USPS to run out of money by September

[billanole]

So?
They don't need "refrigerated trucks", they need to have "freezers" at major warehouses to store stuff for an extra day or two. That's not a major cost, it's an incremental cost for unusual packages.

I am not sure you understand the consolidation of regional centers that have already occurred, but that is another story. The number of “major warehouses” is shrinking for the USPS.
Adding “freezers” to a system struggling is not the way to keep costs down.

 

[Joes Place]

Agreed. Medication needing to be kept cool is not a show stopper to changing USPS’s delivery schedule.

So long as the delivery dates are fully understood all thru the supply chain. Correct.
Added expense for those packages? Yep

But based on the small number/need, I suspect that would be a small incremental cost as compared to running trucks 2x as often. You reduce wear/tear on your equipment and your fuel costs by 1/2 by dropping to 3 day a week delivery. Perhaps that, alone, would allow USPS to run in the black.

 

[Joes Place]

I am not sure you understand the consolidation of regional centers that have already occurred, but that is another story. The number of “major warehouses” is shrinking for the USPS.
Adding “freezers” to a system struggling is not the way to keep costs down.

See post above about cost savings for fuel/wear&tear - even lower salary costs and employment #'s you'd have.

Sure, I'm speculating, but I'd guess this incremental upcharge would be a rounding error, compared with 40-50% lower costs for every-other-day-deliveries.

 

[Nipigu]

VA can ship via UPS as well. There’s no problem related to shipping medication that can’t be solved if USPS would change their delivery schedule.

 

[billanole]

See post above about cost savings for fuel/wear&tear - even lower salary costs and employment #'s you'd have.

Sure, I'm speculating, but I'd guess this incremental upcharge would be a rounding error, compared with 40-50% lower costs for every-other-day-deliveries.

The better route for time sensitive savings is to require next day delivery coordinated with the lesser days of operation. This costs more up front, but less behind the scenes.
I think a point being missed in this discussion, is that many rural routes were already slammed before this slowdown came down the pike. Our driver often had amazon packages strapped to the roof on our route and Sunday deliveries had become the norm at Christmas.
Going to lesser days of delivery, at this time of increased “distance” buying, would very well likely call for larger and more expensive vehicles, which would in fact mitigate some of the savings.
Perhaps the volume of deliveries ramps back up, perhaps not. Time will tell.

 

[The Governator]

I'm on board with cutting delivery down to 3 days per week. If you need to send something time sensitive, there are other avenues for that.

I also like the idea of neighborhood mailboxes. Instead of having someone saunter around from house to house, put all of the mailboxes in one spot.

 

[Joes Place]

(CNN) - Rain or snow, the mail must go through, but will the U.S. Postal Service survive the coronavirus pandemic?

The postal service says it will run out of money by September if Congress doesn't step in to help.

Postmaster General Megan Brennan spoke with lawmakers Thursday, asking for $75 billion to keep the service afloat.

She says the service will likely see a $13 billion revenue hit this year.

Democrats on the House Oversight Committee are relaying Brennan's call for help.

The postal service isn't getting money from Congress' $2.2 trillion relief package and Republicans, including President Trump, have signaled a reluctance to bail it out.

Congress’s oversight of the U.S. Postal Service is founded in the Constitution.

It's part of the PLAN, bro:

 

[fredjr82]

You realize that puts you in Trump's camp.

It's OK to support the President on some issues and call his bullshit on others. You should try it sometime

 

[ft254]

USPS hasn't recovered since 2006 when GW forced them to fund pensions for decades in the future.

They were struggling for survival long before that, but that was the blow to kill every business/corporation.

The Postal Service's requests for rate increases have been delayed by congress consistently which has caused a perpetual deficit in operating costs. As these delays lengthened, as conservative members wanted to see the organization fail, the problems grew.

The pension funding was a deliberate attempt to hasten the demise of the Postal Service.

The logistics system of the Postal Service is among the largest and most sophisticated in the world. It is difficult to envision the complexity of a letter mailed from any point and delivered to any point within one, two, or 3 days. Parcels, express, Military Mail.

The difficulty the Postal Service has faced is these past years is difficult to quantify. The major commercial carriers, FedEx, UPS will never enter the mail delivery arena. They would be where the USPS is.

 

[ft254]

The better route for time sensitive savings is to require next day delivery coordinated with the lesser days of operation. This costs more up front, but less behind the scenes.
I think a point being missed in this discussion, is that many rural routes were already slammed before this slowdown came down the pike. Our driver often had amazon packages strapped to the roof on our route and Sunday deliveries had become the norm at Christmas.
Going to lesser days of delivery, at this time of increased “distance” buying, would very well likely call for larger and more expensive vehicles, which would in fact mitigate some of the savings.
Perhaps the volume of deliveries ramps back up, perhaps not. Time will tell.

 

[ft254]

Every citizen is equally entitled to mail service. That is the premise in which the Postal Service operates. Every piece of mail, 1st, 2nd...and what people refer to as "junk mail" is equally valuable.

 

[BioHawk]

Ha! Just one more notch on Trump's bedpost of bankrupted businesses. He'll wear it like a badge of honor.

 

[QChawks]

 

[Hawk It Up]

If we’re going to treat governmental departments as profit centers, when are we going to shut down the department of defense?

 

[Nipigu]

Is Trump still stealing mail boxes?

 

[goldmom]

You realize that puts you in Trump's camp.

