As 2012 dawned, the U.S. Postal Service (USPS) maintained hopes of a financial turnaround.
As the curtains drew on 2011, however, the USPS announced its intentions to eliminate next-day first-class mail delivery by 2013, citing a “dramatic and continual decline” in mail volume. As in recent years, 2012 was another difficult fiscal year for the USPS.
In February, the USPS announced a $3.3 billion net loss in the first quarter, despite a stronger-than-expected holiday shipping season. As newer and more innovative forms of communication have emerged, the USPS’s financial difficulties have been impossible to hide.
“Technology continues to have a major impact on how our customers use the mail,” stated USPS Postmaster General and CEO Patrick Donahoe, adding, “It has had a significant negative impact on some of our much larger sources of revenue, particularly First-Class Mail.”
According to Donahoe, in order to return to profitability, a plan to cut yearly costs by around $20 billion by 2015 is mandatory.
Not everyone sees the lack of financial viability as the consequence of new technology. While lawmakers believe that an outdated business model plagues the USPS, many postal workers say that the nation’s mail carrier is actually the victim of a man-made disaster.
According to Jamie Partridge, a retired letter carrier from Portland, Ore., Congress is to blame for the $21 billion in losses that the USPS has incurred over the past five years, and he is looking to lawmakers to fix things.
