Tag: Mail Services

The US Postal Service finished its fiscal year just over USD3 billion in the black, helping the agency reduce its debt and keep a promise that postal rates won’t go up until 2006. Net income of USD3.1 billion was down from USD3.9 billion a year earlier, but was better than officials had expected thanks to cost cutting and an increase in advertising mail, according to postal chief financial officer Richard J. Strasser. But Strasser also noted a third annual decline in the volume of first-class mail – the cards and letters that account for the majority of the income for the post office. “The financial results are masking changing circumstances,” Strasser said. Increases in first-class mail have helped cover the rising costs of inflation in the past. Now advertising mail is the growing segment, but volume can vary widely in response to business conditions and it contributes far less to the agency’s bottom line.