(PresidentialInsider.com)- The United States Postal Service really isn’t doing well, but at least it’s getting slightly more efficient. The federally run postal service revealed on Wednesday that its net loss for the 2021 fiscal year hit $4.9 billion.
It’s not great news, but it is technically better than the $9.2 billion net loss during 2020.
According to the USPS, operating revenue for fiscal year 2021 was higher by 5% over last year and saw an increase of $3.9 billion.
There was also an increase in $3.5 billion from package and shipping revenue, and further revenue from new marketing mail had increased by 5 percent, or roughly $681 million.
However, the increase was driven partly by political or election-related mail.
There was fewer First Class mail parcels and letters in 2021, resulting in a $500 million revenue decrease. According to the agency, this was likely a result of increased online communication following the COVID-19 pandemic. The trend was already occurring, but the pandemic really engrained online communication and teleconferencing in professional culture.
Some of the USPS’s costs also increased, including compensation and benefits for workers, as well as transportation expenses. Total worker compensation increased by $1.4 billion over the last fiscal year and transportation costs also went up by $838 million.
Postmaster General Louis DeJoy said in a statement that despite the magnitude of their financial challenges, the USPS is “making encouraging progress” in correcting the “long-term imbalance in postal revenue and expenses.”
In other words – the USPS loses money.
“We expect to see continued improvement as we fully implement the Delivering for America plan, which includes making meaningful progress towards meeting or exceeding 95% on-time service performance for all mail and shipping products,” he added.
Let’s be honest here…if you want to make sure something arrives on time, are you using USPS or one of the several major private firms that don’t lose money every year?
