You Heard It From The Top
Recently two of the top executives of the USPS spoke publically about the future of the Postal Service. On February 28, 2010 PMG John Potter was published in the Washington Post authoring an article entitled "Five Myths about the U.S. Postal Service". Here are some of the things he said:
⇒ Congress reimburses the USPS for free mail for the blind and absentee-ballot mailing for overseas military personnel. Otherwise, we have not received taxpayer funds to support postal operations since 1982; in fact, though we're often described as "quasi-governmental," we're required by law to cover our costs.
⇒ Ten years ago it took 70 employees one hour to sort 35,000 letters. Today, in that same hour, two employees process that same volume of mail. Though the number of addresses in the nation has grown by nearly 18 million in the past decade, the number of employees who handle the increased delivery load has decreased by more than 200,000.
⇒ In the last quarter of 2009, on-time overnight delivery of single-piece first-class mail was at 96% for the fifth straight quarter, an agency best.
⇒ According to the Federal Trade Commission, as little as 2% of identity crimes occur through the mail. Theft of a wallet or purse is responsible for 5% -- meaning your documents are safer in the mail then they are in your pocket.
⇒ Last year, we recycled more than 200,000 tons of paper, plastics and other waste -- the equivalent of saving 1.67 million barrels of oil.
⇒ Although stamp prices have increased about 33% over the past ten years, this increase is in line with inflation. By comparison, private carriers raised their prices by as much as 60% between 1999 and 2009.
⇒ On March 2, we are releasing our plan for future financial viability and greater business flexibility -- a plan that will keep the Postal Service thriving for years to come.
On February 26th the Chief Financial Officer of the USPS, Joseph Corbett, was interviewed by CFO.com. Some of his comments included:
♦ The Service lost $3.8 billion in 2009, $2.8 billion in 2008, and $5.1 billion in 2007. Those losses "have placed unprecedented demands on our operating liquidity".
♦ At the same time the Agency must prefund its retiree health benefit plans by $5.5 billion on or before September 30 and pay $1.1 billion in workers compensation bills to the Department of Labor by October.
♦ We really had to understand where our cash was at the end of each month and where it would be at the end of the year to make sure we were liquid.
♦ The downturn has been a catalyst for change. When mail volumes dropped so quickly, we had to rally the troops and find ways to take more hours out of the organization very fast. We also had to find creative ways to reduce our cost basis and look at diversifying our revenue streams throughout.
♦ Our fiscal year 2009 cost savings totaled $6 billion, including a reduction of 115 million work hours, or the equivalent of 65,000 full-time employees. We've been able to take out overtime hours and implement a hiring freeze; we have not actually laid off people. We don't expect to be able to make the same level of cuts this year, but we do have a goal of taking out over 90 million work hours in 2010.
♦ We're working closely with Congress and the administration to come up with a way that we can return to profitability in two to three years and begin paying down our debt without costing the U.S. taxpayer a nickel.
♦ Right now, we're extremely heavily regulated and as a result have difficulty reacting to the market. We have an $8 billion (in sales) package business that is totaly competitive. We're the third player in the U.S. market. behind Fed Ex and UPS. The rest of our business, roughly $60 billion is primarily mail -- advertising mail, standard mail, and first class mail.
♦ We'd like to be able to go from six-day delivery to five-day delivery. That would allow us to save over $3 billion a year and start to return us toward profitability.
♦ The cost of health benefits and other benefits that our employees enjoy - if we are able to get increased flexibility from our union workers -- over 500,000 of our employees are union employees -- that starts to save substanial amounts a year.
There you are. Top postal management on the future and what needs to be done to keep the Postal Service viable. See much concern there for employees or their future? The only organization concerned about you and working to keep you from becomming a casual is the Union. Think about it.
