Five Years Left Before The USPS Hits The Fan

You mean "be in the black" (profit).




No, it means they must pre-fund until the last current-employee-future-retiree dies.

This is a very sensible rule, and Congress should make it mandatory for every employer in the country, public & private, period.

It is an especially sensible rule for an employer for whom the handwriting has been on the wall for some time.




Oh, for goodness' sake. The near elimination of left turns was accomplished with a guy and a flashlight and a map in the four California zip codes in which I delivered mail ... in 1981.

The early-morning parcel-only guys I see delivering SmartPost/SurePost are pretty much following the same route maps as the letter carriers.

Letter carriers are not required to stop at a roadside mailbox if they do not have mail to deliver and the flag is not up ... that's what the flag is for.

As to USPS being saved by eCommerce, Amazon is building-out their own network and FDX is building-out their 6th-day 7th-day service and, once the AMZN & FDX business is gone, USPS will be forced to raise its parcel rates, creating a magnificent opportunity for UPS & FDX to take away most of the USPS parcel business, once & for all.

Cheers,

/s/ ikeyPikey

The priority mail flat rate boxes have always been cheaper than other carriers for typical folks. Businesses get substantial discounts with FedEx and UPS If Amazon and others tackle delivery then FedEx and UPS will likely suffer too. They may be more B2B.

I don't care if they go out of business in five years. I'm quitting collecting current USA after THIS year.

Jack Kelley

Given that the USPS is not part of the federal government and does not receive any funding from taxpayer dollars, what allows Congress to meddle and dictate this prefunding requirement solely for the USPS and none of its competitors? Seems like a pretty uneven playing field to me. You require ANY company to take on this obligation and it would shake up their business model radically.

I don't want to get into the merits of whether the prefunding is good or bad in principle, that's a different discussion... but why ONLY the USPS and no other companies?

The Postal Act of 1792.

I believe the USPS came to be under a reorganization act in 1971. The only differences from the original USPO, is that it lost a seat in the President's cabinet &: no longer was funded under the Congressional appropriations, but answered to the Congress, independently governed by a board, appointed by the President. Although not tax funded, the USPS still enjoyed the benefits of all Government agencies & was still accountable to the Congress. After its 1st 10 years the USPS broke even, then actually started to produce 'profits' which was reinvested for modernization, innovation, and upkeep. Congress saw the cash-cow & decided to grab these profits with passing a law requiring the USPS to pay a 'tax' to the Treasury by an assessment of $5billion annually for retiree health insurance. As the economy in this genre became weakened by the electronic era, and added competition of all article delivery (with the exception of 1st class mails) the USPS started losing monies and so it goes each year until that health insurance obligation goes away. (It is really more complicated but I tried to keep it simple)

Thanks... in other words, typical government idiocy.