WASHINGTON — (Associated Press) A 60 cent postage stamp? The U.S. Postal Service would have to boost prices for mailing letters and packages by nearly 20 percent – the biggest one-time increase in its history – to avoid bankruptcy and improve delivery service, an industry analysis says.
That means the price of a first-class stamp could jump from 49 cents to nearly 60 cents – if the post office gets the power to raise stamp rates beyond the rate of inflation.
The Postal Service is currently petitioning the agency that oversees it, the Postal Regulatory Commission, to grant the biggest change to its pricing system in a half century: the authority to lift a cap on postal rates. The commission’s decision is expected within weeks.
If the Postal Service gets the ability to raise rates, it could add substantially to the cost of mailing prescription drugs and magazines, for example. Packaging and bulk-mail rates also would be affected, straining tight budgets for an increasing number of state and local governments that distribute election ballots by mail.
Don’t increase the price of a stamp, reduce salaries and overtime hours. Also eliminate management details out of their home office and the gravy train that accompanies those details, per diem, hotels, flights home, etc
NO. Its to keep the federal government going…… TheY empty the POSTAL tills all the time, but keep enough money to keep THE UNITED STATES POSTAL SERVICE OUR NATIONAL TREASURE RUNNING…
The USPS is a SERVICE a not for profit entity …..
even a non-profit business, like say a Catholic Hospital, has to break even to survive as an ongoing concern. losing Billions and Billions of dollars like the Postal Circus does not make it a non-profit…..it makes it broke. Postal Circus has lost over 120 Billion since 2009. Postal Circus has not paid a dime into prefunding since 2009. Postal Circus truck fleet and letter carrier fleet are old and spent. Postal Circus has over 110,000 mismanaging bureaucrats and 75 Vice Presidents (to compare- American Airlines and General Electric Corporation only have 4 VP’s each) PostalCircus has about 380,000 workers and another 95,000 on lite/limited/IOD Comp. Postal Circus is not a National Treasure…..it is a National Disgrace. IOD Megan Muffin is now cutting the Service out of the system and loading it up with even more low IQ, uneducated, mismanaging dolt bureaucrats. put it “ON BUDGET” and into “RECEIVERSHIP” and let the Federal Agency of Management & Budget do a complete audit from top to bottom.have OMB stop the corrupt PFP bonus scam. get rid of the usless Postal OIG. and why not?
doing the same thing over and over again and expecting a different result is the clinical definition of insanity. why would you want to throw good money after bad down a rats hole? why is UPS, FDX & AMZN making BILLIONS and BILLIONS of dollars, while the Post Office is losing BILLIONS and BILLIONS of dollars? other than pure greed and self interest, why should postal workers expect Americans keep supporting this loser when they have more efficient options? because you are so special? 1st class mail is dropping at o rate exceeding 10% a year, other companies due parcels better. the post office should be put “ON BUDGET”, put into “RECEIVERSHIP”, and put under total control of Office of Management and Budget until they can make a decision based on fact and not emotion on what should become of this money loser. giving more money to these losers running the place “IS NOT THE ANSWER”! start the ball rolling by offering a BUYOUT!
You right!
What you are not considering is that this article is misleading and false. The Postal Service is not seeking to raise rates by 20 percent as the AP (periodical industry) article suggests. The changes requested by U.S.P.S. have been tossed around for years as a method to bypass a huge bureaucratic log jams to bump up postage when the economy demands.
To go hog wild with this concept would kill business.
Contrary to the belief of many people, the U.S.P.S. is not dying. It is changing. This is not 2008. The companies cited by Susie Wong all rely on the U.S.P.S. to deliver their parcels. In fact this relationship has escalated to the point that it is Christmas all year long at the Post Office. Combine that with low fuel prices for the last four years, and it can be easily shown that the Postal Service is not losing billions and billions of dollars. True, first class letters are no longer the driver they once were. The market has changed. The biggest ticket items are now Priority and flat rate Priority parcels and flats, and of course Amazon. Yep, we deliver as much of that as anybody.
