Preliminary figures indicate that the U.S. Postal Service ended fiscal 2001 earlier this month just about where it expected, $1.6 billion in the red, said Richard Strasser, CFO, in a report to the Board of Governors.
Postal officials, who were predicting a net loss of between $2 billion and $3 billion for the year, lowered the projection to between $900 million and $1.5 billion. The downward projection came after winning the Postal Rate Commission’s support for a second rate hike this year.
The first, a 4.6% increase, went into effect in January while the second, 1.4%, went into effect in July.
An audit of postal finances for the year is expected to confirm the figure.
The report comes on the heals of an announcement by Postmaster General Jack Potter that the USPS hoped to save more than $1 billion in fiscal 2002 with the elimination of 3,300 jobs, about 20% of its 800,000 person workforce, in a sweeping restructuring of the USPS.
The plan, calling for the elimination of 2,000 field office administration positions; 800 jobs at the postal service’s L’Enfant Plaza headquarters; and another 500 at selected facilities. Field organizations would be expected to get by with 13,000 fewer people.
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