I'd look into the Postal Accountability and Enhancement Act of 2006 that was passed by Congress in 2006. The law requires USPS to prepay health care benefits for retirees on a 50-year schedule, starting with an “aggressive obligation” of setting aside over $5 billion a year for 10 years. The law also put price caps on first-class mail, liming the Postal Service’s ability to bring in more money.

After it was passed, the USPS went from generating a yearly profit to losing money every year; it reported a net income fo $900 million in 2006 and reported a loss of $3.8 billion in 2009.

So in reality blame Congress - what else is new?

I work at a postal plant or distribution center. While the area I work in, automation(letter sorting) the volume is down, parcels are way, way up Like christmas levels, but instead of a couple weeks of it, it's been ongoing for months. Add in reduced commercial flights, we don't have a fleet, removal of processing equipment( 3 letter sorters at my plant this week) it's getting crazy.

For those that think usps employees are living the high life, banking $30 an hour, and waiting for our pensions to kick in, while sitting on the job, I encourage you to apply and see how it really is.

I wonder who would instruct The removal of machines need for processing? Oh ya, the new postmaster owns a stake in USPS’ competition and sub contractors. Of course he would want USPS to fail, then there’s more work for his other investments.

This is from Dejoy’s Wikipedia page. Follow the money and political ties to figure out what’s up

DeJoy's appointment was controversial because of his strong Republican connections,[17][18] as well as because of his financial position. While he divested some investments before taking on his role (shares in UPS and Amazon), he did not divest his $30–$75 million equity stake in XPO, a subcontractor for USPS. Additionally, when he sold his Amazon shares, he purchased stock options in the company that represent between 20–100% of his prior holdings.[19][20]

DeJoy is the first postmaster in two decades without prior experience in the United States Postal Service.[21]

“Upon assuming office as Postmaster General on June 16, 2020, DeJoy began taking measures, such as banning overtime and extra trips to deliver mail, to reduce costs. Critics said these measures would result in slowing of the mail service.[22][23][24] Congressional Democrats called for the measures to be rolled back.[25] More than 600 high-speed mail sorting machines were scheduled to be dismantled and removed from postal facilities,[26] raising concerns that mailed ballots for the November 3 election might not reach election offices on time.[27] Mail collection boxes were removed from the streets in many cities; after photos of boxes being removed were spread on social media, a postal service spokesman said they were being moved to higher traffic areas but that the removals would stop until after the election.[28]

On August 7, 2020, DeJoy announced he had reassigned or displaced 23 senior USPS officials, including the two top executives overseeing day-to-day operations.[29][25] DeJoy said he was trying to breathe new life into a "broken business model".[30] Rep. Gerald E. Connolly, who chairs the House committee that oversees the post office, said the reorganization was "deliberate sabotage".[25]

In a letter to postal workers on August 13, 2020, DeJoy confirmed reports of delays in mail delivery, and called the delays “unintended consequences” of changes that eventually would improve service.[31] At the same time that DeJoy was taking measures that postal workers and union officials said were slowing down mail delivery, President Trump told a TV interviewer that he was blocking funds for the postal service in order to hinder mail-in voting.[32]

After congressional protests, the USPS inspector general began a review of DeJoy's policy changes and whether he was complying with federal ethics rules.[33] On August 18, 2020, DeJoy announced that the Postal Service would suspend cost-cutting and other operational changes until after the 2020 election.[3“

All I know is I have had letters lost, packages lost, none of which were ever delivered, and other packages take weeks to arrive from a shipper barely 80 miles away. Where previously the packages took perhaps 3 days to arrive. I absolutely avoid USPS wherever possible, choosing Fedex first, UPS second, and USPS only where no other choice is available. This has been going on for maybe a year or two now. Before, USPS was fairly reliable. I don't think election politics started this a year or two ago, but maybe it is helping make it worse now.

