USPS Price increase, WOW!!! 0

[tv horror]

Where's the pony express? At least they got through barring attacks, weather, hold-ups and lame horses. 

[ygogolak]

Trump Panel Seeks Higher Postal Shipping Rates After Amazon Feud

https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2018-12-04/trump-panel-seeks-higher-postal-shipping-rates-after-amazon-feud

[the blob]

"The White House has floated the possible privatization of the Postal Service, a longtime conservative goal."

Won't be happening any time soon.

"The post office has lost more than $65 billion over the past decade as Americans increasingly transmit messages online, according to the White House order. Postal analysts largely lay blame for the financial woes on the email-era decline in letters and on the rare requirement that the Postal Service pre-fund health benefits for future retirees."

Everything I have read says the pre-funding requirement is the reason. The notion that personal letters no longer being sent has hurt the post office is ludicrous. A flat rate priority envelope costs $5+ and requires as much effort to deliver as a single letter, but generates 10X as much revenue and mail order is bigger than in a long time. 50 cent letters that require hand delivery seem to be a money losing proposition.

 

[Park]

18 minutes ago, the blob said:

"The White House has floated the possible privatization of the Postal Service, a longtime conservative goal."

Won't be happening any time soon.

"The post office has lost more than $65 billion over the past decade as Americans increasingly transmit messages online, according to the White House order. Postal analysts largely lay blame for the financial woes on the email-era decline in letters and on the rare requirement that the Postal Service pre-fund health benefits for future retirees."

Everything I have read says the pre-funding requirement is the reason. The notion that personal letters no longer being sent has hurt the post office is ludicrous. A flat rate priority envelope costs $5+ and requires as much effort to deliver as a single letter, but generates 10X as much revenue and mail order is bigger than in a long time. 50 cent letters that require hand delivery seem to be a money losing proposition.

 

Yeah, the Post Office is not losing money. They are profitable minus the retirement prefunding which  no other company is required to do.

It even states in the article that the USPS cannot legally charge less than their delivery costs. This sounds like someone doesn’t like Bezos. The whole thing is silly.

[the blob]

20 minutes ago, Park said:

Yeah, the Post Office is not losing money. They are profitable minus the retirement prefunding which  no other company is required to do.

It even states in the article that the USPS cannot legally charge less than their delivery costs. This sounds like someone doesn’t like Bezos. The whole thing is silly.

The pre-funding requirement was basically put in there (likely by politicians beholden to fedex) to make sure the post office would look bad and run a deficit so they could justify getting rid of it. Someone will complain we are getting political ,for sure, although this does impact us.

Increased shipping costs are a big reason why margins on selling comics online are getting tighter and tigher if you are not selling high end stuff.

 

[kHAoS]

12 minutes ago, Park said:

Yeah, the Post Office is not losing money. They are profitable minus the retirement prefunding which  no other company is required to do.

It even states in the article that the USPS cannot legally charge less than their delivery costs. This sounds like someone doesn’t like Bezos. The whole thing is silly.

The current administration doesn't understand that not every agency is 'for-profit'. If we closed down Post Offices or operations in rural communities, you would literally cut-off mail service for that entire town. Even Amazon uses the Post Office for remote locations to perform 'last-mile' delivery. And I agree, most reports I've read said the Post Office is performing well financially, except for the pre-funding retirement part. There is an issue with updating their vehicle fleet, since maintaining the older models is getting costly.

With all that being said, if the Post Office went private, other countries have privatized their mail service with some success. So the blueprint is out there and we can use their lessons learned to overcome that kind of transition. If the Post Office were privatized, I'm not sure most of us would like or adjust to the changes, well. You'd definitely see physical locations shutting down and see more kiosk or shared retail space inside supermarkets and malls, door-to-door delivery would probably end and everyone would walk up to a shared mailbox area, and we'll probably see the Post Office selling or advertising other products and services outside of mailing packages.

[Park]

Just now, the blob said:

The pre-funding requirement was basically put in there (likely by politicians beholden to fedex) to make sure the post office would look bad and run a deficit so they could justify getting rid of it. Someone will complain we are getting political ,for sure, although this does impact us.

Increased shipping costs are a big reason why margins on selling comics online are getting tighter and tigher if you are not selling high end stuff.

 

Agreed. There isn’t a cheap option to sell cheap books unless someone buys a bunch.

Sellers either eliminate those offerings or are large enough to subsidize those costs.

And I read through the thread and it seems the reasons behind USPS have been wel covered and you are right in that it can only go political from here. Oh well.

[lou_fine]

7 hours ago, Park said:

They are profitable minus the retirement prefunding which  no other company is required to do.

What is this retirement pre-funding requirement that all of you are referring to here?  

[kav]

post office is only govt agency that is self-funding.

[Park]

1 hour ago, lou_fine said:

What is this retirement pre-funding requirement that all of you are referring to here?  

2006 law Congress passed. It requires the Post Office to prefund their retirement account for 75 years. As Donut has stated repeatedly, no company ever has had to do this.

Those multi billion dollar payments they make every year into this fund tend to put them in the red.

(Sec. 803) Establishes in the Treasury a Postal Service Retiree Health Benefits Fund, to be administered by OPM, to cover the unfunded Postal Service liability for health care costs of current and future retirees. 

[lou_fine]

1 hour ago, Park said:

2 hours ago, lou_fine said:

What is this retirement pre-funding requirement that all of you are referring to here?  

