Tag: USPS

The U.S. Postal Service lost $676 million in the last fiscal year, about half of what officials had projected to lose.

Postal officials had budgeted a loss of $1.35 billion.

Postmaster General John Potter attributed the improved performance to a reduced work force. About 23,000 career employees were cut through attrition. The financial information was released at a board of governors meeting Tuesday.

“Today we have about the same number of employees we had in 1995, even though we’re delivering 22 billion more pieces of mail,” Potter said.

In addition to the cost-cutting, postal rates went up in June boosting revenues.

A battle is mounting as the United States Postal Service seeks approval for its first-ever negotiated service agreement to provide discounted rates to the nation’s largest first-class mailer.

The Postal Rate Commission is likely to announce a decision in February on the pending deal with Capital One Services Inc.

“We are seeking ways to make it easier and more beneficial for postal customers doing business with us,” said Anita Bizzotto, Washington, D.C., chief marketing officer for the Postal Service.

U.S. Postal Service deposits totaling $65 billion a year are vulnerable to theft, robbery and mishandling because of inadequate security and failure to follow procedures, according to a report to Congress Tuesday.

About $6.3 million was at least temporarily lost in the 2001 fiscal year, although much of it was recovered, the General Accounting Office said in its report on an investigation of postal security requested by Rep. J.D. Hayworth, R-Ariz.