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Valued Member
United States
161 Posts |
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*** Moved by Staff to a more appropriate forum.  ***As reported by Reuters. Not sure if this will lead to better services by USPS... Quote:
U.S. Postmaster General Louis DeJoy told Congress he signed an agreement with Elon Musk's DOGE government reform team to provide assistance to the money-losing agency as it works to address "big problems."
USPS, an independent government agency with 635,000 employees that lost $9.5 billion last year, has been exempt from DOGE-directed federal employee reductions. DeJoy told Congress in a letter seen by Reuters that USPS plans to reduce its workforce by 10,000 workers in the next month through a voluntary early retirement program.
DeJoy said the agreement with DOGE and the General Services Administration will allow the government reform team to "assist us in identifying and achieving further efficiencies.... The DOGE team was gracious enough to ask for big problems they can help us with."
DeJoy cited a number of issues including mismanagement of retirement assets and its workers' compensation program by other government agencies, unfunded mandates and burdensome regulatory requirements.
DeJoy has led a dramatic effort to restructure the post office over the last five years that has used similar tactics to the DOGE team including shrinking the workforce and cancelling or renegotiating contracts.
He said the Postal Regulatory Commission "is an unnecessary agency that has inflicted over $50 billion in damage to the Postal Service by administering defective pricing models and decades old bureaucratic processes."
Last month, two media outlets reported President Donald Trump was preparing to issue an executive order to fire the Postal Service board of governors. The White House denied the plan but Trump said he was considering merging the Postal Service with the U.S. Commerce Department, a move Democrats said would violate federal law.
Musk, a billionaire top adviser to Trump, said last week he thought the Postal Service should be privatized.
Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick has said the Postal Service could help shrink the department's costs by providing workers to conduct the U.S. census, which takes place every 10 years and handle tasks performed by 20,000 Social Security employees.
The Postal Service said last month it is adopting new service standards that will save the money-losing agency at least $36 billion over 10 years.
The Postal Service has lost more than $100 billion since 2007, including $9.5 billion in the 12 months ending September 30. Last month, it reported a fourth-quarter profit of $144 million.
As electronic communications have proliferated, the agency has been hurt by an 80% decline in first-class mail volume since 1997. Volumes are now at the lowest level since 1968.
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Moderator
United States
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Thank you for the information. Let's all be sure to follow forum rules and keep the discussion stamp related. |
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Valued Member
United States
131 Posts |
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The reason the USPS loses money is that it's forced by law to do a lot of things that cost a lot of money. If UPS wants to do thing differently, they don't have politicians calling hearings about it. I doubt any residence still needs 6 day a week mail delivery. |
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Pillar Of The Community
United States
9739 Posts |
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Quote:
I doubt any residence still needs 6 day a week mail delivery. Nice of you to decide what "everybody needs". |
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Pillar Of The Community
United States
7780 Posts |
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Sounds like too many chefs are in the kitchen and way too many over paid managers not enough workers . |
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Pillar Of The Community
1805 Posts |
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USPS 635,000 employees
USA population: 340,111,000 (Wikipedia)
One in every 536 citizens (not excluding the elderly and children from the total population) works at the USPS.
If we only considered the working population...the final figure would still be...(complete the sentence) |
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| Edited by jorgesurcl - 03/14/2025 09:53 am |
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Pillar Of The Community
United States
7780 Posts |
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Your figures are correct ---There is one employee for 536 people standing in line at my local Post Office . |
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Valued Member
United States
247 Posts |
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No mention in the Reuters piece of how much money this actually saves; would be interesting to see the actual amount. |
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| Edited by gvol21 - 03/14/2025 10:17 am |
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Bedrock Of The Community
11684 Posts |
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Every organization either scales to its requirements or fails. Corporations have a responsibility to shareholders and charities have a responsibility to donors. The USPS is in that weird zone of being a Constitutional requirement and yet quasi-governmental.
Letter volume has fallen off a cliff and does anyone think it will not continue to do so? Was it the Denmark Post that just packed it in for letters? The USPS needs to compete for packages with a minor in First Class mail. It cannot maintain the same level of infrastructure it has for 10% of 1970 mail volume. The Constitution does not mention pension funds and union agreements either. Much like the auto industry concessions will have to made. A fat union contract means nothing when you don't have a job. I'm not taking a side. I have been a Teamster, Ironworker and Government Engineers union member. I have also worked in management with no protection. Much like the National debt something big needs to happen and waiting is not at all an option. |
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Pillar Of The Community
United States
1776 Posts |
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It is a workforce reduction of only 1.6%, so it's difficult to see how it solves any of the systemic problems. It feels like a limited first step that could be done quickly and with a low litigation risk so the Administration can say it did something, but any real fix will require bipartisan legislation. |
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Pillar Of The Community
United States
3304 Posts |
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Pillar Of The Community
United States
7780 Posts |
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The thing they will do is demonetize the older postage stamps,that will save billions of dollars and stop fraud with reused stamps ..
They will also cut off China with the stupid cheap rate for them to mail into U.S. for packages .
They will cut down the time for window clerks asking questions like ,"do you need extra stamps" "do you need insurance " do you need tracking" " "click here if you got explosives" "click here if the address is correct " then you say no it is first class with correct postage .My favorite was the clerk who needed a calculator to add the two stamps I had on a first class envelope . |
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Pillar Of The Community
United States
3304 Posts |
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Quote:
My favorite was the clerk who needed a calculator to add the two stamps I had on a first class envelope . Next time take mail matter with non-denomination stamps and you may for the clerk out on a brain industrial injury. |
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Bedrock Of The Community
11684 Posts |
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Quote:
They will also cut off China with the stupid cheap rate for them to mail into U.S. for packages . Done about a month ago. |
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Pillar Of The Community
United States
3867 Posts |
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"It is a workforce reduction of only 1.6%, so it's difficult to see how it solves any of the systemic problems. "
Depends on who they get rid of. If it is new hires like they did with other agencies, then no. If they get rid of some of the gazillion VPs they have, it will help more. |
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Pillar Of The Community
United States
6222 Posts |
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Quote:The first step is offering early retirement to those late in career employees. APWU and USPS Agree to One-Time Retirement Incentive, 'Early Out' for Postal Workers: https://apwu.org/news/voluntary-ear...entive-early announce 1-13-25 and updated 2-15-25. This is a method to get the highest step earners to retire. This historically has been one of the first steps prior to, or in conjunction with, actual layoffs. I saw it at the IL State Geological Survey in the 1990s when the state was having budget issues. Then in the early 20-teens at the university I worked for, and then again in the wake of COVID-19. I took early retirement under just such a buyout program. Losing over $9 billion in a single year, something has to be done, and it's never pretty. |
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| Edited by revenuecollector - 03/14/2025 7:50 pm |
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Replies: 37 / Views: 2,189 |
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Posted 03/14/2025 12:23 am
