Tag: Ridgewood Post Office

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Postal Service proposes small price increases

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Postal Service proposes small price increases

JANUARY 16, 2015, 12:05 PM    LAST UPDATED: FRIDAY, JANUARY 16, 2015, 12:05 PM
ASSOCIATED PRESS

WASHINGTON (AP) — The U.S. Postal Service on Thursday proposed slight increases for mailing postcards and international letters — but wants to leave first-class “Forever” stamps at their present 49 cents.

Under a filing with the Postal Regulatory Commission, letters to international destinations would rise from $1.15 to $1.20. Postcards would rise from 34 cents to 35 cents.

The increases being proposed would become effective April 26, if the requests are granted.

On first-class mail, every ounce over 1 ounce would cost an additional 22 cents, up from 21 cents. And letters to all international destinations would go from $1.15 to $1.20.

The filing does not affect Postal Service shipping products and services.

The Postal Service said the requested price increases are the latest in a series of steps “to achieve financial stability.”

https://www.northjersey.com/news/postal-service-proposes-small-price-increases-1.1197788

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Postal Service Faces $100B in Debts and Unfunded Benefits

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Postal Service Faces $100B in Debts and Unfunded Benefits
March 14, 2014 – 4:23 PM
By Michael W. Chapman

(CNSNews.com) – The U.S. Postal Service (USPS) currently owes $99.8 billion in benefit payments to its current and retired workers but does not have the money, and if Congress does not act to fix the problem, the Postal Service may have to “implement contingency plans to ensure that mail delivery continues,” according to a new report by the Government Accountability Office (GAO).

“At the end of fiscal year 2013,” said the GAO, “USPS had about $100 billion in unfunded liabilities: $85 billion in unfunded liabilities for benefits, including retiree-health, pension, and workers’ compensation liabilities, and $15 billion in outstanding debt to the U.S. Treasury—the statutory limit.”

“USPS continues to be in a serious financial crisis, with insufficient revenue to cover its expenses and financial obligations, a continuing decline in profitable First-Class Mail volume, increasing unfunded benefit liabilities, and borrowing limitations due to having reached its $15 billion statutory debt [borrowing] limit,” said Frank Todisco, a GAO chief actuary, in prepared testimony before the House Subcommittee on Federal Workforce, U.S. Postal Service and the Census on Mar. 13.   (See USPS Action Needed.pdf)

“Attention to USPS’s unfunded benefit liabilities is important, as they represent scheduled future benefit payments to current and retired employees for which USPS has not set aside sufficient money to pay,” said Todisco.


Those “unfunded benefit liabilities” refer to money owed for postal workers’ pensions, retirees’ health care and workers’ compensation. It also includes some outstanding debt.

According to the GAO report, the USPS at the end of 2013 had about $100 billion ($99.8 billion) in unfunded liabilities. These scheduled payments to current and retired workers included the following:

$48.3 billion, retiree health care

$17.2 billion, workers’ compensation

$19.8 billion, federal pension plan for workers hired before 1984

$500 million, federal pension plan for workers hired after 1984

$15 billion, outstanding debt

According to the GAO, “these unfunded liabilities have increased by 62 percent since fiscal year 2007.”

In 2007, the unfunded liabilities were $61.6 billion, and at the end of 2013 they had grown to $99.8 billion.

https://www.cnsnews.com/news/article/michael-w-chapman/postal-service-faces-100b-debts-and-unfunded-benefits#sthash.MDL9v7H5.dpuf

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Airlines rank lower in customer satisfaction than the post office

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Airlines rank lower in customer satisfaction than the post office
By Hugo Martin

June 23, 2013, 8:00 a.m.

Fliers are slightly more satisfied with the service offered by U.S.-based airlines since last year.

But with the airline industry ranked below the U.S. Postal Service for customer satisfaction, it still has a way to go.

The findings come from an annual survey of about 70,000 Americans and show that the airline industry ranks higher than only subscription TV and Internet service companies.

