Update from the U.S. Postal Service:
The state of the Postal Service, its finances and its future, has been the topic of much conversation recently. In some instances, these discussions have not been based on fact. Here is accurate information to help customers and the mailing industry better understand what is really happening.
It’s being said that the current financial crisis the Postal Service is facing is a result of poor planning, and postal management should have seen this day coming long ago.
I would like some more details on how the USPS was able to reduce its carrier workforce from an all time high of 802,970 in 1999 to today’s 588,561.
I would challenge that as these figures may be true, the implication that the Postal Service has made a substantial effort to reduce their Carrier work force to cut cost isn’t. What this force reduction claim fails to explain is how these numbers were achieved. If the USPS is to claim a Carrier force reduction of .735% from 1999 to today, the author should provide some actual details. Such as, the average attrition percentage rate for this period. How many of the eliminated Carrier positions were Part-Time, Contract and Temporary Employees?
There was no real retirement incentive offered to the Mail Carriers. What the USPS called an offered was disgraceful.
If the USPS were A fortune 500 company, the enormous annual revenue loses that have been accumulating over the last ten years or so would have forced the company to make some serious cuts long ago to avoid bankruptcy. I mean serious cuts!
The USPS upper management seems to be disillusioned about the state of and the future of the USPS. Maybe this is because of the daunting outdated beuocracies that bog down process changes, or maybe it’s simply the false feeling of security that the Government will always be there to bail-out the Postal Service when thing get tough.
Releasing an article of half-truths such as this one is merely smoke and mirrors. It is wrong to mislead the American people in this way. Patting your self on the back for making an effort that has fallen short has no honor.
If the USPS is to survive this recession and thrive into the future, the people that are in the positions of power need to change their way of thinking now, before it’s too late.