I'm not disagreeing with you, but the decline has been going on for years, well before the new postmaster general. Either way, there's one way to fix the post office. Either it's a government service, and like any government service should not be expected to turn a profit. Or, it's a for profit company that should be free to set their rates for services based on the market. This quasi government service that is expected to turn a profit while hindered by congressional oversight is complete bullshit. It's doomed for failure.

As a vendor; this USPS defunding game that seems to be all the rage right now has me very concerned.
Yet; the end customers keep ordering First Class instead of Priority Mail because they want to save 1-4dollars in shipping costs.

I did have a covid related delay on a couple of occasions before the defunding game started in earnest. One package via First class took ~40days to arrive within the domestic USA.

So; If you're ordering parts ... remember; First Class comes with no service guarantee. Neither does Priority mail; but at least I have the impression that USPS is actively trying to deliver Priority Mail.

Keep in mind this defunding game also has UPS approving a package surcharge or some such jazz. I don't ship by UPS; so not a concern for me. That said; I wouldn't be surprised if both Fedex and DHL are actively considering a surcharge as well.

Not only that; how much of the government actually pays for postage?
Does "official" business from the legislative or executive branches pay fair market value for their postage?
I got the impression they don't... which is well; not right if they expect USPS to turn a profit.

It's pathetic. Literally the worst transit times and late deliveries I've seen in my lifetime.

Redding to LA is usually 2 days. Now it's taking 5-7 days OR MORE to go 500 miles. I had a montana package that took 10 days to get to me. These aren't crappy smartpost or mail innovations, they're all first class or priority mail. Unbelievable sabotage going on here. Talk to the mail staff at your local post office and they'll run down all the crap they're seeing to cause this to happen.

What decline? If you mean letter volume, that's down 17% in the last 7 years, but it's MORE than made up for with package volume which has exploded in the last 7 years - it DOUBLED in volume, and not at 50 cents a pop like letters - they were many DOLLARS each.

If you mean profitability, that's a paper loss only (until COVID) because USPS has been forced by factions of congress that passed a law requiring them to prefund their pensions 75 years IN ADVANCE (essentially paying for employees that don't exist yet), which no other government entity or private company has to do. The reason for this assassination? To make it look like USPS was insolvent so they can be sold off or dismantled. Virtually all the "losses" for the last 10 years are paper losses due to this mandate that never should have become law.

Undo that (which many in congress are trying to do) and remove the current postmaster with massive conflicts of interest and that's a good start for repairing this damage.

USPS facts table:
https://facts.usps.com/table-facts/

Yes, I have been sending 3D printed items I make all over the country and for the past few months I’ve had on average of 4-8 orders out of 40 or so a month go missing that is 10-20% of loss that I then have to go remake and resend!

My mom also lives in rural Texas and has not been getting her cancer treatment medication in the mail on time.

Anybody want to put beans on this being the reason he banned overtime and removed sorting machines? He wants to push more of the work to XPO so he can personally profit from the USPS.

No, we pay.

"The congressional franking privilege, which dates from 1775, allows Members of Congress to transmit mail matter under their signature without postage. Congress, through legislative branch appropriations, reimburses the U.S. Postal Service for the franked mail it handles".

Always my absolute last choice. I dont care if they have a base in my state or not. UPS is far cheaper, and far more reliable from my experience.

Ordered Titan rubbers on Sunday Aug. 16. Shipped USPS Monday Aug. 17 with a ETA of Thursday Aug. 20 and I just found them in my mail box Aug. 20, 10:45 AM, right on time.

I ordered something sent on July 29.Got lost or delayed between Phoenix and Ft Worth until today.Scanned in Ft Worth

We have had business relations with USPS for years now -- There have been serious issues long before "the defunding game" as you call it. That's just a political excuse one party is using.

Sorting machines were being retired by the prior Postmaster... not dejoy. They are seen as expensive, underutilized with the drop in traditional mail, and competing with space/resources to dedicate to the newer workloads they are in.

This has been politicized way too much. I think Dejoy is a crook... but keep the facts straight. The big thing he's done right now is slash spending... which is kinda what people do when you're told 'avoid insolvency'.