The American Customer Satisfaction Index, an independent benchmarking business developed at the University of Michigan, concluded that the industry improved 3% in 2013 to a rating of 69 on a 100-point scale. Not surprisingly, airline travelers were most turned off by crowded seating, extra passenger fees and poor customer service, according to the report.

Low-cost carriers JetBlue and Southwest airlines led the industry with scores of 83 and 81, respectively, while network airlines Delta, American, US Airways and United scored no better than 68, the survey found.

https://www.latimes.com/business/money/la-fi-mo-customer-satisfaction-airlines-20130620,0,3445834.story

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Postal Service set to cut Saturday delivery

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February 6, 2013 7:41 AM
the staff of the Ridgewood blog

Ridgewood NJ– The U.S. Postal Service has announced that it will stop delivering mail on Saturdays but continue to deliver packages six days a week under a plan aimed at saving about $2 billion, the financially struggling agency says. Saturday mail cutback would not begin until August.

The move allows the USPS to focus on package delivery which has increased by 14% since 2010, At the same time technology which aids in package delivery has caught up with the delivery of letters and other mail declining significantly with the ever increasing use of email and other Internet based technologies. .

Under the new plan, mail would still be delivered to post office boxes on Saturdays. and Post offices now open on Saturdays would remain open on Saturdays.

The Postal Service for some time has advocated shifting to a five-day delivery schedule for mail and packages . The US Postal Service is an independent agency that gets no tax dollars for its day-to-day operations but is subject to congressional control.

The agency would need congressional approval to make the change and It was not immediately if that would be forth coming or even necessary.

Patrick R. Donahoe, postmaster general , says Postal Service market research and other research has indicated that nearly 7 in 10 Americans support the switch to five-day delivery as a way for the Postal Service to reduce costs.

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US Post Office has busiest day of year

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US Post Office has busiest day of year
December 17,2012
the staff of the Ridgewood blog

Ridgewood NJ, The U.S. Postal Service had its busiest day of the year this past Monday.With just over a week left until Christmas, the cash-strapped agency said it expected some 658 million cards, packages or other pieces of mail to be shipped on Monday or about 25 percent more than the average day.

Patrick R. Donahoe, the 73rd Postmaster General of the United States has said that US Post Office needs to cut $22.5 billion in annual costs by 2016.

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Post office nears historic default on $5B payment

ridgewood portoffice thheridgewoodblog.net

Post office nears historic default on $5B payment
Jul 30, 3:25 PM (ET)
By HOPE YEN

WASHINGTON (AP) – The U.S. Postal Service is bracing for a first-ever default on billions in payments due to the Treasury, adding to widening uncertainty about the mail agency’s solvency as first-class letters plummet and Congress deadlocks on ways to stem the red ink.

With cash running perilously low, two legally required payments for future postal retirees’ health benefits – $5.5 billion due Wednesday, and another $5.6 billion due in September – will be left unpaid, the mail agency said Monday. Postal officials said they also are studying whether they may need to delay other obligations. In the coming months, a $1.5 billion payment is due to the Labor Department for workers compensation, which for now it expects to make, as well as millions in interest payments to the Treasury.

The defaults won’t stir any kind of catastrophe in day-to-day mail service. Post offices will stay open, mail trucks will run, employees will get paid, current retirees will get health benefits.

But a growing chorus of analysts, labor unions and business customers are troubled by continuing losses that point to deeper, longer-term financial damage, as the mail agency finds it increasingly preoccupied with staving off immediate bankruptcy while Congress delays on a postal overhaul bill.

https://apnews.myway.com/article/20120730/DA0BDV2O2.html

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Ridgewood Post Office Steps Up Saves the Day

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Ridgewood Post Office Steps Up Saves the Day
July 22,2012
PJ Blogger

Ridgewood NJ , Just a quick note about the Ridgewood post office while they have been getting a lot of flack lately on this very blog , I was at the Ridgewood post office on Saturday and got distracted leaving my keys in the Ridgewood Blogs PO Box .

