Tag: USPS

The U.S. Postal Service posted a net income of USD1.8 billion in the first quarter of Fiscal Year 2004, nearly a half billion less compared to a similar period last year. During the same period, expenses increased only 1.7 percent, despite the rising costs of health benefits, fuel and the expanding delivery network. In a report to the Postal Service Board of Governors today, Chief Financial Officer Richard J. Strasser Jr. said revenue for Quarter I was USD18.2 billion, down USD181 million, and expenses were USD16.4 billion, an increase of USD272 million over the same period last year.

The Postal Service needs more flexibility in setting rates and a strong dose of modernization to survive in the 21st century, Controller General David Walker told lawmakers.

Walker told a House Committee on Government Reform panel looking into overhauling the Postal Service that stiff online competition has contributed to a three-year decline in money-generating deliveries, yet the post office has had to serve more than 5 million more addresses in that time.

The Postal Service, Microsoft and a technology company called Authentidate have developed a system called Electronic Postmark for verifying that a document’s content is the same as when a user saved it. The service, introduced in October, is in some ways more a notary public’s stamp than a postmark, intended particularly for those affixing their electronic signatures to documents relayed online.

Seven weeks into its Carrier Pickup pilot program, the U.S. Postal Service has received over 650 requests to pick up more than 17,500 packages in the six participating districts, the agency said. Carrier Pickup is a USPS service that lets customers go online to request next-day package pickups. There is no pickup fee because the packages are picked up from the customers as part of the carrier’s normal delivery route. Packages must be prepared with the appropriate postage and ready to go before they are picked up.