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U.S. Consumer Postal Council Executive Director Don Soifer on the future of mail delivery in America.
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Again -- that's promised.
Tomorrow -- the deadline for the post office to make a five and a half a billion dollar payment to fund retiree health insurance boss.
With a little cash on hand it's probably not going to happen that means the postal so those will for the fast time.
Default that -- Joining the company from Washington is don't -- -- with the US consumer postal council.
Don't let me go through a list of things six I wanna what happens when as is likely the Postal Service defaults will -- mail still be delivered.
Yes the -- will be here on Friday will retirees.
Still get that pension checks.
This default is a congressionally mandated five and a half billion dollar pre payments to retiree health care benefits it's the first.
And there's another one scheduled in September the Postal Service says it's going to default on and also.
So for the time being things are fine but these are obligations that are already building and sooner or later they're gonna they're gonna no longer be future payments they're gonna they're gonna run out of money what exactly does that -- If they missed this payment and the one in September but I think that's a -- of about eleven billion dollars.
So walked walked happens tell me how it affects me all the postal so this'll postal -- It does not affect the day to day operations of the Postal Service.
That's first got that -- right around the -- there's another billion and a half dollars at the Postal Service is going to over the treasuries -- it's going to be for workers comp.
That gets much closer to the point of something that might affect the day to day operations of the Postal Service and ultimately.
If the Postal Service runs out of money which is gonna happen sooner rather than later.
-- absolutely could impact -- taxpayers or the day to day operations of the Postal Service but for the time being this five and a half billion dollars won't show measurable effect now that was a plan.
I don't know -- that's what the status of that plan is -- -- was a plan.
To stop Saturday delivery and -- close somewhere in the region of 2000 post offices nationwide.
What's the status about plan.
So the senate passed a bill and the senate bill would allow the Postal Service to cut Saturday delivery.
The house has yet to pass a bill but at the end of the day a reasonable observer would say that.
The Postal Service business plan is just broken and it needs to be remedy that fixes both the cost side in the revenue side.
And any of the plans that have been discussed seriously today fall far short of doing that we get a serious problem moving forward okay you'll advocate the Postal Service consumer council.
Give me and not -- what do you think should be done that would -- the Postal Service got.
Even if they cut Saturday delivery it's only gonna save a billion or two billion dollars a year.
On the one hand the Postal Service needs to have the flexibility to adjust the size and flexibility of its workforce to match the declining mail volume.
We need to take measures so that the business consumers the business customers were really the backbone of postal economics in the United States continue to have confidence and continue to invest dollars in the Postal Service.
And we need to solve the problem of revenue streams we need to find new ways to bring in dollars leveraging the infrastructure that we currently have around the country -- post -- privatize it.
I think that it's time to take a hard look at the postal monopoly in the terms of that and -- that that lifting the monopoly would need to come first.
But one way or another we need to leverage the postal infrastructure that we have in this country.
To bring in new revenue and privatization or outsourcing helps to do that we need to consider bottom line no matter what happens there's going to be.
Couple 100000 few -- postal so this -- look at is within the next couple years right.
There's just not any way the postal business model can operate at the current level of its workforce okay.
Don't -- it's a very interesting subject and very emotional for -- about -- is especially those who live in rural areas and who want that postal system.
Big deal.
-- thanks for joining us come back again -- because I want to -- always open.
