USPS Ends FY Second Quarter With $3.2 Billion Lost – YTD $6.5 Billion

According to USPS
The Postal Service continues to suffer from a severe lack of liquidity caused by over $25 billion of
cumulative net losses in the past five fiscal years which included $21 billion of Congressionally-mandated payments for prefunding retiree health benefits. During those five years, the Postal Service’s debt has increased by nearly $11 billion to finance the losses and prefunding payments.
The trend of losses continues this year as the Postal Service had net losses of $3,177 million and $6,464 million for the three and six months ended March 31, 2012. In addition, it had $818 million of total cash and $2.1 billion of remaining borrowing capacity on its $15 billion debt facility at March 31, 2012.

Current financial projections indicate that the Postal Service will not be able to make the required $5.5 billion prefunding payment for retiree health benefits currently due by August 1, 2012, or the required $5.6 billion prefunding payment for retiree health benefits that is due by September 30, 2012. Additionally, even without making the $11.1 billion of scheduled Postal Service Retiree Health Benefit Fund (PSRHBF) payments in the fourth quarter of 2012, current projections indicate that the Postal Service will have a precariously low level of cash and liquidity at September 30, 2012. This position will worsen in October of 2012, when the Postal Service is required to make its annual payment of approximately $1.3 billion to the Department of Labor (DOL) for workers’ compensation, in addition to paying its normal operating expenses.

Here is USPS press release

  WASHINGTON— The Postal Service ended its second quarter (Jan. 1 – March 31) with a net loss of $3.2 billion, compared to a net loss of $2.2 billion for the same period last year.  Despite ongoing management actions that have grown and improved efficiency, the losses will continue until key provisions of the Postal Service five-year business plan move forward.

 

Without the impact of the non-controllable costs related to mandated retiree health benefit pre-funding payments and accounting for non-cash adjustments for worker’s compensation, the non-GAAP loss for the quarter was $486 million compared to $469 million for the same period last year as shown in Table I below.

 

The losses are due primarily to legislative mandates such as the unique mandated pre-funding of retiree health benefits, and prohibiting management from making the needed operational and human resource changes required to address these issues under current laws and contracts.  Also contributing to the continuing losses are the declining First-Class Mail and Standard Mail volumes. The Congress must act soon to pass legislation providing the Postal Service with the flexibility and speed needed to make the changes necessary for long-term financial viability.

 

“We are aggressively pursuing new revenue streams and reducing costs in areas within our control,” said Postmaster General and CEO Patrick Donahoe. ”These actions are not enough to return the Postal Service to profitability. The legislative changes outlined in our business plan will enable us to reduce annual operational expenses by approximately $22.5 billion by 2016 and set the stage for long-term financial stability so we can continue to provide secure, reliable and economical universal service to the American public.”

 

Postal Service actions to increase revenue continue to pay off in the shipping and package service lines of its business. Revenues related to shipping and packages totaled $3.5 billion, an increase of over 13 percent compared to the same period in the previous year, as volume increased 74 million pieces, or 9 percent.

 Despite the growth and success of Postal Service shipping and package products, it was not enough to overcome the decline in Mailing Services. Revenue from Mailing Services, excluding Market Dominant packages, totaled $12.8 billion, a 3 percent decrease compared to the same period last year, on a volume decrease of 1.8 billion pieces. The revenue reduction reflects the continued decline in First-Class Mail as consumers continue to turn to electronic alternatives. The second quarter also saw a decline in Standard Mail, attributable to a decline in direct mail advertising spending across a number of sectors as sales prospecting slowed in certain sectors, advertisers used more selective targeting methods and competition from electronic advertising media increased.

 

“We expect to retain the ability to continue high quality delivery services to all of our customers, and continue to take all actions necessary to make sure that our employees and suppliers will be paid. Without legislative change, we will not have sufficient cash to pay the $11.1 billion required for retiree health prefunding and may be forced to default on other payments due to the Federal Government,” said Chief Financial Officer Joe Corbett.

