U.S. Postal Service Swings to Profit in Holiday Quarter
Source: The Wall Street Journal.
Business
U.S. Postal Service Swings to Profit in Holiday Quarter
Agency helped by strong demand for package delivery and a big surcharge
By Tess Stynes
tess.stynes@wsj.com
@Tess Stynes
Feb. 9, 2016 9:23 a.m. ET
The U.S. Postal Service swung to a profit for the holiday quarter, helped by strong demand for package delivery, a big surcharge and continued favorable interest rate changes on workers’ compensation.
Read more: http://www.wsj.com/articles/u-s-postal-service-swings-to-profit-in-holiday-quarter-1455027833
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Also, there's some fine print involved.
Here's the same story, from Dow Jones Business News:
February 09, 2016, 09:45:00 AM EDT By Dow Jones Business News
The U.S. Postal Service swung to a profit for the holiday quarter, helped by strong demand for package delivery, a big surcharge and continued favorable interest rate changes on workers' compensation.
The agency, which has been hit by losses for several years, has been pushing increasingly into shipping as its traditional businesses—first-class and standard mail—continue to decline.
For the three-month period ended Dec. 31, the agency said shipping and package revenue rose nearly 14% and was particularly strong during the holiday season. Package volume growth of 16% met expectations. ... Chief Financial Officer Joseph Corbett said that "absent legislative reform, the exigent surcharge is expected to roll back in April, and our losses will increase by approximately $2 billion per year."
Over all, the Postal Service reported a profit of $307 million, compared with a year earlier loss of $754 million. Excluding the favorable impact of interest rate changes and the surcharge, the Postal Service's loss was $700 million.
....
Write to Tess Stynes at tess.stynes@wsj.com
(END) Dow Jones Newswires
02-09-160945ET
Copyright (c) 2016 Dow Jones & Company, Inc.
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I use First Class mail all the time, in amounts over 3 ounces, so your statement did not make sense to me. I then reviewed the actual Postal guideline and saw where you get the impression they if no First Class Mail over three ounces. The Postal Service says all mail over 3.5 ounces are to use the "Large Envelope" or flat rate, which is first class mail except it is designed for envelopes larger then traditional business size envelopes. Thus the Postal Service does have First Class mail for 4,5,6,7 ounce categories, but are prices with "Large Envelopes" up to 13 ounces. Almost any envelope over 3 ounces ends up being a "Large Envelope" anyway, thus why duplicate rates?
Lawyers use First Class Mail extensively, but of the "Large Envelope" mail, so using the "large Envelope" is automatic for us and thus I did not see that the Postal Service has technically ended First Class Rates (but NOT First Class service) for non business size letters under 3.5 ounces. My meter treats both sizes of mail the same, as does the Postal rates (Technically "Large Envelopes" are anything over 11 1/2 inches wide, 6 1/8 inches tall and 1/4 inch thick and under 15 inches wide, 12 inches tall and 3/4 inches thick).
Thus posting First Class Mail for over 3.5 ounces just does NOT make sense, since such mail is going to be thicker then 1/4 inch and as such a "Large Envelope".
On my meter, it takes 18 sheets of paper to equal 3.0 ounces. That paper was also 1/8 inch thick. If tripe folded to fit inside a standard business envelope, it will exceed 3/8 of an inch (If pressed and compacted which is rarely done), thus it will clearly exceed 1/4 inch in thickness. Thus as you exceed two ounces, you enter into the Large Envelope area of First Class Mail, so why have rates for something that does NOT exist (mail thinner the 1/4 AND weighs more the three ounces). Thus flat rates are the only rare sizes over 3.5 ounces.
Sorry, once you look into the size restrictions and that large envelope are still considered First Class Mail, what the Postal management set as to their rates makes perfect sense. Any mail over 3.5 ounces will be thicker then 1/4 inch and thus a "Large Envelope" in the first place.
Over one pound, First Class Mail is now call "Priority mail" instead of First Class, but the rates are the same except Priority Mail rates are in Pounds not Ounces. "Priority Mail Express" is what the Post Office calls Overnight mail. Unlike First Class and Priority Mail, "Priority Mail Express" is NOT ship "Space Available" on airplanes (Mail is shipped by air in the US and has been even before Air Mail was dropped in the 1960s, it is shipped on a planes that have room after passengers and their baggage had been loaded onto the plane. If after the passengers and baggage is loaded, there is space left over, the mail is shipped (and there is almost always space available, thus by the 1960s there were no time difference between First Class Mail and Air Mail, so Air Mail was dropped, all mail went by air, handling the mail is a steady source of income for the Airlines industry).
"Priority Mail Express" is shipped BEFORE First class and Priority mail (and can be shipped on planes just carrying "Priority Mail Express" mail to get such mail to its recipient by the next day). "Priority Mail Express" is still profitable to the Postal Service, but it is NOT the high profit center it was in the 1990s before E-mail took over. Still profitable but the demand for such service is down do to E-mail.
Most courts (Bankruptcy Court is the biggest EXCEPTION to this rule) requires service of papers between lawyers to be by mail. It is good practice to mail copies of such filing to clients. Such filings are generally under 1/2 a pound (8 ounces), but exceed 1/4 inch thick, thus a large envelope has to be used, and those First Class Rates for Large Envelopes apply. If the notice is under three ounces, then Regular Envelopes are used, but greater then three ounces, "Flat rates" (Flat is another name for "Large Envelopes"
are used for that is the size of what is being mailed.
Just a comment about the Postal Service and their rates and once you look into the DETAILS behind such rates, the rates actually makes sense.
that Trump is converting to a hotel and, for now, his DC campaign headquarter..
http://www.nytimes.com/2014/05/28/realestate/commercial/finally-washingtons-old-post-office-gets-a-new-life.html
In 1914 Mail came by train, so when a spot opened up next to the train station, the Post Office moved to that location (Congress also adopted a plan to improve DC in 1901, and building a new Post Office, finished in 1914, a judicial building, not built till 1992, and Union Railway Station, built in 1907, was part of that plan).
The "Old Post Office" (the name this building has gone by since 1914, it was built in 1899, thus 15 years as the "Post Office Building" and now going on 102 years as the "Old Post Office Building" . The Old Post Office was to be torn down in the 1930s as part of a build up of that part of DC, but no one wanted to tear down a perfectly good building so it survived, being offices for various other Federal Agencies till the 1970s, when it was again discussed being torn down, preserved again but leased for 140 years to Trump in 2012 so he could rebuilt it one more time.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Old_Post_Office_Pavilion
"The Old Post Office" successor, the City Post Office, the main Post Office fro DC from 1914 till 1986, is now the Post Office Museum of the Smithsonian:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Postal_Square_Building
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/National_Postal_Museum
Postal service is now done close to Dulles Air Port in Virginia for most mail go by air or Truck today.
