JupiterSunsation
New member
If the govt. does such a great job in this industry (no real competition, monopoly really) can't wait to see what happens to GM, AIG and others that the US govt. has subsidized.
Postal Service now a 'high risk' government agency with $10 billion in debt
By LONA O'CONNOR
Palm Beach Post Staff Writer
Sunday, October 11, 2009
When post offices in West Palm Beach, Lantana and Boca Raton wound up on the U.S. Postal Service's endangered list, supporters were alarmed enough to sign petitions and call lawmakers for assistance.
But the Postal Service is in such desperate straits that closing those three branches - among a potential 371 nationwide - hardly begins to plug the money drain.
In July, the Postal Service landed on the federal government's "high-risk list" of agencies in financial trouble, suffocating under $10 billion in debt, making it the bureaucratic equivalent of Florida's imperiled gopher tortoise.
Meanwhile, demand for postal services has gone into free fall with the economy. The volume of the U.S. mail has dropped 17 percent in the past two years, after hitting an all-time peak in 2006.
The result, as in many businesses: cost-cutting. So the Postal Service is proposing to shed thousands of jobs, end Saturday delivery and close branches around the country.
On Friday, the agency said Boca Raton's downtown post office, Lantana's branch on Ocean Avenue and the Southboro branch in West Palm Beach remain in danger. Nationwide, the chop list will likely drop closer to 200.
That doesn't sit well with Boca Raton Mayor Susan Whelchel and Lantana historian Jack Carpenter, who have organized petition drives and called their congressmen in an attempt to save their local post offices.
Carpenter, a former Lantana councilman, is skeptical of the Postal Service's explanations.
"I spent 14 years in government," he said. "We don't get the facts. We get what they want to tell us."
Union representatives say the cuts - especially in employees - lead to worse service.
"I watch people walk out of long lines every day, and the employees are stressing out. It's tough on everybody," said Kevin Baker, treasurer of the Miami-area local of the American Postal Workers Union.
Meanwhile, the Postal Service's proposed branch closings would save only $20 million to $100 million, a drop in the bucket of its $5 billion deficit, Postmaster General John E. Potter said Thursday at a National Press Club luncheon.
Some trends, especially the rise of e-mail and online bill paying, have undoubtedly eroded demand for the Postal Service's offerings while sticking it with the "snail mail" tag.
But the agency says the unprecedented decline in mail volume since 2006 can be attributed to the economy's sharp decline in the same period.
"We were doing OK with the Internet, but what put the big hole in the bucket for us was the economy," said Postal Service spokesman Gary Sawtelle. "It took away our biggest customers."
Businesses such as banks and insurance companies could no longer afford to send out the same volume of mailings as they had in the past, and that put the hurt on the postal service, he said.
Because it literally takes an act of Congress to make major changes in the hulking postal system, Potter asked the subcommittee that oversees the Postal Service for permission to drop Saturday delivery, which would save about $3.3 billion per year. That decision is pending.
In September, Potter got a $4 billion reprieve on the Postal Service's pre-payment of next year's pension contribution.
The agency also has sought to reduce its workforce.
With 727,000 employees, the Postal Service is the largest civilian federal agency. At its peak in 1999, it had nearly 800,000 employees, making it the third largest employer in the country after the Pentagon and Wal-Mart.
This year the Postal Service has sweetened the deal for older employees by adding as much as a $15,000 bonus for leaving. The service hopes to save $500 million if 23,000 eligible workers take buyouts by the Nov. 30 deadline.
While Potter wondered Thursday why such a fuss has arisen about 200 post offices, residents were collecting signatures to save the ones in Boca Raton, Lantana and West Palm Beach. That's because their post offices are much more to them than a line in a budget.
Since the founding of the Postal Service's original incarnation under Ben Franklin in 1775, post offices have served as centers of social and informational commerce, said Columbia University professor and postal historian Richard R. John. "The post office was at the very center of community life," he said.
It still is, say Boca Raton's Whelchel and Lantana's Carpenter.
No one predicts the demise of the Postal Service, but it will never again be the postcard-cute whitewashed shack of yore.
Already, 30 percent of its revenue comes from alternative sources, such as online stamp buying, self-serve facilities that can weigh your package and sell you the correct postage, and the snappily named "contract postal units," which are mini-post offices in gas stations or grocery stores.
Florida now has hundreds of contract postal units, offering many but not all of the services of a regular post office, and sometimes better hours.
Meanwhile, most Americans have resigned themselves to shrinkage of the Postal Service. In a USA Today/Gallup poll taken in January, 57 percent said they would prefer service cuts instead of price increases. By July, that number rose to 66 percent, Gallup reported.
