US Postal Service to operate with just 5 days cash on hand starting October 1 ( New Fiscal Year ) .....

Uh, oh: The Postal Service will only have five days’ worth of cash-on-hand in October

POSTED AT 6:01 PM ON AUGUST 14, 2013 BY ERIKA JOHNSEN

  

The relevant unions and their progressive Congressional allies have been steadfastly resisting the repeated attempts at substantive reform of the U.S. Postal Service, from both within and without the longstanding institution — never mind that the quasi- agency is has been careening ever-deeper into debt and is approaching a potential insolvency- and/or bailout-scenario with every passing business day. In the latest twist of poor financial news for the quasi-governmental agency is running dangerously low on cash reserves, via WaPo:

The U.S. Postal Service anticipates having only five days of operating cash on hand after making its annual workers’ compensation payment in October, leaving the agency with slim reserves in the event of an unforeseen downturn.

“This is a dangerously low level of cash,” said USPS Chief Financial Officer Joseph Corbett during a teleconference with reporters on Monday. “We do not have a sufficient cash cushion to run a business the size of the Postal Service.”

USPS spokesman David Partenheimer clarified Tuesday that the agency should be able to survive with a five-day reserve until the first quarter, when revenues for the agency typically begin to increase. “But no business should have to operate that way,” he added.

Oh, my. I suspect there’s some outrage-mongering defense strategery in the near future from some very unhappy unions as the USPS’s financial problems are further realized.

One of the Postal Service’s underlying problems, of course, is that some of their once ubiquitous services are becoming more and more obsolete, and they aren’t too keen on readjusting their workforce. Quasi-governmental and unionized agencies, apparently, are somehow allowed to make those choices not permitted in a freer market — but somewhat encouragingly, the Postal Service has announced that they’re immediately implementing some innovations that they hope will actually step up their game and appeal to consumers on par with their other competitors. Gasp. ABC reports:

The United States Postal Service is improving service to take on package rivals like FedEx, generating an additional $500 million annually, as part of longstanding efforts to stabilize their finances.

Effective immediately the mail carrier will be offering free online tracking and free insurance for their Priority Mail shipping, matching the standard services of UPS and FedEx. Priority Mail parcels will be offered a standard $50 insurance, which can be upgraded on request. The USPS will also tell customers the exact day on which to expect a package — up to three days from ship. Previously the carrier would only offer a range of dates.

It will not affect pricing for package delivery, which remains unchanged. The changes also include cosmetic tweaks to its shipping containers and folds the premium Express Mail offering into Priority Mail.

Postal Service officials are calling this “refresh” of their product line one of their most important changes in three decades and expect it to yield an additional $500 million in revenue annually for the troubled agency. Today’s announcement comes two days after the carrier admitted it had suffered $3.9 billion in year-to-date losses by the end of the third quarter and would hold just five days worth of cash on hand in October.

It’s not a solution, but it’s a step in the right direction for revamping their broken business model.

Postal Service trying to become competitive ? Some news to note.....

U.S. Postal Service Might Start Shipping Alcohol

Care packages expected to improve 100%

Published at 10:00 AM on August 9, 2013

BY GRANT GOLDEN

If things keep going the way they do, then Ben Gibbard may not be the only one shutting down The Postal Service. Over the past few years the U.S. Postal Service has been on a downward slope, the company lost $16 billion dollars in 2012 alone. So naturally, USPS is looking to recover some of this lost ground in whatever ways possible. In a recent interview with the Associated Press, Postmaster Patrick Donahoe stated that he endorses the ending of most door-to-door and Saturday delivery services, but the big kicker is that the company may soon begin delivering alcoholic beverages.

For over a century federal law has prohibited the Postal Service, but not private carriers, from shipping “all spirituous, vinous, malted, fermented or other intoxicating liquors of any kind." It’s a law from the pre-Prohibition era that’s somehow still in effect. Last year the Senate passed a reform bill that included a provision that would allow the agency to deliver alcohol. The reform would require that said shipments would comply with any state laws where the shipment originated and was delivered, meaning that the handful of states that still prohibit alcohol shipment from outside states would stay as such. The bill also states the recipient would have to be at least 21 years old and would need to provide valid, government-issued photo identification upon delivery.

But all of these provisions are entirely reasonable when you consider the $50 million a year in profit that the Postal Service could net, according to Donahoe. "There’s a lot of money to be made in shipping beer, wine and spirits,” Donahoe said. “We’d like to be in that business.” But Donahoe isn’t the only one that wants to lift this “unfair competitive ban.”

Online beer distributors like LetsPour are just as excited to hear of the potential reform. The company’s owner, Raghav Kher says that they “can’t wait for the service to start doing this.” Kher claims that it’s a “win-win situation for the postal service, for our businesses and for consumers.” Companies like LetsPour currently have to ship through FedEx or UPS, companies that are “a lot more expensive than the Postal Service.”

“The Postal Service will have a fixed price on three-bottle shipping, six-bottle shipping and 12-bottle shipping all at a flat rate. So if we want to ship three wines to New York, there would one flat price to ship it to anywhere in the country,” Kher states. Ultimately lifting this ban could benefit all parties involved. Because really, what could be better than enjoying a beer that you never had to leave the house for?

http://www.chicagotribune.com/business/breaking/chi-priority-mail-upgrades,0,4929515.story

4:22 p.m. CDT, August 14, 2013

Bloomberg News reports: The strapped U.S. Postal Service has upgraded its Priority Mail service, adding features including free insurance and specified delivery dates, in a bid to better compete with FedEx and UPS. The post office expects the changes to its express mail service, which took effect Wednesday, to generate $500 million a year in revenue.