Postmaster general: Agency looking for new revenue sources
WASHINGTON (AP) — The nation’s new postmaster general says the Postal Service is looking beyond its regular mail and package delivery for new sources of revenue.
That means building on what Megan J. Brennan calls its “core competency” — the delivery of goods.
So what is the agency doing?
During the 2014 holiday season, the Postal Service rolled out a new deal with Amazon to deliver packages and to expand Sunday deliveries of them.
Brennan, the first female postmaster general, is easing into her first days on the job. At age 52, she’s a 29-year veteran of the Postal Service who started her career as a letter carrier in Pottsville, Pennsylvania.
“I had mentors along the way … and I was flexible,” she said. “I relocated. I took on assignments and I kept learning.”
Brennan is the 74th postmaster general. Benjamin Franklin was the first.
She said the agency has to find a way to be relevant with a younger consumer base, and that includes a mobile app for cellphones. The Postal Service says the app can be used for buying stamps, creating shipping labels and tracking packages.
The Postal Service, which receives no tax dollars, has had its share of financial difficulties in recent years.
Since 1971, it has been posting annual losses, including a $5.5 billion shortfall in the budget year that ended Sept. 30. The shortfalls have been largely fueled by a requirement that the Postal Service prefund retiree health benefits. Also, first-class mail, long the agency’s most profitable product, fell by 2.2 billion pieces in 2014.
“Our current financial situation is untenable when you consider that we have 35 cents in assets for every dollar of liability,” Brennan said.
Seeking to cut costs, her predecessor, Patrick R. Donahoe, had tried to get Congress to withdraw the prefunding requirement but without success.
The agency under Donahoe also proposed eliminating Saturday delivery and closing some rural post offices. Brennan supports delivering mail five days a week and packages seven days a week.
With the decline of first-class mail volumes, Brennan is also carrying out a plan to modify retail hours to match customer demand to help keep open smaller post offices around the country.
Brennan already has been meeting with members of Congress to discuss financing issues and other major problems facing the Postal Service, including the financial drain presented by having to prepay retirees’ health benefits.
Sen. Jon Tester, D-Mont., said after a meeting that he looked forward “to continuing our dialogue to restore mail delivery standards in rural America,” according to a statement from his office.
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The mail is delayed 8-10 days now and she wants to deliver groceries? The food would rot on the docks. Pathetic!
Sounds like Donahoe in drag in her first mandatory video. The usual lack of specifics, empty flattery, bragging about being a carrier (she left out the part about doing it for only nine months after claiming an “injury” while working in the same office as her postmaster, none other than Pat Donahoe) and tried to be chummy, but I suspect her real personality is a lot more like that picture, which would intimidate a shark.
Spare us the insults and gratuitous bullshit. The last thing the Service needs is a Donahoe clone, but I’m afraid she may be one. Isn’t it ludicrous to have to include these last couple of PM’s from Carvin’ Marvin Runyon, Jack Potter, Donahoe and now Brennan in the same class as Ben Franklin?
Thar she blows.
If parcels are the future why in my facility do they shut down the Spbs and excess the people to the automation when the letter is the thing of the past – poor management! Someone needs to STOP the destruction that Is taking place daily! At Mid Island Facility in Melville, New York.
someone who works at the Mid Island Facility in Melville, NY named Irene was just arrested for a fatal hit and run on Deer Park Road…..was that you? Tour 1 Shop Stupid………think she would have called 911 to see if person was still alive….nope! (newsday/channel 12 cable)
Residential delivery 3 days a week will take care of all problems! Carrier A can run route 1 on M/W/F and route 2 on T/T/S with a relief like now. 25% – 30% of carriers and their vehicles would not be needed. No residence needs 6 or even 5 day delivery!
You’re a sellout Sen. Tester!!! You just voted ” yes ” for the Keystone Pipeline… I know you’re up for re- election and you want to get re- elected and you want the ” Big Oil ” money for your campaign.. But all the ranchers and your other constituents said they don’t want the pipeline due to all the pollution and ” eminent domain ” of a foreign country taking their land… You’re pathetic!!!!!!!