Study to examine USPS partial-privatization

An upcoming study from the National Academy of Public Administration examines the benefits of partially privatizing the financially ailing U.S. Postal Service, which lost $16 billion dollars in fiscal year 2012 alone.

The study will look to a "hybrid model" that would allow private companies to deliver parcels up until the "last delivery mile," according to the Washington Post. A Postal Service letter carrier would still be responsible for that last mile, physically delivering letters and packages to their recipients.

"Just as private companies innovate and share supply chains in high-tech, automobile, and other industries today, the market will drive efficiencies in the postal network," a group of privatization proponents wrote in a paper previewing the study.

Retaining the letter carrier for the "last delivery mile" would ensure that "the trusted letter carrier would remain the face of the U.S. Postal Service," while also facilitating "greater efficiency and innovation," the proponents wrote.

The Postal Service has languished in recent years due to a changing information technology landscape that has sapped much of the agency's previously robust revenue stream - people who previously purchased postage to send letters can now send e-mail free of charge, for example.

Many conservatives have pitched privatization as a cure for what ails the venerable institution, but congressional Democrats and postal unions, which could lose thousands of members, have objected.

The previous Congress failed to reach an agreement on reforming the USPS, with disputes over employee benefits, labor contracts, Saturday delivery, and other service cuts creating a rift that proved too wide for lawmakers to bridge.

• Thousands accept postal service buyout deal
• U.S. Postmaster General: "We're facing our own fiscal cliff"

Sen. Thomas Carper, D-Del., and Rep. Darrell Issa, R-Calif., who chair committees in their respective chambers that oversee the Postal Service, released a statement Thursday explaining, "Although the 112th Congress did not come to a consensus around a package of reforms that can update the Postal Service's network and business model to reflect the reality that it faces today, we remain committed to working with our colleagues in both the House and the Senate to reform [the agency] so it can survive and thrive in the 21st century."

The study is being underwritten by Connecticut-based firm Pitney Bowes, which already contracts with the Postal Service for portions of its operations and could stand to benefit from the agency's further privatization.

[VF_3029]

Once again there are so many ill informed people concerning the USPS False
financial woes. The word privatize is code word for Union Busting, that"s
really what this is all about. The USPS is a cash cow that's why the greedy
want their hands on it. This is also why people like D. Issa and his rich
buddies want to continue their false attacks on the Labor side of the USPS.
If one really wants to know the truth about the USPS, then they should research it, not just listen to some Greedy Rich Privatizing Pigs. As a Shop
Steward for the NALC and a Free thinker. I think it is high time that people
wake up and find out who really is on the side of Labor and Workers Rights. If you want to know the facts about the USPS, just Google it.
Ralph Nader wrote a nice article and our National President F. Rolando
continues to write and speak the Truth about the USPS. Fact is the PMG
and his Board are Tea Party people bent on killing the Unions that have
done all the labor for the USPS for 237 some odd years. Please people
get a grip.

[Steve_LLL]

I know of many employees that would take an early out if offered. However, the recent offering to the APWU of $15000.00 is not going to get anyone other than those ready to leave to go.
Get serious with a buy out. Offer some decent money (The maximum without additional OPM approval is $25,000.00) and the Civil Service (higher tiered pay scale) employees will go in droves. The Post Office generates its own revenue. We don't get 1 red cent of anyone's tax money, contrary to the popular belief of the un-informed. You say privatize, I say you'll be paying 2 bucks to mail a letter. By the way look at the loading dock of your local Post Office we've got UPS, FEDX and Amazon lining up for us to deliver their goods. Why because they don't have the infrastructure to do it.
You want to solve the problems of the Post Office get Congress "OUT" of the equation and let us run it our way.

[RollotheNorman]

Actually what ails the Post Office is that a RepubliCON rodent in the House attached an amendment to an obscure funding bill requiring the US Post Office to vest 75% of it's retirement funds over the next 10 years. Something the RepubliCONs would blanch at doing to any private firm.

[BulkMailTech]

Yup, 80% of overhead is wages and benefits. I've worked for USPS for 29 years and that number has been pretty much constant the entire time.

The problem with this "hybrid" model is that it takes away from the USPS all of the areas where it has developed the greatest efficiency and productivity and leaves the most labor intensive part for the USPS to carry on with. The processing and sorting of mail has been so automated that what took 23 people 8 hours to sort now can be done with 2 people in about 3 hours. But, it still takes a carrier to get that mail delivered.

USPS has to visit 140 million addresses 6 days a week. It takes feet on the ground to do that. UPS and FedEx have no such requirement so, one UPS driver can cover a territory that might take 8 or 10 letter carriers to cover. Besides, UPS and FedEx both utilize the USPS to serve the areas that they do not find profitable.

[tenbender]

Union demands have made the USPS useless. I know, I worked there. Let the postal ser. go private.

[A3D]

A throw-away line like yours is either marked by ill will or just ignorant. I can believe that your employment was useless, but since you neither define your assertion nor propose a solution, your statement has zero credibility and is, therefore, useless.

[kaptainamerika]

The Postal Service is provided for in the US Constitution.
It has served this country well for how many hundreds of years?
It has taken the teabaggers in Congress only a few years to destroy it.
Good work idiots. I know what this country can no longer afford.
TeaPublicans.

[CBS_Reporting_sucks]

This article is industry propaganda bullsh1t. The post office only loses money because it has responsibilities that NO OTHER business entity on the planet does: pre-funding retirement and health insurance accounts for employees that don't even exist yet. Guess who did this? Guess who is responsible for this absolute mess: your stupid Congressmen and Senators. Go back to before they passed this insane law I'm referencing and the Post Office was running in the black to the tune of almost a billion dollars a year. I dont know why I bother to post this here, because if you get your news from CBS, you are already an idiot and deserve to be misinformed (as this article does). Way to leave a sentence at the bottom stating that this study is funded by the bastards who will benefit from privatizing the USPS: "CBS News: Journalistic Integrity (sort of)"!!!

[Hacksaw_jd]

Exactly. Pitney Bowes has a lot to gain. Of course, they believe privatization is the solution.

[TJphoto]

80% of their overhead is in wages and benefits. You need a study to determine that this is not a good business model? Hello!!!!

[Hacksaw_jd]

There are plenty of profitable, labor intensive businesses with overhead of 80% or even more. The Postal Service has successfully been operating this way for over 200 years.