Everyone in this country has some level of contact with the Postal Service. And unfortunately many think they have the expertise to diagnose the Service’s ills. How many people—even at this late date—are aware of the mandate imposed upon the Postal Service by Congress in 2006 to prefund 75 years of retiree healthcare? With payments of 5.5 billion dollars per year during the worst economic collapse of the last 80 years, this was the greatest threat to the survival of the Postal Service. And this was a mandate not shared by U.P.S., Fed Ex, or any other company. Also, this was not a story shared by Fox News, or the Washington Post.
So I would encourage people to consider sources and to conduct their own research before launching into a pre-programmed inarticulate tirade about one of this country’s greatest resources. I have encountered many problems and problematic people in my 34 years in the Postal Service. People are people. But right now I’ve got to get to bed so I can break my back again tomorrow delivering medicine, dog food, cigars, books, birthday cards, bills and periodicals to the 740 deliveries on my route.
Raising stamp prices is not the problem. Seeking the Post Office’s sole to accommodate drop ship companies like Amazon is the problem. Tighter standards and pricing must be implemented as well as better mailing standards implemented on Amazon.
Don’t Know why Dimonstein supports HB 756 other than $$$$ for Him. Criminal Mismanagement needs to be cut 50% ….not those that move the product whose wages have already been cut. Placing Your own Bros and Sisters in a separate “risk pool” mean certain increases. Don’t drink the Kool Aid!
I laughed out loud when I read this……giving these low IQ, uneducated dolts more money in postage would be like handing out cold beers at an alcoholics anonymous meeting. would just be throwing more money out the window. .49 to .60= for every penney they get about 800 million, .11 cents X 800= about 8.8 Billion…….what are the dummies now losing on an annualized yearly budget……….well what do you know around 8.8 Billion………..so what they really want is to get into the American Citizens pocket for another .11 cents (while still giving bulk mailers a 10 cent rate) so they can keep their PFP bonus scam con going……….boy and they say the American Mob is evil, these low IQ, uneducated postal mismanaging white collar bureaucrats have them beat by a mile……should be jailed under RICO.
Bruce Clark just a small correction .The postal reform act was 2006 not 2016
You all don’t have to worry because when Amazon pulls the plug on the USPS – they will be in front of the treasury department again begging for money! Our management is nothing short of SORRY-there are a few that make somewhat of a effort but they are nothing but puppets-micro-managed from far away. Sad part of a lot of our problems employee’s try to tell management but it all falls on deaf ears because management is in the know! What! You gotta be kidding me: Why is it so hard that the organization can’t see this problem and address it? Everyday employee’s have to endure the harassment and intimidation of these puppets, I know I have stayed way longer than I have wanted but my situation makes me stay. I can rant on about this problem but nothing is going to happen/ nobody is listening. USPS loses million’s of dollars in grievances every year because management can’t follow the contract. Matter of fact-many of the managers tell employee’s to go ahead and file grievances cause it’s not coming out of their pockets. What a sad excuse for leadership. Management only does one thing right and they call it : COVER YOUR ASS’S TEMPLATE – THEN DO WHATEVER YOU WANT! Because there is no real enforcement for these idiots-Period! Move them around like chess pieces because they screw-up and on top of that they get travel pay-bought homes and they get to go inject their poison somewhere else on somebody else! I can tell you this-our customers are our lifeblood-the bottom rank employee’s are the glue that holds this organization together, GET RID OF THESE USELESS UPPER MISMANAGEMENT-You won’t have to worry about many stamp increases because they will tell you so many lies to make you believe they are needed. good-day
ONLY people who buy stamps will pay 60 cents, the other 85% of mail sent 1st class is sent at a discounted rate that is way less than the 1st class price. Postage increases never effect non-profits or businesses, because they pay off congress to keep their rates low. Why don’t we just start charging amazon $1.43 more per parcel so we can break even on every parcel.
Sorry Bruce. Supporting HR 756 is out. I don’t see any reason why I should pay an additional $268.00 for medicare for my wife and I in order to keep my FEHB. Raising postal rates on all classes of mail makes more sense. HR 756 is nothing more than a temporary fix to a problem that needs a long term fix!
Good Lord, so many people with opinions who don’t know carp about the Postal Service.
First, of course the USPS runs entirely on the sale of its products with no government subsidy.
