Feb. 13, 2013 — Postmaster General Pat Donahoe’s effort Wednesday to justify to lawmakers his attempt to do an end-run around Congress by ending Saturday delivery failed badly.
Donahoe acknowledged that he had not studied the impact on lost mail volume and revenue of going to a five-day delivery schedule, and that his figure of $2 billion in potential savings was only an estimate.
That estimate lacks credibility because his previous estimates have been found to be wildly inflated by, among others, the Postal Regulatory Commission—in part because they don’t reflect the lost mail volume that would result.
“If we’re doing things that actually reduce the mail volume and reduce profitability, we’re heading in the wrong direction,” Sen. Jon Tester (D-MT) said. It’s startling that the postmaster general doesn’t understand that.
As questioning from Tester showed, the USPS has not actually studied the savings that would be derived from ending Saturday delivery, nor does it know what level of mail volume—and hence revenue—would be lost by reducing its days of service by 17 percent.
And as Sen. Carl Levin (D-MI) indicated, the postmaster general’s bid to unilaterally end Saturday delivery runs counter to both the law and the expressed will of Congress.
The Postal Service, by its own accounting, lost $2.4 billion in postal operations last year, with the bulk of the $15.9 billion in red ink attributable to the pre-funding mandate imposed by Congress on the Postal Service. That was a reduction by more than half from the $5.1 billion loss in 2011. And in the first quarter of fiscal 2013, the Postal Service reported a $100 million net profit delivering the mail.
The Postal Service is clearly in transition, but its financial situation is different from what the PMG is trying to portray.
Donahoe also said that the Postal Service is losing $25 million a day—another misleading statement. In fact, 80 percent of that has nothing to do with postal operations, but rather results from pre-funding, which is required of no other public agency or private company in the country.
Is the postmaster general misleading lawmakers in an effort to persuade them to adopt his draconian cuts—cuts that would hurt tens of millions of Americans and small businesses throughout the nation?
The postmaster general’s claims that polls show support for ending Saturday delivery are equally misleading. When people are given a false choice, such as between ending Saturday delivery or seeing stamp prices rise and/or the Postal Service go bankrupt, they choose the former. But when given a question that reflects the actual source of the red ink, such as whether they’d prefer to lose Saturday delivery or have Congress fix the pre-funding situation, they overwhelmingly choose the latter.
Instead of allowing the postmaster general to make counterproductive cuts in service that will put the Postal Service on a death spiral, Congress should address the pre-funding mandate—which accounts for 80 percent of all the red ink.
And the postmaster general should develop a business plan for the future that will allow the Postal Service to continue to provide Americans with the world’s best and most affordable delivery service.
john is right on
4real must be blind and have no memory of what volume use to be..sorry you have been brain washed by this lame union
wow kurt..you do see the picture..most do not
Nobody talks about how much this will hurt the rural craft giving us Saturday off will cut our pay drastically
I think Shelonat needs to go back to school and learn English first before posting any garbage regarding anything at all!
Shelonat appears to know very little about the USPS, Unions, spelling or grammar. It’s amazing what great effort some people are willing to employee to demonstrate their ignorance.
Shelonat – you are a real joke. We have unions Like a lot of jobs used to have pension plans. They help us have a voice and some protections in the workplace. I have no problem in the world shelling out 50 bucks a month mainly because I know my salary would be about 3-5 dollars an hour less. I have a bachelors degree in accounting and most of my co-workers have college as well and are America’s best and brightest and most reliable honest workers of any company around. We were higher we because we were the best or we served our country previously. We joined the USPS for its stability in a time where we could have earned more. We chose stability. The union helps us to ensure that in this time of instability, the USPS holds up its end of the bargain, your a jackass
As a proud conservative and NALC Union member, I chuckle at some of the above. If you have never worked in a Union workforce then do not comment on it. Do your research and you will see that the NALC has offered a plan to boost business. The USPS is not sinking and never has been. It’s a 100% completely fabricated loss based on government regulations and bad management.
Funny, guy thinks because he wasn’t asked, something isn’t true. Freddy call you before contract negotiations and ask you what you want ?
