Whatever the reason, the U.S. Postal Service revealed today it had a bang-up October, with domestic mail volume up nearly 7% over the same month last year, rather than the 2% decrease USPS was expecting.
The beleaguered agency had "controllable operating income" of $647 million in the first month of Fiscal Year 2015, more than double what it budgeted or what it earned last October. Controllable operating income excludes what is euphemistically referred to as prepaid retiree health benefits, which USPS has stopped paying, and accounting adjustments for the future cost of workers compensation cases.
Big growth areas
Major mail categories with significant revenue increases over October 2013 included "Permit Imprint Nonprofit Standard" (43%), Parcel Select (30%), "Permit Imprint Regular Standard" (14%), and "Permit Imprint First-Class (7%), according to an in-depth financial report also released today. Even the Periodicals class was up a bit.
In the first month with aggressive parcel rates for large business mailers, volume for Shipping & Package Services rose 14% and revenue by 12%.
Despite the higher volumes, work hours increased by less than 2% and total expenses by less than 3%.
It will take more than one strong month, however, to get one of the country's largest employers out of the financial woods. USPS is frequently on the verge of running out of cash, and it has no ability to borrow money, even for such mission-critical needs as replacing its decrepit, inefficient delivery vehicles.
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The Postal Service should be put on the Stock Exchange as a public utility. The objective is to eliminate all full time postal employees and turn the mail processing over to independent mail processors who were created by the post office at the beginning of automation. All of the data,with regard to mail volume,that was put into the mail processing machines at the completion of automation in 2006 is fraudulent. The information was taken from bulk belt systems that hadn't been operational for over a decade. Mail volume figures were inflated to justify the acquisition of of additional mail processing equipment which was given to the independent mail processors, free of charge. The issue of the Postal Service losing money should be about the issue of the no-bid, tax free contracts that are circulated between the independent mail processors, postal equipment manufacturers, large mass mailers and postal managers. Former Postmaster John Potter testified, in 08, to the Committee on Homeland Security, that he recommended that the contracts be awarded to former associates. This is a violation of the RECO Statute and the Fair Trade Act.
ReplyDeleteWhen postal employees and the union are eliminated, these contracts will go uncontested and the $5 billion per year that is being put into the retirement fund will go to executive bonuses, moving and travel expenses.