The U.S. Postal Service reported net income of $1.4 billion on record revenues of $70 billion and record volume of 212 billion pieces of mail for fiscal 2005. "Financially, we are in the best position we've been since the 1970s," said postmaster general John E. Potter.
Even though the income was strong, the USPS is still going ahead with a rate increase Jan. 8 as the result of legislation enacted in 2003 requiring the Postal Service to put aside over $3 billion each year into escrow beginning in 2006. Efforts to change the escrow requirement have been stalled in Congress. The USPS says that without the escrow requirement, postage rates most likely would have remained at current levels until 2007.
The USPS reports three straight years of operating surpluses which have been used to eliminate the Postal Service's once $11 billion debt.
In 2005, mail volume increased 5.6 billion pieces to 212 billion. Standard Mail, the name for bulk, business-related mail, outpaced First-Class Mail for the first time in history with 101 billion pieces of Standard Mail compared to 98 billion in First-Class Mail. First-Class Mail grew slightly in 2005 after three years of decline.
Back...
