U.S. Postal Service (USPS) released its numbers for the first quarter of fiscal year 2015, which ended Dec. 31, 2014.
While the busy holiday season helped to bump up its revenue to 4.3 percent, or $800 million, over the same time last year, the organization suffered a net loss of $754 million that it contributed to a $1.4 billion expense that it had to prepay to the Postal Service Retiree Health Benefits Fund.
“Our employees delivered double-digit growth in packages this holiday season, which shows our growing ability to compete for and win new package delivery customers,” said Postmaster General and CEO Megan Brennan. “To keep the momentum going—and to ensure we are the shipper of choice for our residential and business customers—we will continue to expand customized delivery solutions and package capacity while delivering high levels of service.”
Total volume in this quarter declined 600 million pieces. However, shipping and packing volume increased 12.8 percent, standard mail volume increased 3.5 percent—due to about a billion piece increase in political mail volume—and first-class mail volume declined 1.1 percent. While first-class is the most profitable product, USPS has been focusing on growing the other two segments due to first-class mail’s decline.
“Though liquidity remains a concern, the Postal Service must begin to make necessary investments to grow our business and address some of the critical vehicle, facility and package handling equipment requirements that have been deferred in recent years,” Joseph Corbett, chief financial officer and executive vice president, said.
