The Postal Service’s financial stability is improving, but significant challenges remain, says PMG Pat Donahoe.
In his latest message to employees, Donahoe reviews the Postal Service’s financial results for the first half of the fiscal year (Oct. 1-Mar. 31) and discusses strategies for moving forward.
“From a financial standpoint, compared to last year, we’re about $1 billion ahead on net profit. That’s operating profit,” says Donahoe. “Our cash liquidity — the cash on hand — is better than last year. Revenue is better than the same period last year by about $700 million.”
The results also show expenses are down when compared to last year, Donahoe says. “We need to continue controlling the things that we can, the operating expenses and the operating revenue,” he says.
Challenges remain, including the congressionally mandated prepayments to the Retiree Health Trust Fund. “When you add in the money that we’ve got to spend for retiree health benefits and some cash adjustments for worker’s compensation, we’re about $2.5 billion in the hole,” the PMG says.
The continuing decline of First-Class Mail volume is another concern. “We’re about 2 billion pieces short of where we were last year,” the PMG says.
The PMG also discusses other topics, including 3,900 recently hired city carrier assistants and the Postal Service’s Post Plan. He also encourages employees to remain focused on customer service and delivering and scanning packages properly. “We can’t lose the package business,” he says. “We’ve got to be perfect in what we do going forward.”
The PMG concludes by thanking for employees for their excellent work. “Keep doing a great job with scanning and delivering and we’ll continue to grow the package business and the mail business into the future for this organization,” he says.