Historically the USPS had about three year price cycles. Raise rates and make some money fist year, breaks even second year and lose a little third year and raise rates again.
Postal rates have risen vet slowly over the years whereas the cost of gas to run the largest vehicle fleet anywhere often surges up wildly.
In recent years the USPS has run operating profits every year but appears to run a deficit because Congress in 2016 shoved through an attack that made USPS. ONLY prefund retiree health care cost for 75 years and pay for it in 10 years. This meant annual payments of $5.5 billion. They actually did that until the Great Recession when volume dropped.
There is legislation in Congress now to correct this attack on our public postal system (HR 756) which folks should support.
The person who thought that there has always been a cap on rates is wrong again. That is a recent thing meant again to weaken the USPS.
The idea this an outdated agency in the way out is nonsense. While First Class mail has fallen off some that is mostly business mail. Your letters to Grandma that you text now were never a large share of the mail. Internet shopping has resulted in a huge increase in parcels that,mostly go through the USPS.
As a postal retiree after 39 years of service, I an proud to have performed that service to the American People and look forward to using the people’s Post Office for many years.
H.R. 756 is flawed legislation and should not be supported. Management and the postal unions are spinning a lot of misinformation about this legislation. Management is doing this to defer and deflect some of their problems to Congress and the postal unions see a revenue opportunity to push more participation to their sponsored health care plans.
H.R. 756 will hurt many retirees financially, by forcing all postal retirees to enroll in Medicare Part B whether they want it or not. According to CBO analysis of H.R. 756 the health care provision will save the USPS little or nothing (most of the “savings” comes from a rate increase. In addition to the hurtful impact on some retirees, having a USPS only health care risk pool has two immediate consequences fro all employees and retirees: fewer choices in plans available, and; because postal employees and retirees have higher health care costs it will shift considerable cost from the FEHBP health care risk pool to the PSHBP risk pool. Postal employees and retirees will bear the cost burden of this cost shift and all other federal employees (remaining in FEHBP) will benefit.
I support the free choice we have now, to choose to enroll in Medicare Part B or not. I do not support forcing retirees to enroll in Medicare Part B in order to retain their earned federal health care benefits as H.R. 756 would do. There are many valid reasons for a retirees to not enroll in Medicare Part B (about 25% of federal and postal retirees choose not to enroll) and this freedom of choice must be maintained.
You should also understand why senior postal management supported the 2006 PAEA. This is the legislation which gave the USPS health care prefunding and a cap on rate increases, the two drivers of the current USPS financial problem. The 2006 legislation also allowed USPS senior management huge salary increases (near 40%) which the received almost immediately upon passage of the bill. So who won? A handful of senior USPS managers. Who lost? The USPS as an organization. From an ethical and leadership standpoint there is something wrong with this, as senior management is responsible for the organization they lead and to make decisions that are good for the organization. In 2006 greed (of a few) prevailed and the organization is still suffering. One solution, just repeal the 2006 PAEA.
awesome response to the know it alls bruce. I agree the post office is financially fine and will be around forever. The employees who have been there 30 plus years and can retire are the ones with the most negative attitude of all. Great job, great benefits why some are so negative I will never know.
Carp? What is that a finless brown fish?
The cost of postage will go up, though not to 60 cents. How come the Associated Press doesn’t complain about the cost of airline invented fees, monopoly utilities dreamed up charges, the increased grocery store cost of their food? Why not a story about how cities keep creating added fees and taxes? No, just write a story about postage stamp increases. Everyone else can increase costs, but not the Postal Service! The Postal service should be unique, cut the cost of postage.
Again we go again, senior postal management pushing “the sky is falling” story with misinformation. If you look at the USPS financials (quarter 3, 2017) you will see that they need a price increase of about 2.4% to break even. A 2.4% increase means a first class stamp would go up to 51 cents (this is actually a 4% increase because 2.4% would move .49 to .502 so rounding up is needed). So asking for a 60 cent stamp is just plain wrong, misleading and disingenuous. Postal management needs to be more honest and truthful and stop spinning stories that are false and misleading.
Postal mgmt. be more honest and truthful ?
A leopard can’t change it’s spots.
Deceive, deny, and deflect.
Postal mgmt. slogan
How about raising parcel prices!!!
