dandeurloo
Well-known member
I just heard postage is going up again on the 27th. I don't know the new rates but I heard it will be significant.
Bummer
Bummer
JohnRoberts said:In 2006 congress forced them to start pre-funding retirement benefits and last summer they missed a $5B+ payment for that. I have seen estimates as high as $100B for that unfunded liability (by end of decade?). Taxpayers are expected to make up any shortfall from the PO. Their shrinking revenue does not look promising.
For one (perhaps) positive note, the PO seems aggressive in their pricing for small parcel delivery. When placing small parts orders the PO delivery option is often half the price of UPS/FEDEX for small/light packages. I find it hard to believe that they are more efficient than their parcel competitors, so it appears they are buying that small package business. Maybe they are losing money, planning to make it up on volume (an old joke), or using this as a loss leader to attract other business (what other business?).
I didn't review the details of that 2006 legislation, but up to that point, the PO was apparently paying retirement benefits out of their current cash flow. The uncertain future of that cash flow being adequate means payments going forward have a lot of catch-up to do to reach a level reflecting only new liabilities. A private business would probably be allowed to go bankrupts to escape the unfunded liability. (or bailed out like big car companies).Andy Peters said:JohnRoberts said:In 2006 congress forced them to start pre-funding retirement benefits and last summer they missed a $5B+ payment for that. I have seen estimates as high as $100B for that unfunded liability (by end of decade?). Taxpayers are expected to make up any shortfall from the PO. Their shrinking revenue does not look promising.
The amount of pre-funding is excessive, much more than any other business would ever be required to do.
I live across the street from my local post office so unfortunately I know a little too much about small town PO business in the rural hinterlands.For one (perhaps) positive note, the PO seems aggressive in their pricing for small parcel delivery. When placing small parts orders the PO delivery option is often half the price of UPS/FEDEX for small/light packages. I find it hard to believe that they are more efficient than their parcel competitors, so it appears they are buying that small package business. Maybe they are losing money, planning to make it up on volume (an old joke), or using this as a loss leader to attract other business (what other business?).
That "other business" is actually being the "last mile" for FedEx and UPS for locations where the private shippers do not want to maintain a presence. Obviously these are mostly rural areas we are talking about, locations where the need those services is infrequent. (Which seems kind of odd, since it's the rural areas without the big malls which would seem to need shipping services the most -- if you can't buy it locally and you need it, having it shipped in is the only way to go. )
-a
JohnRoberts said:I didn't review the details of that 2006 legislation, but up to that point, the PO was apparently paying retirement benefits out of their current cash flow. The uncertain future of that cash flow being adequate means payments going forward have a lot of catch-up to do to reach a level reflecting only new liabilities. A private business would probably be allowed to go bankrupts to escape the unfunded liability. (or bailed out like big car companies).Andy Peters said:JohnRoberts said:In 2006 congress forced them to start pre-funding retirement benefits and last summer they missed a $5B+ payment for that. I have seen estimates as high as $100B for that unfunded liability (by end of decade?). Taxpayers are expected to make up any shortfall from the PO. Their shrinking revenue does not look promising.
The amount of pre-funding is excessive, much more than any other business would ever be required to do.
yup, i recall.. several of those loose AES journals found their way back to me like homing pigeons.. or bad pennies.PRR said:(As *you* know, the PO can barely manage 2 out of 3 heavy boxes at once.)
I am apparently not as rural as you... maybe 20 miles from a 50k peep city, and only a few miles on a main road from the interstate exit, so I see many delivery vehicles go by every day.Then there are the newspaper carriers. It's getting hard to get delivery. Yet twice recently the Bangor paper's carriers have been first at the scene of news. Once a hit-n-run at 3 am, and another arrived as smoke was coming out of a house.
Ptownkid said:You guys are lucky...Canada Posts prices are usually much higher than USPS. I can't send a package withing CANADA for under $10.
JohnRoberts said:I like them being aggressive about the small parcels since they need to keep their infrastructure busy. But they have a huge challenge ahead if they can't divide the pie profitably with other parcel delivery services.
If we decide we want to subsidize the PO, lets just do that, but the make believe posturing that they are independent while we micromanage how they can compete will end badly. IMO
JR
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