If it makes sense regardless, shouldn't it be looked at?

 

[goldmom]

Is Trump still stealing mail boxes?

Yeah, that limo trunk is overflowing.

 

[goldmom]

It's part of the PLAN, bro:

View embedded media

Jobs at risk? Seriously? Nooo. Right now the USPS has. Hiring freeze on, and if you've noticed, many of their folks are near retirement anyway. Attrition...

So, end of September they run out of money. Isn't that the end of their fiscal year? Aren't they supposed to be low on funds anyway by that time? You know, used up their 2020 funding? And it's a public fact that they're fully funded for 2021 already.

Junk mail needs to either stop filling up our mailboxes or start paying a LOT more. And no more Saturday deliveries.

 

[Nipigu]

And no more Saturday deliveries.

Except for my Saturday and Sunday Amazon deliveries, right? Right?

 

[ping72]

Somebody needs to explain to me how removing sorting machines saves money; I’m obviously dumb.

 

[alaskanseminole]

Double the fees for all the junk mail!!

Solved!

 

[PerkyForHerky]

Not funding pensions and not contributing so much to their retirees' healthcare would be a start.

 

[rocketclone]

But but old people won't get their checks.

 

[BeepBeepInMyJeep]

Cutting Saturday service always seemed to make a lot of sense to me from a staffing standpoint. The six day week makes things much more challenging than 5 days a week.

If the goal is to make the post office more profitable, or lose less money, they should also limit service outside of urban areas, and in towns smaller than 1000 or something, they should only get mail 2 or 3 days a week. Those routes are much more costly and less efficient than urban and suburban areas. That's not being anti-rural folk. But I live in the suburbs and I get a government funded plow that hits my street and clears it off no less than 6 hours after it snows, rural areas don't have that, and that's just part of the trade-off. If you pay less in taxes, you get less in services, that's just how it is.

 

[goldmom]

But but old people won't get their checks.

Yeah. They've been waiting a while, too. Last SSI checks in the mail went out in 2013.

 

[Joes Place]

If we’re going to treat governmental departments as profit centers, when are we going to shut down the department of defense?

They're gonna need to start taking that Iraqi oil to justify their cost basis....

 

[goldmom]

Cutting Saturday service always seemed to make a lot of sense to me from a staffing standpoint. The six day week makes things much more challenging than 5 days a week.

If the goal is to make the post office more profitable, or lose less money, they should also limit service outside of urban areas, and in towns smaller than 1000 or something, they should only get mail 2 or 3 days a week. Those routes are much more costly and less efficient than urban and suburban areas. That's not being anti-rural folk. But I live in the suburbs and I get a government funded plow that hits my street and clears it off no less than 6 hours after it snows, rural areas don't have that, and that's just part of the trade-off. If you pay less in taxes, you get less in services, that's just how it is.

Those routes are handled now by contract providers who aren't regular USPS employees.

 

[Hawk It Up]

But but old people won't get their checks.

Meds.

I think you mean prescription meds.

Like you care about that.

 

[St. Louis Hawk]

Somebody needs to explain to me how removing sorting machines saves money; I’m obviously dumb.

To quote Letterman, the answer is they make up for it in volume. Volume, volume, volume

 

[hawkifann]

THIS is the key. UPS and FedEx skim the cream.

That's correct. If there's an expectation that the USPS be a profit center, small rural areas are going to lose mail delivery or have shipping rates skyrocket. Nevermind the 50 years of pension funding mandated by law that no other public or private entity is required to do.

 

[Hawk It Up]

Those routes are handled now by contract providers who aren't regular USPS employees.

You know who holds those contracts?

XP Logistcs.

Do you know who used to be the CEO of XP Logistics, and still holds between $30 and $75 million dollars of their stock and made $7 million in income from them last year?

Postmaster General Louis DeJoy.

Now what possible benefit to him would outsourcing possibly be?

 

[Joes Place]

That's correct. If there's an expectation that the USPS be a profit center, small rural areas are going to lose mail delivery or have shipping rates skyrocket. Nevermind the 50 years of pension funding mandated by law that no other public or private entity is required to do.

75 years

 

[goldmom]

You know who holds those contracts?

XP Logistcs.

Do you know who used to be the CEO of XP Logistics, and still holds between $30 and $75 million dollars of their stock and made $7 million in income from them last year?

Postmaster General Louis DeJoy.

Now what possible benefit to him would outsourcing possibly be?

I appreciate that info. I'm going to be verifying it -

 

[Hawk It Up]

I appreciate that info. I'm going to be verifying it -

Dont be citing gateway pundit, Brietbart, or OANN

 

[hawkifann]

75 years

Oh yeah, you're correct. 50 would also be ridiculous.

 

[joelbc1]

Trump learned this from Branstad. You tell folks Government is not efficient. You underfund it. Then you place incompetent managers in charge. And guess what happens ver time?
This is not only a Branstad MO, it is the MO “small government conservatives” employ routinely. They fail to admit what they want to do is end all government services.

 

[goldmom]

Dont be citing gateway pundit, Brietbart, or OANN

Never have.

 

[Hawk It Up]

Never have.

Well, what did you find?

 

[Hendy hawk]

But but old people won't get their checks.

We old people don't get our checks by mail anyway.
Hell if it was not for an old person you would not be around.

 

[Hawk It Up]

I appreciate that info. I'm going to be verifying it -