US Post Office loses $1.1 BILLION in quarter

It's not MY fault! I remember a few years ago I came to the conclusion that I spend more on postage than on food...more than on vintage clothing to sell.

One of my postal friends said he expects the new stamp rate next May to be not 1, not 2, but 10 cents higher!
 
10 cents more a stamp? Boy will that hurt, all around...
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I'm sure there will be a run on the Forever Stamp.

Actually I have to agree with you Carrie, they do a great job.
 
There are rumours that free supplies will be cut too.

USPS has been running in the red for years now and
apparently they are looking at Canada Post and other
countries' postal systems (that are showing a profit).

Unfortunately, while Canada Post is quite healthily in
the black, our rates are expensive, we do not get any
free supplies and we still have annual rate increases.
 
Yikes - well if parcel costs go up that will certainly help the likes of UPS, DHL and Fed-X.

I just priced a package to mail to another VFG member in Montreal - really not that far from me in northern Vermont. Her two purchases totaled $11.00 and the postage is $22.00.

I mail out a catalogue to more than 1,000 people - use bulk mail, but still ...
 
The high gas prices have certainly not helped either.

We have the 'forever' stamp here also, and they are great!
 
Amanda, the problem with using Fed-Ex, UPS, etc., with
cross border shipping is the extremely high brokerage
fees that are charged. I bet even with increases
USPS will still be cheaper.
 
That really is bad news! I am in Canada but I use both USPS (through a carrier service) or Canada Post to ship mainly within Canada or for very small international parcels or for items that sell for over $200.00. The over $200.00 is due to a customs rule...

Shipping by USPS is so much better than with Canada Post, I can't believe how much better USPS is compared with Canada Post.
Both in shipping time and in cost.

It certainly won't be a good thing for anyone selling online if they begin to charge rates like Canada Post is charging!

and it is certain that shipping across borders through the courrier companies like UPS for FedEx is a huge ripoff as they have their own brokerage offices which charge brokerage fees and duties on everything along with high prices.
 
I actually just talked to my mailman yesterday and he said that they are talking about cutting back to 5 days to cut fuel costs. I don't know if he knows what he's talking about, or if he's just speculating.

Sue
 
Well, hell, doesn't $1.1 BILLION pay for about 20 minutes of the war in Iraq? You gotta put these numbers in perspective....
 
I think the postal service was doing much much better before the last rate increase and the changes with demension rates. Ebay sellers amount to alot of their business and with the size issues with boxes, many of them went to other carriers. They shot themselves in the foot...........
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And hopefully they're not going to drive away even more sellers (like me) by doing away with free supplies. I live for those free supplies! Without them, I'll practically have to redraft my whole business model!
 
If it came to having to purchase the boxes, I would certainly be offering Parcel to my customers for items over 1lb. As it is, I use the Priority boxes and thus the Priority service.

This is one of those "butterfly wings" sort of things. Ebay scared off a lot of their sellers, so many either quit selling or aren't selling as much, thus there is less shipping going on. I know there are a lot of other things contributing to the issue (gas being the biggy) but I would be willing to bet the average online sellers would add up when considered en masse.
 
If USPS does away with free supplies, you don't have to
buy boxes - everytime I'm in the grocery store and see
boxes I think will work, I take them home. Turn them inside out and voila, you have a free, clean box. Recycle and it
doesn't cost a thing.

Now, as for the tape? That I do have to buy.

Gail, I thought the couriers were now doing the dim weight rate thing too? Due to gas increases, I was under the understanding that dimensional weight rates were becoming global for both post offices and couriers.
 
UGH!! Not again! I actually cut postage costs with the last increase. I started mailing everything first class and parcel post and did away with priority international mailing unless it was over the 4 pounds. I was actually able to pass on a lower shipping cost to my customers. I'm sure other sellers did the same thing. I wonder if people doing away with priority shipping has added to the loss.
 
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