The U.S. Postal Service on Thursday announced a net quarterly loss of $1.25 billion amid continued liquidity issues and renewed calls to implement reforms to solve its financial troubles.
Its operating revenue in the three months ending on December 31 was down by 1.2 percent to $22.2 billion compared to the same quarter in 2024, when it made a quarterly profit of $144 million.
The officials on Thursday urged policymakers to restructure the Postal Service Civil Service Retirement requirements, provide USPS with greater flexibility in pricing, and raise its statutory $15 billion debt cap.
“Where we’re falling behind is a misaligned financial and business model,” added Postmaster General David Steiner on Thursday, saying USPS has created a team to review all aspects of the business to reduce costs and capital spending, citing its “dire financial situation.”
USPS has further reported net losses of an estimated $120 billion since 2007 as first-class mail, its most lucrative product, dropped to its lowest volume since the late 1960s.
Steiner reported to Reuters in December that the agency is in a precarious cash position, and unless it implements reforms, it would run out of cash at the beginning of 2027.
Steiner stated, “There’s only one thing I am absolutely certain of — if we continue to do things the way we’re doing it today, we’re dead in about a year.”
USPS recently introduced an online bidding system to accept proposals on access to its last-mile delivery system, opening over 18,000 destination delivery units and local processing centers nationwide to an expanded group of customers who could increase much-needed funds.
Steiner indicated on Thursday that over 1,200 companies and individuals have asked to take part in the bidding. USPS makes deliveries to more than 170 million addresses in the United States six days a week, and the final mile is the most expensive component of the delivery. The last mile is also hugely expensive for companies like FedEx NYSE: FDX, UPS NYSE: UPS and Amazon.
Steiner, who took over in July after the White House pushed out the prior postal leader, told Reuters it was “never even feasible” to privatize USPS. He added, “There’s nobody in the private sector that would want the Postal Service … The delivery of the mail is an unbelievably costly endeavor.”
