U.S. Mail is going in hot water without assistance?

 

Follow the History.

The first postal service in America arose in

February 1692, when a grant from King William

and Queen Mary empowered Thomas Neale “to

erect, settle and establish within the chief

parts of their majesties’ colonies and

plantations in America, an office or

offices for the receiving and dispatching

letters and pacquets, and to receive, send

and deliver the same under such rates and sums

of money as the planters shall agree to give,

and to hold and enjoy the same for the term

of twenty-one years.

 

The United States Post Office (USPO)

was created in Philadelphia under

Benjamin Franklin on July 26, 1775,

by decree of the Second Continental

Congress.  Based on the Postal Clause in

Article One of the United States Constitution,

empowering Congress “To establish post offices

and post roads”, it became the Post Office

Department (USPOD) in 1792. 

 

237th Age of the US Mail

 

Yesterday, July 26, 2012 passed.  Sad to see

bad news following the heavy debts and finance

in hot water now,  The USPS employs over 574,000

workers and operates over 218,000 vehicles.

The USPS is the operator of the largest vehicle

fleet in the world.  The USPS is legally obligated

to serve all Americans, regardless of geography, at

uniform price and quality. The USPS has exclusive

access to letter boxes marked “U.S. Mail” and

personal letterboxes in the United States, but still

completes against private package delivery services,

such as UPS and FedEx.

On December 5, 2011 the USPS announced it would close

more than half of its mail processing centers,

eliminate 28,000 jobs and end overnight delivery of

first-class mail.  This will close down 252 of its

461 processing centers.  On December 13, 2011 the

USPS agreed to delay the closing of 252 mailing

processing centers as well as 3,700 local post

offices until mid-May 2012.

The USPS has not directly received taxpayer-

dollars since the early 1980s with the minor

exception of subsides for costs associated

with the disabled and overseas voters.

However, it does receive tens to hundreds of

millions per year in “implicit subsides”,

such as breaks on property tax, vehicle

registration, and sales tax, in addition to

subsidized government loans.  Since the 2006

all-time peak mail volume, after which Congress

passed the “Postal Accountability and Enhancement

Act”, (which mandated $5.5 billion per year to

be paid into an account to per-fund retiree

health-care, 75 years into the future --

a requirement unique to this agency), revenue

dropped sharply due to recession-influenced

declining mail volume, prompting the postal

service to look to other sources of revenue

while cutting costs to reduce its budget deficit.