Before you complain about USPS price increases, please understand why it's happening.

[kyleespapa]

There's one aspect of the Post Office I haven't seen mentioned here.  It's called the  Postal Accountability and Enhancement Act and was signed into law on Dec. 20, 2006. 

In accordance with the law, the Post Office is required to pay almost $5 BILLION dollars EVERY YEAR to the federal government.  Basically, it requires the Post Office to prepay employee retirement and health insurance benefits for the next 75 years over a 10 year year period for employees who haven't even been born yet. 

So, when you hear that the Post Office lost 5 Billion dollars last year for example, the reality is that if it weren't for this 5 Billion a year mandate, the Post Office would have made almost $1 Billion in profit last year.  To date, the Post Office has paid almost 40 Billion to the federal government.  No other company in history has ever been forced to do this. 

This mandate was designed to starve the Post Office.  Service cuts are being made, hubs are closing, the quality of service is declining, and prices are rising, exactly what the bill was designed to do.   

Why?  There are several main reasons.

The Postal Union is one of the largest unions in the country.  If the Post Office can be put out of business, the union would go out of business as well. 

The hope is that the functions of the Post Office will be turned over to Fedex and UPS.  However, currently, Fedex and UPS don't deliver to approx. 40% of the addresses in the country.  For these deliveries, they have an agreement with the Post Office and the PO finishes the delivery.  

So, for all of you who live in rural areas, the plan is for you to lose your Post Office and Postal service.   Do you really think Fedex and UPS will deliver a letter for 48 cents.  Do you really think Fedex and UPS will visit every address in the country 6 days a week like the Post Office currently does?  And if you live on a rural delivery route, do you really think Fedex or UPS will drive out to you.  Yea, neither do I. 

Before this law was passed, the Post Office was doing fairly well.  In fact, they were seriously considering going to 100% electric vehicles.   Imagine the shot in the Arm that would have given to the Electric Vehicle industry, and our environment.

And, to make matters worse, what the Post Office can and can't do is controlled by Congress.  The Post Office gets NO government money, 100% of what they earn is by selling postage.  If they could, they would offer all kinds of additional services, such as pack and ship services, computer terminals, and even banking services for unbanked americans.   

The PO has been saddled with this never before seen mandate with the hopes of forcing it to close.  Do you really want to live in a country with no Post Office?  That's what third world countries do, not us.

Virtually every year since the law was passed and signed in 2006, Democrats have sponsored bills to repeal this law.   In most cases, those repeal laws were filibustered in the Senate.  To date, there is an excess of $40 BILLION dollars of Post Office money in the federal coffers.  Democrats have also tried to have those funds refunded to the Post Office to no avail. 

Before you attack me, look it up.  Search and read about the Postal Accountability and Enhancement Act.   We're all entitled to our own opinions, but not our own facts.  What's been happening to the Post Office is a fact, again, look it up.   

As Ebay sellers, shipping rates are critical to our businesses.  If you aren't happy with proposed PO rate increases, contact your Congress reps and Senators and tell them you want an end to the Postal Accountability and Enforcement Act.  Also tell them you want the $40+ Billion dollars already paid refunded to the Post Office.   Imagine what that sudden influx of capital would do for our Post Office. 

[usmc*usnmom]

THANK YOU for this great explanation of why the once world's best Postal Service has been run into the ground.

Congress strikes again.

[crescent_vinyl]

You make it sound like those funds are going to be taken out forever and forever, and that it was going to the government. 

It was a 10 year plan, set to expire next year, which will secure retirement benefits for their employees over the next 75 years (estimated).   If the act was repealed, why should they get the money paid back? The money is going to their employees.  And the law itself only covers current and former Employees, not the ones that "Havent' been born yet". Its projection includes potential employees (I'm assuming for the 10 years this portion of the law was innacted) but it's only for their current and former employees.

So, in 2017 when they suddenly have 5billion more in their pockets, are they going to lower their prices?

[crescent_vinyl]

http://www.savethepostoffice.com/how-postal-service-began-prefunding-retiree-health-care-and-fell-de...

I find this to be an interesting article.  It looks at the history of the USPS before that bill was passed.

I wish I could type as well as they could about the issue, but I felt I couldn't do it justice.  Just one thing popped out for me:

"In 2003 the GAO estimated that the Postal Service had "substantial" obligations associated with retirees' health benefits, somewhere between $40 billion and $50 billion.  With $20 billion in the fund from the get-go, a payment schedule of forty or fifty years would thus have required payments on the order of a billion a year.

But the Postal Service was looking at the possibility of “saving” about $4.5 billion a year in reduced payments to the CSRS — $3 billion from reduced CSRS payments and $1.5 billion for not having to pay the military obligation.  If only one billion were put into the RHBF, however, the Treasury would end up getting $3.5 billion less each year.

Congress needed a way to ensure that $4.5 billion kept making its way from the Postal Service to the Treasury.  That’s essentially why Congress came up with a plan to frontload the fund with an aggressive ten-year schedule of annual payments of about $5.5 billion. "

So basically, the 2003 act reqired them to pay 4.5 billion to benefits and vets.  The 2006 act was a restructure of that.  So really, the money has been coming out before the 2006 act was created.

You can't blame the red of the Post office to this.  You also have to factor in things like UPS and Fed Ex and social media, which has made the postal service not as useful as it was then.