 

The Postal Service’s comprehensive business plan addresses these financial challenges through revenue growth programs, process improvements, eliminating excess mail processing capacity and other actions to address underutilized assets as well as improve operational efficiencies. It includes targeted legislative changes such as giving the Postal Service the ability to transition to a five-day delivery schedule, restructuring the retiree health pre-funding, enabling the Postal Service to sponsor its own health care program that is independent of other federal health insurance programs, and returning nearly $11 billion dollars to the Postal Service from its prior overfunding of the Federal Employees’ Retirement System (FERS) which would provide vital cash flow to ease the current liquidity crisis.

 

Other details of the second quarter results compared to the same period last year include:

  • Total mail volume of 39.5 billion pieces, a decrease of 1.7 billion pieces, or 4.1%;
  • Operating revenue of $16.2 billion, a decrease of $7 million or less than 1 percent;
  • Operating expenses of $19.4 billion, an increase of $938 million, or 5.1 percent, driven by expenses related to the legally mandated prefunding of retiree health benefits payments scheduled to be paid in the final quarter of this year;
  • Transportation expenses of $1.7 billion, an increase of $126 million, or 8.1 percent, driven by rising fuel costs. Other expenses of $2.3 billion, a decrease of $133 million, or 5.6 percent.

 

These results bring the year to date net loss to $6.5 billion, compared to $2.6 billion for the same period last year.

 

 

Table 1 

 

Quarter 2, 2012

Quarter 2 2011

Non-GAAP Operating Loss

$486 million

$   469 million

PSRHBF Payments

$3,050 million

$1,375 million

Worker’s Compensation Fair Value Adjustment    

$ (599) million

$ (209) million

Worker’s Compensation Claims & Adjustment

$  240 million

$   593 million

 

Net Loss

 

$3,177 million

 

$2,228 million

                                                                

 

USPS 10Q 2nd Quarter

17 thoughts on “USPS Ends FY Second Quarter With $3.2 Billion Lost – YTD $6.5 Billion

  1. And this is from…who? Donahoe and his “creative thinkers” who do “creative manipulation of the numbers” in order to back up whatever they are saying at the moment? (Funny, they try to fire supervisors and postmasters for allegedly doing the same thing!) I’d take this with a grain of salt and start looking in empty semi trailers for the rest of the money.

  2. Dumbo is that you saying VERA would help to push USPS further into the Abyss?, saving all those benefits and paying no more of the salaries of those who leave, that is called Voluntary Early Retirement, if PMG wants to hasten this demise, he will keep offering management the VERA throw the bones though small, to his right and left balls (Management), like being on a sinking Cruise ship , and there are never enough life boats, APWU Cliff Guffey knows this is the end, now wants you to beg the GOP House to save us , really Cliff? , all part of the plan for a total collapse, we may be heading towards a Postal Armageddon, and very soon, make sure you do not miss those scans, watch those coffee and smoke breaks, work hard to the end, let your abusive inept Supervisor and /or Postmaster know you are there for them, treat the Customer with as much disrespect as you can do your job well !

    Unions like APWU gave it all away in the CBA, should have done the proper investigation, found out the lies, stop the overpayment into managements bonus pocket, think how many PM’s and Supervisors there are Nationwide, throw in graft, corruption, Incentive pay raises and bonuses, failed human resource policies and mechanization experiments, then tell me we are broke because of overpayment’ s into FERS alone.

    Moo Moo Clerk Cow says; Milk the Cow until they give better, More “Moo-la”and time, save AL, Use SL ,a day in the Life ;coffee break, smoke break,throne brake, Drain the Dragon break, smoke break, regular break, coffee break, smoke break, throne break, wash-up, lunch, coffee break, smoke break, Drain the Dragon break, smoke stress break, regular break, sugar Coke break, wash-up, home, and you want me to leave ?, (the above is not intended to show all breaks?)