That's not my experience. The fedex packages I get always arrive intact and without issue. UPS package tend to be roughed up significantly more when I get them. So, I've been under the impression that fedex tends to handle their packages with a bit more care than UPS does.

I haven't found a huge price difference between the services; a few dollars, at best. In my area, there's a fedex office across the street from a UPS office, so it's easy to do price comparisons between the two.

While the prepayment plan has been rightfully criticized... It wasn't some assassination attempt out of left field. At the time of passing, the new requirement also came with a RELIEF of obligations of almost 27 billion for military benefits. It was expected the relief of benefit obligations would largely offset much of the 10yr payment plan the USPS was put on to pre-fund the benefits fund. The model also replaced a flawed escrow model that was passed in 2003.

This should be an interesting read for you... congressional report from 2009 on the 2006 law - https://fas.org/sgp/crs/misc/R40983.pdf

There are many 'self-funded' agencies in government. This is not an 'all or nothing' thing.

USPS has been put in a tough box and hasn't been able to adapt with the constraints put on them. But all the noise about 'for profit' or not is just a distraction.

UPS is significantly cheaper if I ship through Paypal. Quoting without an account on the UPS web site is very close between UPS and Fedex. A large ramp I ship from PA to Oregon is $46 via the UPS web site. The same package is $47 via the Fedex quote page. Shipping UPS through Paypal.com/shipnow is $24 using UPS, and Fedex isn't an option. This is a huge savings for my customers. Also, in my area, Fedex often delivers to the wrong door, even when I had the driver update the notes in the delivery log. UPS is on the money every time for me so far. Also, signing up for a Fedex or UPS account seems to have no bearing on price for me, since I am low volume.

Except - the decisions to retire these machines were introduced and made BEFORE DeJoy was postmaster. They were being retired because of the change in workloads USPS is dealing with and the overhead and resources the underutilized machines were taking up.

But the "insolvency" is mostly on paper due to the bogus 75-year pension prefunding mandate. Take that away, and there are normal, garden variety COVID-dealing issues, not insolvency. But I bet the package volume at USPS has exploded again due to COVID. I'd like to see those numbers.

There's zero operational or financial excuse for the changes that have messed up USPS this year. None. It's self dealing by the new postmaster and sabotage that's screwed everyone in America over one way or another.

Those obligations were thrown on USPS (who were OVERFUNDING their retirement obligations at that point) and should never have been their responsibility in the first place. They were clearly the military's responsibility.

The key conclusion of that report:
"The USPS’s financial losses resulted from declining operating revenues and significantly increased operating costs, the latter of which was largely the effect of the PAEA’s requirement that the USPS prefund its future retirees’ health benefits."

So, yeah, take away the ridiculous prefunding mandate, and USPS is fine.

Another personal example of the USPS operational sabotage effects from today. I have another package, this time from Chicago, in its 10th day wandering USPS. It hasn't been scanned since the 12th. If it's like all the others, it WILL show up, there's just no telling WHEN.

Staying on topic to the post - the machines are not part of DeJoy's plot to take down the USPS.

Two - It's not a pension prefunding mandate... it's a health care benefits prefunding mandate.. and largely the aggressive 10 year ramp up schedule that was put in place.. not the idea that funding the health care benefits ahead is fundamentally flawed.

The payment schedule was too aggressive... but it alone is not the issue. The 2008 recession derailed the USPS and that combined with the aggressive schedule is what put them so far behind from the get-go and why the plan... failed. The USPS hasn't even been PAYING these excessive prepays.. they've been defaulting on them since 2010. It's largely on paper and deferring to the future at this point. They've been paying their costs, and defaulting on the prepayment portions.

This is falling back to the emotional arguments while glossing over the details behind those flames. The USPS has been fighting this problem long before 2020. 2020 is just gas on the fire.. along with drumph's meddling.