2006 law Congress passed. It requires the Post Office to prefund their retirement account for 75 years. As Donut has stated repeatedly, no company ever has had to do this.

Those multi billion dollar payments they make every year into this fund tend to put them in the red.

(Sec. 803) Establishes in the Treasury a Postal Service Retiree Health Benefits Fund, to be administered by OPM, to cover the unfunded Postal Service liability for health care costs of current and future retirees

So, is this to cover for potential health care costs and/or future pension retirement payouts going forward, or a combination of both?

Either way, shouldn't the ongoing health care premiums paid by the retired employees if they elect to continue to have health care coverage be adequate to cover the cost of this extended health care coverage for the retired employees who have decided to opt in for it.  If it's for pension retirement payouts, I thought the previous and current contributions paid by both the retired and current employees (including the matching contributions from the employer) plus the ongoing investment returns from these contributions should be adequate to cover the required pension obligations going forward.  Hopefully, the investment firm plus the actuaries have been astute and also doing their jobs to ensure a surplus situation in the pension fund, as opposed to running a deficit.    

At least that's the way it's supposedly done north of the border with respect to Canada Post. 

[FlyingDonut]

12 hours ago, kav said:

post office is only govt agency that is self-funding.

This is an incorrect statement. 

1) The USPS is not entirely self-funded.
2) There are multiple other agencies that act in the same way USPS does. Any agency that is not covered by the FAR is lumped into the same category as the USPS. FDIC and USPTO are the largest two in this category, but there are many others.

Edited December 7, 2018 by FlyingDonut

[FlyingDonut]

9 hours ago, lou_fine said:

So, is this to cover for potential health care costs and/or future pension retirement payouts going forward, or a combination of both?

Either way, shouldn't the ongoing health care premiums paid by the retired employees if they elect to continue to have health care coverage be adequate to cover the cost of this extended health care coverage for the retired employees who have decided to opt in for it.  If it's for pension retirement payouts, I thought the previous and current contributions paid by both the retired and current employees (including the matching contributions from the employer) plus the ongoing investment returns from these contributions should be adequate to cover the required pension obligations going forward.  Hopefully, the investment firm plus the actuaries have been astute and also doing their jobs to ensure a surplus situation in the pension fund, as opposed to running a deficit.    

At least that's the way it's supposedly done north of the border with respect to Canada Post. 

What you are describing is what happens normally to every other company.

What the USPS was forced to do by Congress - led by the Congressman representing Memphis, which I'm sure was merely a coincidence - was to completely fund its retirement pension plans going forward. No other company in the history of the world has been forced to do this - it is (essentially) being forced to pay upfront for all retirement and pension plans forever, as opposed to pay-as-you-go plans like every other company ever that has retirement and pension plans.

Edited December 7, 2018 by FlyingDonut

[the blob]

1 hour ago, FlyingDonut said:

What you are describing is what happens normally to every other company.

What the USPS was forced to do by Congress - led by the Congressman representing Memphis, which I'm sure was merely a coincidence - was to completely fund its retirement pension plans going forward. No other company in the history of the world has been forced to do this - it is (essentially) being forced to pay upfront for all retirement and pension plans forever, as opposed to pay-as-you-go plans like every other company ever that has retirement and pension plans.

And while governments are supposed to invest money to pay for future pensions (before the market tank new york State had about 95% of its future pensions obligations saved for, Illinois was in terrible shape I believe, maybe under 50%), future retiree health insurance is another issue. Retiree premiums don't cover the whole cost. If i retire at 57 or 60 or 62, before Medicare kicks in, my premiums cover about 25% of the cost of the policy. When Medicare kicks in at age ___, I believe this retiree coverage becomes essentially a medigap policy (to cover the 20% or so Medicare does not). These words are meaningless to a Canadian, but those of us with elderly parents hear all about it. Contrary to world opinion, we do have socialized medicine here, it just often overlaps with private.

[01TheDude]

along the same lines-- recently received an e-mail from UPS stating that their rates would be raised about 4.9% across the board in 2019.

Not sure what Fed Ex is doing-- I don't usually use them for much of anything.

[FlyingDonut]

The USPS increases take effect January 27. Priority Mail starts at $6.95 and goes up - with eBay discounting I would imagine roughly $6.50 for a flat rate envelope. I am 100% sure all of the other shipping companies will raise rates.

You're welcome. I'm shocked this is still available.

Edited December 7, 2018 by FlyingDonut

[lizards2]

14 hours ago, lou_fine said:

 shouldn't the ongoing health care premiums paid by the retired employees if they elect to continue to have health care coverage be adequate to cover the cost of this extended health care coverage for the retired employees who have decided to opt in for it. 

So for health insurance coverage, I'm guessing that employees and pensioneers only pay about 20% of the cost.  At least that is how it is with regular Federal employees. For P.O. employees, it may be even less.  That's one of the perks of the low wages for being a civil servant.

[kav]

7 hours ago, FlyingDonut said:

This is an incorrect statement. 

1) The USPS is not entirely self-funded.
2) There are multiple other agencies that act in the same way USPS does. Any agency that is not covered by the FAR is lumped into the same category as the USPS. FDIC and USPTO are the largest two in this category, but there are many others.

Thx for clarification-my mailman told me that so I just accepted it.

[FlyingDonut]

6 minutes ago, kav said:

Thx for clarification-my mailman told me that so I just accepted it.

Please note that I am 100% on the side of your mailman.

[JollyComics]

I am still not impressed with USPS and their service.