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Does USPS still operate at a huge loss? Its a strange subsidy for the US Govt to operate USPS while major portions of USPS work are paid for or performed by pr

Does USPS still operate at a huge loss? Its a strange subsidy for the US Govt to operate USPS while major portions of USPS work are paid for or performed by private companies. For examples, Amazon pays USPS to deliver parcels on Sundays. Does USPS make money providing that service? USPS pays FedEx handle overnight airfreight in a massive contract [1]. I'm sure there's others, those are just two from recent memory. Now Amazon is looking to handle its own inventory load balancing act while handing off to USPS for the last mile, presumably the costliest portion of delivery. I'm not sure I take issue with it, I just find it interesting. [1] http://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2013-04-23/fedex-to-fly-mail-for-postal-service-for-10-5-billion http://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2013-04-23/fedex-to-f...

DrScump 11y ago
To be fair, you have to include how organizations have to amortize their medical/retirement obligations in cooking the numbers. The USPS has much stricter such constraints than any other element of the Federal government.
trhway 11y ago
>Now Amazon is looking to handle its own inventory load balancing act while handing off to USPS for the last mile, presumably the costliest portion of delivery. last mile will be handled by drones - flying, wheeling and crawling... Imagine how a drone lands at cul-de-sac and releases a bunch of Roombas (or mini-Imperial walkers) carrying the packages to the door steps...
Spooky23 11y ago
USPS loses money because key republican congressman require that they do things like over fund pensions, while maintaining grossly unprofitable services like shipping parcels to Alaska at ground rates. Their universal service mandate also requires that they do last mile delivery to every address, so UPS and Fedex dump that work to them for pennies on the dollar.
- wsh91 11y ago
  I love the USPS, but it's not the pensions: http://taxfoundation.org/article/troubles-postal-service http://taxfoundation.org/article/troubles-postal-service
  - tw04 11y ago
    It's generally considered bad practice to link a conservative think-tank when trying to explain why someone who has been hamstrung by conservatives isn't making money. In the first two quarters of 2015 they lost $2.8 billion. In the first two quarters of 2015, they had to fund $13 billion in pensions. Pensions are 100% the issue.

DrScump 11y ago

To be fair, you have to include how organizations have to amortize their medical/retirement obligations in cooking the numbers. The USPS has much stricter such constraints than any other element of the Federal government.

trhway 11y ago

>Now Amazon is looking to handle its own inventory load balancing act while handing off to USPS for the last mile, presumably the costliest portion of delivery. last mile will be handled by drones - flying, wheeling and crawling... Imagine how a drone lands at cul-de-sac and releases a bunch of Roombas (or mini-Imperial walkers) carrying the packages to the door steps...

Spooky23 11y ago

USPS loses money because key republican congressman require that they do things like over fund pensions, while maintaining grossly unprofitable services like shipping parcels to Alaska at ground rates. Their universal service mandate also requires that they do last mile delivery to every address, so UPS and Fedex dump that work to them for pennies on the dollar.

wsh91 11y ago
I love the USPS, but it's not the pensions: http://taxfoundation.org/article/troubles-postal-service http://taxfoundation.org/article/troubles-postal-service
- tw04 11y ago
  It's generally considered bad practice to link a conservative think-tank when trying to explain why someone who has been hamstrung by conservatives isn't making money. In the first two quarters of 2015 they lost $2.8 billion. In the first two quarters of 2015, they had to fund $13 billion in pensions. Pensions are 100% the issue.