Postal Service now a 'high risk' government agency with $10 billion in debt
By LONA O'CONNOR
Palm Beach Post Staff Writer
Sunday, October 11, 2009
When post offices in West Palm Beach, Lantana and Boca Raton wound up on the U.S. Postal Service's endangered list, supporters were alarmed enough to sign petitions and call lawmakers for assistance.
But the Postal Service is in such desperate straits that closing those three branches - among a potential 371 nationwide - hardly begins to plug the money drain.
In July, the Postal Service landed on the federal government's "high-risk list" of agencies in financial trouble, suffocating under $10 billion in debt, making it the bureaucratic equivalent of Florida's imperiled gopher tortoise.
Meanwhile, demand for postal services has gone into free fall with the economy. The volume of the U.S. mail has dropped 17 percent in the past two years, after hitting an all-time peak in 2006.
The result, as in many businesses: cost-cutting. So the Postal Service is proposing to shed thousands of jobs, end Saturday delivery and close branches around the country.
On Friday, the agency said Boca Raton's downtown post office, Lantana's branch on Ocean Avenue and the Southboro branch in West Palm Beach remain in danger. Nationwide, the chop list will likely drop closer to 200.
That doesn't sit well with Boca Raton Mayor Susan Whelchel and Lantana historian Jack Carpenter, who have organized petition drives and called their congressmen in an attempt to save their local post offices.
Carpenter, a former Lantana councilman, is skeptical of the Postal Service's explanations.
"I spent 14 years in government," he said. "We don't get the facts. We get what they want to tell us."
Union representatives say the cuts - especially in employees - lead to worse service.
"I watch people walk out of long lines every day, and the employees are stressing out. It's tough on everybody," said Kevin Baker, treasurer of the Miami-area local of the American Postal Workers Union.
Meanwhile, the Postal Service's proposed branch closings would save only $20 million to $100 million, a drop in the bucket of its $5 billion deficit, Postmaster General John E. Potter said Thursday at a National Press Club luncheon.
Some trends, especially the rise of e-mail and online bill paying, have undoubtedly eroded demand for the Postal Service's offerings while sticking it with the "snail mail" tag.
But the agency says the unprecedented decline in mail volume since 2006 can be attributed to the economy's sharp decline in the same period.
"We were doing OK with the Internet, but what put the big hole in the bucket for us was the economy," said Postal Service spokesman Gary Sawtelle. "It took away our biggest customers."
Businesses such as banks and insurance companies could no longer afford to send out the same volume of mailings as they had in the past, and that put the hurt on the postal service, he said.
Because it literally takes an act of Congress to make major changes in the hulking postal system, Potter asked the subcommittee that oversees the Postal Service for permission to drop Saturday delivery, which would save about $3.3 billion per year. That decision is pending.
In September, Potter got a $4 billion reprieve on the Postal Service's pre-payment of next year's pension contribution.
The agency also has sought to reduce its workforce.
With 727,000 employees, the Postal Service is the largest civilian federal agency. At its peak in 1999, it had nearly 800,000 employees, making it the third largest employer in the country after the Pentagon and Wal-Mart.
This year the Postal Service has sweetened the deal for older employees by adding as much as a $15,000 bonus for leaving. The service hopes to save $500 million if 23,000 eligible workers take buyouts by the Nov. 30 deadline.
While Potter wondered Thursday why such a fuss has arisen about 200 post offices, residents were collecting signatures to save the ones in Boca Raton, Lantana and West Palm Beach. That's because their post offices are much more to them than a line in a budget.
Since the founding of the Postal Service's original incarnation under Ben Franklin in 1775, post offices have served as centers of social and informational commerce, said Columbia University professor and postal historian Richard R. John. "The post office was at the very center of community life," he said.
It still is, say Boca Raton's Whelchel and Lantana's Carpenter.
No one predicts the demise of the Postal Service, but it will never again be the postcard-cute whitewashed shack of yore.
Already, 30 percent of its revenue comes from alternative sources, such as online stamp buying, self-serve facilities that can weigh your package and sell you the correct postage, and the snappily named "contract postal units," which are mini-post offices in gas stations or grocery stores.
Florida now has hundreds of contract postal units, offering many but not all of the services of a regular post office, and sometimes better hours.
Meanwhile, most Americans have resigned themselves to shrinkage of the Postal Service. In a USA Today/Gallup poll taken in January, 57 percent said they would prefer service cuts instead of price increases. By July, that number rose to 66 percent, Gallup reported.
