The U.S. Postal Service ended the third quarter of fiscal 1999 with a net profit of slightly more than $1 billion, according to M. Richard Porras, chief financial officer. This is a dramatic change from last year when the USPS was running $900 million in the red.
Tuesday Porras confidently predicted to the postal service’s Board of Governors that the USPS will end its fiscal year in late September with a $200 million surplus as called for in its budget.
Admitting that mail volumes and the income they generate are less than expected, but not saying by how much, Porras said he was basing his confidence in the projected surplus on last January’s rate increase generating some $4 billion in new revenues. He is also betting on cost-cutting moves Postmaster General William J. Henderson ordered in April.
When the third quarter ended on May 21, the USPS had a gross income of $43.1 billion, 3% more than in the previous year, on a volume of 142.2 billion pieces, 3% more than the year before. Expenses for the first nine months of the year totaled $142.2 billion.
Revenue from Standard A (advertising) Mail increased 5.5% for the first nine months of the year to $10 billion on a volume of 602 billion pieces, 3.8 higher than the previous year.
Standard B mailers contributed $1.3 billion more, or 6% more toward the total revenues with a volume of 739 million pieces, a 3.4% increase from the year before.
First class revenues went up 3% to $24.3 billion, the result of a 2.1% increase in a volume of 718 billion pieces.
Porras also reported that international mail volume and income dropped by more than 7% to $1.1 billion on a volume of 658 million pieces, slightly less than 3% from the previous year.
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