[lemarcheaupuces]

i have to be honest, i didn't read your post.

the reason is simple.

i am ok with the increase..... well ok but bitter....

i mean 55 cents on FC mail is stiff but if that is what it takes to bail out the USPS (which i doubt it will),

everybody in this country should try to help.

BUT...

will rates go up for sellers abroad (East)????????

i am sure they will not.....

i mean it would create CHAOS for ebay and these sellers.

i just can't imagine.

these sellers have to be a huge part of ebay profits, i also can see political complications blah blah blah...

so that is when i have a problem with the increase.

it is easier to pound down US sellers...

we will complain, post endlessly on this board about it but eventually we will adapt.

what other choices do we have?

these sellers also get it all.

they can have as many duplicates as they wish (US sellers get suspended for a few)...

they get top search placement in best match...

they get cheaper shipping rates...

in conclusion; so much for the US economy...

i guess the Far East Economy is so much more important.

[sapphireseal]

To be honest, I think the post office does an amazing job.  Considering the size of the United States, it's crazy that we can send stuff from coast to coast as cheaply and quickly as we can.  Especially when it includes packages going to Alaska, Hawaii, and I believe the US possessions like Puerto Rico.

[wildpitchsports]

The first class stamp price increase was supposed to be "temporary" too. See how that's working out?

The postal service is the last industry where its' employees were contractually obligated to basically be taken care of from date of hire until death with pensions and health care benefits. Once they become insolvent, the tax payers will have to bail them out and first class letters will be $1 and forget about mailing a package.

Shame really. But they are the greatest example of poor planning by the unions to take care of their members.

Now every mom and pop ebay, Amazon or whatever **bleep** site you sell from sellers are paying for them to golf in Florida.

And until an amazing private sector delivery service can do what the USPS does cheaper, we will continue to just eat it.

Thanks for trolling my post btw.

[expaik]

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@live2buystuff wrote:

There's one aspect of the Post Office I haven't seen mentioned here.......

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Actually it has been mentioned here.  By you.  Word for word:

https://community.ebay.com/t5/Selling/Anyone-else-seeing-some-major-problems-with-USPS-within-the-la...

[wildpitchsports]

That's called busted troll. Well done

[unscrupulousintangibility]

It was a 10 year plan, set to expire next year, which will secure retirement benefits for their employees over the next 75 years (estimated).   If the act was repealed, why should they get the money paid back? The money is going to their employees.

Actually it's a slush fund for the government to tap anytime they wish. They have and will continue to do so. No worries, the shoe wll drop on someone

else's administration.

[expaik]

The OP isn't a troll.  Being a sympathizer or even having an agenda does not a troll make.  Some points do bear repeating, and his post actually had some valid ones.

But for the future, he might want to remove the "This has never been said before" part.

[wildpitchsports]

He saw the post from earlier was high on the board so he reposted the same thing he said before to make a new post and hop on that bandwagon.

That = trolling.

Some points are valid but it's not going to matter. The small biz mom and pop online sellers will continue to be victimized for the glottony of the USPS retiree system and the common folk trying to mail xmas gifts every year will continue to be led to ignorant slaughter.

[scstool]

The pension issue has been talked about on here for years.

What I would like to really see is the actual number of how much goes into the pension plan vs. how much is subsidized costs for the Chinese e-packets.

It would not surprise me at all if the increase due to pension plan funding is much smaller than the costs associated with delivering and tracking E-packets.

Does anyone know where to find those numbers?

edit: I did find this to study:

https://about.usps.com/who-we-are/financials/integrated-financial-plans/fy2015.pdf

[kyleespapa]

I'm far from a troll.  I do find it interesting in this forum how some people will attack the messenger instead of addressing the message.

I posted a similar comment a month or two ago in a different post.  However, I continue to see comments about USPS price increases, poor service, lack of customer care, etc.  These are all related to the reason discussed in my post. 

To discuss issues with the USPS and not address this mandate is leaving out a fundamental reason for these issues.  If the USPS was allowed to expand their business the way most businesses are able to would allow them to increase income.  This time of year, pack and ship would be a perfect fit.  Having extra help to speed up wait time would improve customer service and also increase USPS revenue.  But, as I said, what they can and can't do is controlled by congress.

I like the USPS and don't want to lose it.  However, I find most people totally unaware of the reason for the USPS difficulties.  When the media mentions losses, there is virtually never a mention of this mandate.   When I see USPS posts on this forum, there is virtually never a mention of this mandate, and that's the reason for my post.    

[lemarcheaupuces]

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@sapphireseal wrote:

To be honest, I think the post office does an amazing job.  Considering the size of the United States, it's crazy that we can send stuff from coast to coast as cheaply and quickly as we can.  Especially when it includes packages going to Alaska, Hawaii, and I believe the US possessions like Puerto Rico.

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i agree with you...

12 years i have been selling online here and on others...

the USPS has only lost 1 package and broken 2.

the USPS is doing an excellent job.

but while it will cost $2.6 to ship up to an 8oz package from East to West in the USA;

sellers from the East are paying a tiny fraction of that...

i mean don't get me wrong good for them...

i am not mad at them what so ever.

i am just bitter and mad at whomever is allowing that (USPS, Government...)....