The post office was already closed but within a matter of minutes I received a phone call from someone telling me I had left my keys in my box . I was still in front of the building looking at my mail and they even made a second call telling me they were closed but just ring the bell. The quick action saved the day I had a thumb drive on the key chain that was irreplaceable .

All I can say is thank you !

james Foytlin
aka PJ Blogger

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Post Office Might Miss Retirees’ Payment

Ridgewood Post office theridgewoodblog.net

Post Office Might Miss Retirees’ Payment
By JENNIFER LEVITZ

While lawmakers continue to fight over how to fix the ailing U.S. Postal Service, the agency’s money problems are only growing worse.

The Postal Service repeated on Wednesday that without congressional action, it will default—a first in its long history, a spokesman said—on a legally required annual $5.5 billion payment, due Aug. 1, into a health-benefits fund for future retirees. Action in Congress isn’t likely, as the House prepares to leave for its August recess.

The agency said a default on the payment, for 2011, wouldn’t directly affect service or its ability to pay employees and suppliers. But “these ongoing liquidity issues unnecessarily undermine confidence in the viability of the Postal Service among our customers,” said spokesman David Partenheimer.

The agency says it will default on its 2012 retiree health payment as well—also roughly $5.5 billion, due Sept. 30—if there is no legislative action by then.

https://online.wsj.com/article/SB10000872396390444097904577535322022316422.html?mod=WSJ_hppMIDDLENexttoWhatsNewsSecond

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Reader Says ,The Ridgewood Post Office is doing a terrible job

Ridgewood Post Office theridgewoodblog.net

Reader says ,The Ridgewood Post Office is doing a terrible job.

The Ridgewood Post Office is doing a terrible job. They have messed up our mail so much that bills are never delivered and we are charged late fees through no fault of our own. My husband went to the RPO – which doesn’t open until after 10 am. by the way – and complained.

The Postmaster couldn’t have been more disinterested and unsympathetic and said that we are the end of the route and his mail carriers don’t like walking to our block. What? If we did our jobs, like they did theirs we’d be fired! Whatever happened to their motto “through rain or snow or sleet or hail the Postal Service will never fail”?

It’s funny – sad really – how the junk mail that we don’t ask for or need always seems to find us. But not the important stuff. Can someone help us?

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US Post Office Needs to Cut 260,000 Jobs: Rep. Issa

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postman theridgewoodblog.net



US Post Office Needs to Cut 260,000 Jobs: Rep. Issa
Published: Tuesday, 24 Jan 2012 | 9:24 AM ET
By: Jeff Cox CNBC.com Senior Writer

The U.S. Postal Service needs to slash 260,000 jobs and end weekend delivery if it is to climb out of its “financially insolvent” condition, Rep. Darrell Issa said.

Despite a mandate to avoid deficits, the post office loses up to $15 billion a year, Issa told CNBC during an informal gathering of senior House Oversight and Government Reform Committee members.

“It’s a combination of delivering what people want at a price they’re willing to pay,” the California Republican said. “We’ve restricted what the post office can charge for various classes of mail. But the biggest challenge is there are about 660,000 workers at the post office. In the private sector there would be about 400,000.”

https://www.cnbc.com/id/46114130

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Post Office’s Rescue Plan: Junk Mail

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postman theridgewoodblog.net



Post Office’s Rescue Plan: Junk Mail
By JENNIFER LEVITZ

Many consumers are irked by the catalogs, credit-card pitches and other “junk mail” they receive. But the U.S. Postal Service loves it—and wants to deliver more.

The agency, beset by historic losses and a plummet in first-class mail, is running promotions, easing rules and planning television and radio ads to encourage more businesses to send pitches by standard mail, the official term for bulk mailings used by marketers to prospect for customers.

“What we want to do is to make standard mail more interesting for customers so we can grow the total volume,” Postmaster General Patrick Donahoe said in an interview. “We don’t call it junk mail—it’s a lucrative avenue for anyone who wants to reach customers.”

https://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052970204612504576606743516301586.html?mod=WSJ_hpp_editorsPicks_1