The U.S. Postal Service said in a financial report released this morning that it was $2.5 million in the red as of Jan. 28, when the fifth of its 13 accounting periods ended. The report also said that mail volume between September and January dipped to 79.8 billion pieces, down 5% from last year’s volume of 83.9 billion pieces.
Between the start of its fiscal year last September and the end of January, revenue totaled $25.9 billion, or $1.3 billion less than anticipated, according to the report. That amount is 0.2% less than the $25.9 billion taken in between Sept. 2000 and Jan. 2001 when the USPS reported a surplus of $22.1 million.
It also said that expenses for the first five months were almost static, dropping 0.1% to $25.94 billion compared to $25.97 billion a year earlier.
In a financial statement covering the fifth accounting period, Dec. 20 to Jan. 25, the USPS reported that Standard (advertising) mail revenue dropped 3% for the period, $1.130 billion from $1.165 billion. Volume for the period dropped 6.6% to 6.2 billion pieces from 6.7 billion pieces a year earlier, the largest decline in both revenue and volume was posted in international mail.
Revenue from international mail during that period plummeted by 12.9% to $110.7 million from $127.1 million a year ago amid a sharp decline in volume, totaling just 65.71 billion pieces compared to last year’s volume of 87.47 billion pieces.
At the same time Priority mail revenue dropped 7.7% to $354.1 million from $383.7 million a year ago amid a sharp decline, 15.4%, in volume, 74.9 million pieces from 88.5 million pieces a year earlier.
Express mail revenue for the period dropped by 5.8% to $64.6 million from S68.6 million as volume dropped 7.4% to 4.4 million pieces from 4.8 million pieces a year earlier.
First class mail revenue dipped 4.5% to 2.8 billion from 3 billion during the first five months of the year as volume dropped by 5.9% to 8.2 billion pieces from 8.7 billion pieces the year before.
Although periodicals revenue dropped by 3% to $156.5 million from $161.1 million a year earlier, the USPS said the volume of periodicals mail inched up 0.2% to 743.8 million pieces from 742.4 million pieces the year before.
The only real bright spot in the postal service’s financial report was in package services, where revenue increased sharply to $165.4 million from $141.9 million a year earlier resulting from a 16.7% increase in volume, 89.9 million pieces versus 77 million pieces the year before.
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