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You can thank the recession, e-mail, and e-billing for the latest round of losses the United States Postal Service has posted. The USPS said that it operated at a $2.4 billion loss for the months of April through June. This means that for the year, the post office has lost a total of $4.7 billion and will likely lose up to $7 for the fiscal year (which ends September 30).

Postmaster General John Potter said, ‘What has occurred in the economy is unprecedented and it has created a much greater challenge than we can respond to quickly. We’re trying to navigate our way through a challenging period of time.”

Over the past few years, the total amount of mail per volume has declined. If you add in the recession with that, then the volume of mail has taken a sharp turn south. People simply aren’t sending letters anymore. Most of the change came when it became so much easier just to sign up for e-bill payment and you wouldn’t have to worry with stamps and how long it takes for something to get to the recipient, it’s instant.

So, things could be changing at the USPS soon. These changes include:

- Cutting the work week to five days instead of the current six.
- Closing several hundred offices.
- Selling post office buildings and relocating to space that is leased.

There is already a hiring freeze in place. Salaries have also been frozen. However, these freezes don’t help out with the $5.5 billion a year that the post office has to spend for retiree health benefits. These funds aren’t required by other government agencies. If the post office were to do away with the benefits, then it would have operated at a small profit last year and would have only lost around $2 billion this year instead of the projected $7 billion.

In the previous year, the number of mail pieces has fallen 9.5 billion pieces and is expected to fall by an additional 28 billion this year.

Jeremy

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