Just the Facts

Every employee should be proud of the work they do for the Postal Service.  Ever hear a critic complaining about USPS and wish you had the facts handy to set the record straight?  Here are some facts to introduce in your conversation:

• USPS is the core of a trillion dollar mailing industry that employees more than eight million people.
• The Postal Service still is the best bargain with a First-Class Mail letter rate of 45 cents for the first ounce.  Letter Mail Cost Comparison:  Norway $1.63; Japan $1.06; France 81 cents; Germany 77 cents; Great Britain 74 cents; Canada 61 cents.
• USPS receives no tax dollars for operating expenses, and relies on the sale of postage, products, and services to fund its operations.  Cost inflation drives price changes. 
• USPS seeks price changes to cover costs to maintain universal service.A self-supporting government enterprise, USPS is the only delivery service that reaches every address in the nation --- 150 million residences, businesses, and Post Office Boxes.
• Revenue and mail volume projections point to continuing and dramatic losses in the billions.  If USPS takes no action, it could face a cumulative $238 billion shortfall by 2020.  Mail volume is projected to drop an astounding 37 percent. 
• USPS is the only federal agency required to prefund retiree health benefits which places a great financial burden on our organization.  USPS asked Congress to draft a bill and pass legislation to address overpayments to the Civil Service Retirement System (CSRS) pension fund.  Restructuring retiree health benefits payments to the “pay-as-you-go” method used by the rest of government and the private sector would result in an average of $5.65 billion in additional cash flow annually through 2016.
• Two separate audits in FY 10 determined that the Postal Service has been overcharged by as much as $75 billion in payments to the Civil Service Retirement System.  The Office of the Inspector General (OIG) and the Postal Regulatory Commission (PRC) acknowledge an overpayment of tens of billions of dollars.  The Government Accountability Office (GAO) also is investigating this issue.
• By law, USPS is mandated to deliver mail six days a week.  USPS has requested that Congress grant a one-day reduction in delivery frequency which would save our business as much as $40 billion over the next 10 years.
• Unlike other shippers, the Postal Service doesn’t add surcharges for fuel, residential or Saturday delivery.With 32,000 retail locations and the most frequently visited website --- usps.com --- in the federal government, the Postal Service has annual revenue of more than $67 billion and delivers nearly 40 percent of the world’s mail.
• The Postal Service has been named the Most Trusted Government Agency for six consecutive years and the sixth Most Trusted Business in the nation by the Ponemon Institute.