rules for them.

I have a feeling there will be an actual bailout at some point and they will finally be federalized.

Do you think they don't make up for those 43 cent letters we took away with email with the 15 dollar priority mail shipments from ebay and amazon?

They could stop them having to kick in 5.5 billion every year to fund 75 yrs down the road. That would probably help. They are like a weird hybrid. They get no gov funding but congress drives the bus.

I agree. If they are going to have a chance of at least breaking even they need to be like those UPS stores. Also, if they ended Saturday delivery I wouldn't care. They likely could streamline and save a lot of money and eventually when they get caught up on the pension stuff they could be profitable. The mail itself is dying so they will have to find other revenue streams if they want a hope at surviving.

I used to sell a ton of stuff on Ebay so I was at the post office pretty much every day. A few of the people that work there told me that stuff from ebay/amazon and online sales is pretty much the only reason they are still around. If it weren't for those things and some junk mail they would have hardly any revenue.

You know it is a big deal for them because if you go in and tell them you will be ebaying a lot of stuff they will bend over backwards for you. They would deliver boxes and tape to my house and if I used the flat rate boxes I paid online and they would pick them up from my house. They do seem to be working hard to get that business.

Bingo. Also losing a lot of letter business has helped the Post office not hurt it. They dont make money on delivering 44 cent letters. They make money on packages, which they have kept up good with. Yeah less people send letters but there are many more packages as people buy products online more now. Another huge problem is the bloated government wages they give the workers.

Yeah, they are bloated for sure. I was reading a few months ago that the average letter carrier/mail carrier makes close to $60K per year. That seems like a lot for what is basically a delivery job.

Last pickup yesterday (tax day) in a metropolis of about 100,000: 5:30 pm.

Used to be able to take your return to a post office for a timestamp before midnight on tax day.

So yeah, kind of lame.

All that money that you load toa stamps.com account goes to USPS. I canceled a account and got a check back from usps not stamps.com. I would assume stamps.com gets a kickback.

Well, to be fair, unlike pizza delivery guys, mailmen don't get tips. :1orglaugh

Seems a lot because wages, when adjusted for inflation, in many occupations have dropped dramatically. Was a time when one person could work a regular (as in not highly skilled) job and support an entire family comfortably.

Household income has remained somewhat steady over time, but that's often due to two people, often working multiple jobs. Many government statistics mask the wage drop by using "household" income instead of "individual" income, which itself, can be misleading, since many individuals work more than one job these days unlike 30+ years ago.

right because the postage is usps. the only thing stamps.com gives you is printing paper and scales. its a legal grey area why usps doesn't provide full printing.

It's a government bureaucracy, that's why it and every other one loses money.