Tag: USPS

Battered by the terrorist attacks and a declining economy, the Postal Service saw its first drop in volume in a decade and finished the fiscal year with a $1.68 billion loss.
Managers are scrambling to cut expenses, seeking help from Congress and discussing the possibility of speeding up a rate increase.
“The economic recession, the Sept. 11 attacks and the anthrax attacks tossed our financial situation up in the air,” Postmaster General John Potter said Tuesday.

Grim new revenue projections could lead the U.S. Postal Service to ask Congress for more than $5 billion this week to offset higher security costs and lower revenues due to the anthrax scare and terrorism. The $5 billion figure, more than twice the amount estimated last week, is based on reports by postal officials to their board of governors on Tuesday. The postal service may have lost as much as $800 million between Sept. 8 and Nov. 2, due to a sharp drop in mail volume, said Richard Strasser, the Postal Service’s chief financial officer. On Thursday, Postmaster General John E. Potter is expected to ask a Senate Appropriations subcommittee for a one-time outlay to cover the crisis. Robert E. McLean, executive director of the Mailers Council, an Arlington, Va.-based group of corporate and non-profit bulk mailers, said Potter may seek as much as $6 billion to $8 billion. If Congress doesn’t provide the funding, Potter has said the Postal Service might need a rate increase to cover the additional costs.