Please, local governments can’t afford to mail election ballots by mail? They don’t seem to have a problem mailing tax notices? Even Banks, credit card companies, insurance companies , utility companies can’t seem to afford postal rates. If it’s worth sending and or receiving at all, surely it’s worth a measly 60 cents to get it there? Why do you give these companies than can most afford to mail, deep discounts? Maybe if you would just charge a flat rate instead of having so many substandard rates? Stop caving in to accepting mail that is not worth the paper it’s printed on. If a mailer can’t afford to mail a letter for a decent rate is it worth mailing at all? Spam hard copy mail is as worthless as your spam e-mail. Most of this mail is scam mail. 99% of it goes in the trash or recycling bin but is costing 10 times more in labor cost to process and deliver, It’s like a 100 pound weight around your neck. Start delivering what people really want to get. People don’t like getting unsolicited mail, so get it out of the mail stream.
Head in the sand. Most of the examples you list already do their services online, and the ones that don’t soon will.
The US mail is one of the biggest bargains around partly because the service loses money. They should be allowed to raise postage rates to cover the costs incurred to deliver the mail.
no need to raise stamps. buy out some of us 30yr who don’t have age. ill go yesterday
Yeah, a vera I’d be gone in a New York minute.
But that is the logical thing to do, meaning it’ll never happen in the usps.
no need to raise stamp buyout some of us worn out 30 yr employees too young to retire
get off your back!
GET RID OF USELESS MANAGEMENT AND WE WILL BE IN THE BLACK!
The USPS Is so top heavy with people who don’t touch the mail that profitability will never occur. Six day delivery is an overtime bonanza that should’ve ended years ago. All routes should be converted to the evaluated rural type to end the NALC’s “GO SLOW-MORE DOUGH”.
Evaluated routes would never work in snow country routes, which is most of the nation.
Comparing city routes to rural = apples/oranges.
You right!
Evaluated routes are more efficient. The Nat’l Ass. Of Lazy Carriers hate that. They prefer the “GO SLOW-MORE DOUGH” system.
No amount of rate increase will address the help situation, in quality or quantity. Managers for the most part, especially in higher offices, wouldn’t know how to deliver mail accurately if their lives depended on it. I can personally attest that some who did make it to management were piss poor craft employees. A few were exceptions to that rule, one who did great, and is a fine supervisor now, but nationwide they are hard to come by.
If a rate increase is approved, will it spur the USPS to go back to a PTF program? I severely doubt it. With RCA’s and CCA’s, and the clerk equivalent, whatever that acronym is, they are working for half price without the job security, union protection or becoming career employees for sometimes years which also opens them to severe management harassment and abuse, as most locals are not very interested in fighting for them.
No, a rate increase will not improve service. It will go to bonuses and step increases to people in management who do not deserve it, but think they are absolutely indispensable and that the whole operation is alive because of their brilliant leadership. Don’t let management fool you – it’s all about them and nobody else, and they simply cannot be believed.
When that happens, I will ask for Vaseline with my stamps!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
have to raise prices to pay for those 1200 new stupervisors they
need, so badly.
Wow, waist of money for all the ones that do nothing now.
I am so sick and tired of the complainers who rant about a postage increase! I dare you to drive somewhere in town and put a letter there for 60 cents! Get over it people, does the cable company raise your 11 cents? I don’t think so. It’s still the best bargain in the land. I dare you to prove me otherwise! My garbage bill alone for the same service went up 9 bucks. How many more examples do you need?
Why would I drive somewhere, when I can: call or better yet, email, etc. them ?
Head in the sand thinking in your post.
Yes, because raising the price of a product no one uses anymore is a great business strategy……
Slash the bloated overpaid and underworked ranks of those who contribute nothing to the movement or delivery of the mail, and all problems are solved.
That would be mgmt of course.
I NEED MORE MONEY IN MY PAY, MAKE THE STAMP 70 CENTS AND GIVE EVERYONE IN POSTAL SERVICE A RAISE ,NOT JUST 1.2 PERCENT EACH YEAR.IF YOU RAISE STAMP BY 20 PERCENT I SEE NO REASON WHY WE CANT GET A 5 PERCENT PAY RAISE…