    PMG loves hearing how the masses will go for 15k or 0k, he’s using us as Chess pieces, in his case, Checkers.

  3. Lost 3.2 billion dollars! in a quarter! Who is going to pay or is the debt forgiven by Congress.? Are Conservatives going to take a stand and stop the playing post office game or ignore as is presently being done by Reid-Pelosis politicans?

  4. Me thinks a dues increase along with more dues assessments are in order! APWU must make more commercials.

  5. Kracker. I need 10 years something has got change. Paying overtime like PM must have keys to Fort Knox where the gold is stored. Money is good but cannot go on as where is comming from as can not takein enough to cover cost.?? Not delivering mail on Wed. would not hurt anything as most is advertising or junk mail.

  6. HOW CAN WE BE LOSING MONEY WITH ALL THE CHANGES THEY HAVE MADE LIKE NO MORE SATURDAYS,EARLY OUTS AND CLOSING POST OFFICES. OH WAIT THEY JUST TALK,BUT NOTHING EVER HAPPENS,

  7. AT THE SAME TIME THERE SENDING PEOPLE HOME IN 30 HOURS A WEEK , THEY LOVE CALLING OT, GET OFF THE LIST, YOU CANNOT BE FORCED IN AND DO NOT PICK UP YOUR PHONE IF THEY CALL. LINES OUT THE DOOR , SO THEY CAN GET THERE BONUSUS OFF OF YOUR BACK FOR THEM DOING A GREAT JOB,O YA THEY WILL BUY YOU A HAMBURGER IF YOU WORK HARDER, YOU PEOPLE NEED TO ALL GET OFF THE LIST . VOTE OUT ALL REPUBLICANS , BECOME INDEPENDENT, THERES TWO GROUPS YOU CAN VOTE FOR ONES WHO TAKE AND ONES WHO GIVE IT ALL AWAY. OYA YOU CAN WORK LONGER AND HARDER SO THESE LOOSER CAN DOWN THE PO. AFTER 32 YEARS I WILLGO WHEN I READY, NOT WHEN THESE INCOMPADENT EDIOTS TELL ME TO . ALL OF YOU NEED TO START EMAILING AND FAXING O BAMA TO VRTO THESE POSTAL CLOSINGS.

  8. Yup, OT flows like water in our office as well. You wouldn’t know there’s a postal crisis.

  9. MAYBE SOME OF THESE LOSSES ARE DUE TO POOR MANAGEMENT? O.T USED LIKE THERE IS NO BUDGET!

  10. with this pmg running the show we r screwed, but wait long enuf and this clown will hang himself. it is amazing that the pmg has no respect for his workers and in return has no repect from anyone. lies will come back to haunt him. must be contract time skippy.

  11. The PMG, bails out the losers, the Postmasters and The Supervisors, yet those hard working clerks and craft workers, become a carrier ?, the PMG can stick that where the sun does not shine, we will go en mass on FMLA and Sick Leave, no VERA for APWU, no work for you, we will do whatever we can to see you fail and the Post Office Privatized, hate is a mild word, anger is a mild word, hey clerks !, make sure you scan those packages !
    The more the PMG lies, the more we will work against him !

  12. Politicans playing post office. Keeping small suburban offices, rural 75 years ago, is a joke. Reducing hours at many of these offices is a joke as they could be consolidated or eliminated: zip code, po box or rural delivery, could be maintained when operations moved to another office 5-6 away. List of offices showing reduction in hours or offices not listed that should be based on location, level, revenue and cost are not even listed. Politics contributing to billion dollar losses.
    6 day street delivery is a service that creates massive monatary loss and the American public could careless as to eliminating a delivery day. Many pro postal politicans have no concern as to operating cost effective to meet revenue generation to breakeven. Next election these parasites are history as most Americans see the waste as USPS is presently operating. Issa should replace PMG as Director-CEO Postal Distribution Products.

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