You know how the U.S. Postal Service keeps raising the price of postage? Well, get used to it, because it looks like the price of stamps may soon be rising again.
A report out from CNN Money says USPS board chief Mickey Barnett said the board has directed the USPS to “evaluate price increases,” while also noting that, “as a board we are loathe to pursue this approach.”
It’s no secret that the post office is struggling to make ends meet these days. You’ve most likely heard of the grand plan to eliminate Saturday mail service, but that approach was recently shut down, or at least delayed, as Congress, last month, passed a resolution that the USPS said gave it no choice but to backtrack. More on that here.
In April, the U.S. House Oversight and Government Reform Committee held a hearing in which Postmaster General Patrick Donahoe discussed the Postal Service’s losses.
“In the past two years, the Postal Service has recorded $21 billion in losses, including a default of $11.1 billion in payments to the United States Treasury,” he said. “The Postal Service has exhausted its borrowing authority and continues to contend with dangerously low liquidity. We are losing $25 million a day, and we are on an unsustainable path.”
First class mail use has dropped 28% since 2007, he said, complaining that restrictive laws governing the Postal Service prevent it “from fully responding to these changes in consumer behavior.”
Something has to give somewhere. Unfortunately for consumers, that may mean paying more to send mail.