If you want a deeper dive on the retirement benefits program.. how it came to be, the thoughts, and its ACTUAL impact on the USPS right now - this is a great read - https://taxfoundation.org/postal-service-reform-postal-service-retiree-health-benefits-fund/

The big take away most should consider in this highly charged political time is that while the retiree health benefits funding is a CRIPPLING problem for the USPS and should be addressed... It is not what is causing the USPS to bleed out now. They aren't paying the obligations.

There are other fundamental issues with the USPS that are hitting them RIGHT NOW. The USPS has been making other changes (like reducing workforce) trying to right the ship.. the big deal now is the draconian efforts at the expense of service... in light of a highly political topic as well as the daily stuff.

If you want to one-line dozens of contributing factors... and all the history that shows the effort was not some assassination attempt... and more. I can't stop you. I can't make the horse drink...

I've given you the resources to look into why the mandate came to be, who was behind it, how it's performed, and analysis about how the changes in 2008 lead to the default in 2010 and what it's meant to the org since.

A pension is defined as a retirement benefit. It's just easier to call it a pension, which it is, just one that's for healthcare. "pension" or "health pension" > "retiree health benefits fund".

It was the summarization from the report you posted. I didn't make it up.

Bonus is, he's not wrong.

Edit. Vireland’s got it straight.

I personally love usps. Some of the nicest people I’ve dealt with.

It's significant because they are two separate things in the USPS - and very much part of the story of how we got here.

The USPS was overfunding the pension fund... and facing growing concern over no fund for health care benefits. That's what happened to help fuel what became the 2006 changes. Its essential to understand how such a theory gained bipartisan support and how the 2006 changes were ... well intended... but woefully ill-adapted after the 2008 recession.

No it wasn't... on multiple fronts. Here's a lightweight version for those who need a quick version - https://www.forbes.com/sites/ebauer/2020/04/14/post-office-pensions--some-key-myths-and-facts/#7992dda547f5

TLDR - The USPS isn't even paying this extra money right now... and still has billions in debt to the treasury.

The other links, including the 2009 congressional report give a better insight into 'why' such a bill was able to pass through congress with such great support. (only 20 republicans in the house voted against it.. and the senate passed it without a logged vote)

#detailsMatter

It was also the state of the situation in 2009... which if you took in all the points (not just a point in time highlight) you'd pull in the other facts like the USPS defaulting on those payments starting in 2010... and how the 10yr prepayment play actually ended in 2016 (tho they've deferred much of their prior obligations to later). You've taken one factor out of one line and hung everything on that. It's a HUGE piece... but it's not what makes or breaks the USPS year to year... because Congress has basically let them slide on the obligation.

There is much more to the story that one liners...

3 day shipping status.

Screenshot_20200820-163605_Chrome (resized).jpg

Not gonna read all those posts, but your first mistake was entering an argument with Flynn.

About 1.5 years ago the USPS paid millions to Siemens to upgrade the fleet of DBCS machines with new hardware and software for the letter sorting machines. They wouldn't have spent all that money for machines that were to be trashed. The oldest of these machines were phase 2 models that were not feasible to upgrade. Yes these phase 2 machines were sold off to big mailing houses like Pitney Bowes or sold (given away) to metal scrap companies. Some issues with funding is because of the huge discounts given to commercial mailers that barcode and presort letter mail. Some mailers get postage rates of less than 14 cents per mailpiece while everyone else pays 55 cents.

Also the USPS negotiates (poorly) contracts with Fedex to carry mail on their planes. The contract states that if the Fedex planes are full with their parcels that the USPS mail waits at the airport for planes that aren't full. USPS also uses commercial airlines to ship parcels and Covid has decreased flights available.

The USPS in years past had way too many upper level managers in their ranks. They were suppose to reduce them (which they did) but created more manager jobs to transfer the positions in to.

Because of the huge labor costs (USPS manufactures nothing) and transportation costs they were constantly pinching pennies trying to stay afloat. In 2012 and 2013 they closed many mail processing plants trying to save money. The USPS own Inspector Generals report showed nothing saved and delivery times got worse. Then they raised prices along with slower delivery caused more money lost.