Funny, people saying that the vast majority of NALC members want Saturdays off, but I don’t remember anyone calling me to ask me what I want. Don’t speak for me unless you know what I want.
Saturday delivery is for OT hounds and union slugs who have to keep union dues coming in. 5 day is the only way.
Scott – I am glad you are willing to sacrifice your Saturday so that others remain employed. But your sentiments are misplaced. Employees provide a service to the public. But the post office provides the means for that service to be rendered. Employees work for the post office. Your sacrifice should be made to the organization, not to a group of employees. The post office is not in the business of providing paychecks and does not exist to serve its own interests. It serves the public. And the vehicle for which that model is based on is old and crippled. This ship is leaking bad and trying to get to port and get a streamlined overhaul. But the passengers keep saying the leaks aren’t that bad all the while bailing out water. Do we ignore the ship’s condition and keep sailing until the ship sinks?
only diff is unions collect dues and most churches except catholic don’t’ chaholic faith go too far as to send monthly contribution-dues based on yor salary! by mail!!
they are simular in end result much alike any church’ any denom..in the end the preacher deacon, minister or better known as human emotion sellers all want yor $$$ for that service..weddings,funerals,sunday meets, all are gonna cost u $$ and damned if u refuse..even shunned out’ if u don’t
OUR unions have all-but lived out-their usefulness and are needed only for two reasons now to re-nego renewing c-tracts and to reverse removals and erase or minimize disciplining or complete trow-out of any such discipline of employees real cheap for yr-round protection considering what a criminal lawyer charges or even el-cheapo prepaid lawyer outfits charge..other than that they have no real meaningful purpose other than to further erode’ the $$$ of any company they do battle with..
i talked with a manager from ups they too do not have regional nor dist managers we even have so-called area managers along with regionals what the hell is the diff?? western area western region go fig??
along with treating the USPS as a military-operation with layers of management simular as the 4star generals on down is also killing the USPS all of which net over $100k yrly none of whom ever touch mail and do little to improve distribution nor delivery..how many regional dist installation admin managers does a company need shit we have more managers from the top-down to floor-sups than does waste management and they are nationwide as are most airlines none of which have the layers of management we we…
I have no real issue with having Saturday off – I’ve never had a job in my entire working life where I didn’t work at least some Saturdays. I do not want Saturday off if it means thousands of postal workers lose their jobs. To be concerned only with my pleasures is a selfish irresponsible thing to do. We have enough selfish asswipes out there anyway. Let’s think about those who could end up unemployed for a change instead of only thinking about watching college football on Saturday afternoons. If you were in a position where you could be removed, how would you feel?
ending or forgiving/setback the retiree prefund crap is only a band-aid approch from the unions and the USPS will still run-out of $$$ within a couple yrs time with continued 6-day delivery every address. a more sensible approach is broadening the mulitple-1st-class mail into every-other day or when more-than two-pieces are present..to deliver them together rather than one a day concept…the waste of manhrs and fuel to deliver single-piece mail is not cost effective nor would ANY other company do this..daily let alone doorstep delivery..both will and must come to a quick-end thus no more foot-routes and forcing neighborhood cluster-boxes for driv-up delivery of all paper-mail..and 3-4 times a week or when more-than 2 1st-class pieces are present..combined with elim of sat delivery to start..and eventual other’ day skipped for reasons cited would better improve and save billions for the USPS the prefunding alone will NOT stop the bankrupt-slide of the USPS.dumping doorstep delivery along with sporatic group’muliple/piece delivery will stop the $$$ losses for some yrs to come EVEN with continued volume-decline..most other countries including canada all deliver mail only in multiple-groups or more-than one 1st class types and choose two non-secular days for all other advertisment mail all of which is priced far-higher than the mere pennies the USPS charges per piece anyways..
Rolando is only worried about living off the dues from the NALC members. Five day delivery means less of those dues.
The vast majority of NALC members would love to have weekends off.
Just like Rolando et al does.
I would like to know the Union’s plan for the postal service to make money with the mail volume and 6 day delivery. All I ever hear from them is that “they can’t go to 5 day delivery.” I would really like to know where they think the money is going to come from. Maybe it is time for Rolando to step down. Instead of saving a few jobs, he is going to fight until none of us has a job. Than you Union.