Because of high labor costs they constantly try to reduce the size of the workforce. They do this by doing route checks to ensure the carriers are efficient in their routes. They do this when the mail volume is down (like not during Christmas and not Presidential elections). Since Covid, letter mail has dropped considerably (just like after the anthrax attacks) on paper it justifies reducing the machines to reduce the labor force to save money. The problem with that is how do you sort the mail if and when the volume increases again. Those letter sorting machines are not being made any more and you can't just order a few machines at a time.

Parcels have increased significantly since Covid and that along with Amazon parcels have helped keep the USPS afloat. Yes Amazon gets cheaper delivery costs but so do other large shippers.

USPS has used more and more temporary workers over the last 15 years. Because the letter carriers have so many difficult routes (walking routes especially in hotter parts of the country) the temporary workers quit their jobs within a few months at a rate close to 50%. This incurs more costs to check backgrounds and constantly train new carriers.

I started my company 17 years ago, we ship 200+ orders every day and have 1500+ small parcels in the USPS mail stream at any given moment. USPS has never been perfect, but they've had a consistent baseline that they've deviated from significantly lately.

It was a shit show when COVID19 first hit the US for many reasons (stay at home orders, countries shutting down mail service, etc), but they had everything sorted out until the last few weeks. Now it's back to March levels of disfunction. We have a sample size large enough to speak with absolute confidence - USPS has been sabotaged.

Email from the USPS to their personnel about reconnecting machines. Hmmmm...nothing sounds fishy here.

55CD1076-D5BF-4803-B212-6D426DAC56CC (resized).png

Still doesntchange when the decision was made.

Do you know those are the same machine instances being retired? (Not all are)

Do you know the justification for the upgrades? Maybe siemons was requiring it for contracts "now"...

Letter volume has been on a steady downward trend since 1996. Its not coming back next Christmas or the like. The reference is not a simple dip... single piece first class volume is down 75% in that time period.

That Terminal is awful

Decline, as in the decline of how the postal service is run, forced to operate, and treat their employees. Not sure you understand the economics of letters versus parcels. Letters at .50 a pop are more profitable than parcels at dollars. Less space,lighter transport costs, and faster processing using DBCS sorters. My partner and I can process close to 200k pieces of mail in an 8 hour shift, while until earlier this year, every parcel that entered our building was processed by a multiple floors of people hand sorting and scanning packages with a scanner. And that's at the distribution level. When packages reach their delivery post office, they are then hand scanned, sorted into their respective mail carrier's tubs, who then sort them into their mail truck by route. The letters, on the other hand, arrive at the station already presorted and ready to go. Granted, there may be one or two trays that have to be hand sorted because of issues with the barcode or won't run through the machine.

Is letter volume down? Yes. It's still an error in judgement to pull machines from the floor during a slow period with an influx of higher mail volumes ahead in the coming months. But that's pretty much the norm for usps management.

Am I the only one who doesn’t see a difference between UPS and FedEx? They all arrive the same here. It doesn’t matter who’s wearing the uniform there’s always going to be a driver delivering your stuff who doesn’t give a shit. And I believe they have set routes, so if the guy delivering to your neighborhood is the one who sucks, you’re going to hate that company.

Sent out a parcel with them on Wednesday. Started to panic as the lady carried the box from my door to her truck over her head. This is a backglass and high in air is not good..

"FRAGILE" is Italian for "Kick box harder".

I had a package from Pinball Life lost in USPS limbo a while back... was shipped on pretty much the last day before they stopped using USPS as a carrier.

Now I have a set of mirror blades from Cointaker stuck in "In Transit, Arriving Late" hell... it only made it one hop from the mailing source before getting stuck. It's only been a few days, though, so perhaps there is hope for this one yet...

My personal experience was that USPS actually got BETTER at the very beginning of the COVID stuff... I was getting packages a day earlier than originally forecast. A few weeks into the crisis, though, and all that changed, and bad things started happening. Now most everything seems to be at least a day or two later than originally predicted, and a lot of times things are outright lost.

wild left wing conspiracy theory.

Sorry, no more politics.