Printer Friendly
Postal News
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
December 10, 2002
Contact: (202) 268-2155
REMARKS BY POSTMASTER GENERAL/CEO JOHN E. POTTER
OPEN SESSION MEETING
UNITED STATES POSTAL SERVICE
BOARD OF GOVERNORS
WASHINGTON, DC
December 10, 2002
OPEN SESSION MEETING
UNITED STATES POSTAL SERVICE
BOARD OF GOVERNORS
WASHINGTON, DC
December 10, 2002
Thank you, Mr. Chairman, and good morning fellow members of the Board.
We are quickly moving into the peak of the holiday mailing season. When all is said and done, we expect more than 20 billion holiday cards and packages. And we'd be happy to handle 21 billion or more!
Let me assure you that the letters to Santa are on their way to the North Pole. Every aspect of our business is geared up to make this the best holiday season ever.
From a retail standpoint, our advertising stresses the increased access customers have to buy stamps on-line, by mail, by phone, at ATMs, and at supermarkets and drug stores. From a holiday package standpoint, many of our 38,000 post offices will be open later and have Sunday hours.
Our website activities also make it easier for consumers and small businesses to mail packages. Later this morning we will hear about one new innovation --
Click 'n Ship -- that allows a customer to print a label and postage for a package right from a personal computer.
From an operations standpoint, we are expanding our transportation network this week to make sure we meet our customers' delivery expectations this holiday season. We've added hundreds of extra trucks to expand our surface network, plus 44 contract aircraft ranging from 727s to DC 10s and 747s, to complement our FedEx capacity.
Our goal is to get every package delivered by Christmas Day. To those procrastinators out there, I want to remind them that we deliver Express Mail on Christmas Day. So, if you wait too long and think you are stuck, think USPS Express Mail. So, mail early -- and mail often!
As Chairman Rider noted, we have made considerable progress in fiscal 2002 to maintain and improve our service performance levels on all classes of mail. Independent testing results on First-Class Mail in Fiscal Year 2002 were at record levels.
Consumer Advocate Francia Smith will report next month on Quarter 1. However, preliminary data for the first two accounting periods of Fiscal 2003 continue the progress we've seen in 2002. Service performance is a keystone of our Transformation activities. We continue on the right track.
As proud as I am of our service efforts in the past year, I am equally proud of the financial accomplishments of the postal team. It was about this time last year -- with volume dropping, and with all kinds of unknowns still arising from the anthrax attacks -- that we were looking at a $4 billion operating deficit.
But the team responded -- and by team I mean more than just those in management positions.
- Our field managers matched resources to workload.
- Our headquarters managers cut programs to "essential-only."
- Our union and association leadership and our employees rallied in the time crisis.
- Our stakeholders understood how difficult and complex a year we were facing financially. They rallied after the PRC Chairman's suggestion that we settle the general rate case. We gained $1 billion in added revenue by reaching agreement on an early implementation date.
I also want to thank the Administration and Congress for the $762 million they gave us in the wake of the anthrax attacks.
All told, we cut and avoided $2.8 billion in costs by finding new solutions to old problems -- new ways to do business and new ways to reduce costs. In 2002, we finally dispelled the myth that the Postal Service could not manage in a declining volume period! We did.
Yes, it was a year in which volume declined 4.6 billion pieces. Even when you adjust for the volume and workload decline, we still had a total factor productivity gain of 1.1%.
Workhours declined 78 million, or 23,000 career employees, and we accomplished this through attrition. Today, our complement level is similar to what it was in 1995. Fiscal 2002 was the first year in our history when expenses were below the previous year's.
The past year also demonstrated that America values mail. Volume exceeded 203 billion pieces, and there is every indication that mail remains a key way American businesses communicate.
Before closing this financial discussion, which Chief Financial Officer Dick Strasser will discuss in detail in a few moments, I want to stress that our financial and service progress of the last year is part of our Transformation Plan.
I expect we will make similar progress in Fiscal 2003. It remains a team effort, and as difficult and complex as 2002 was, I believe the team is stronger and better for what we all went through.
I would like to also thank the Governors and our stakeholders for their support in 2002. We can build on the goodwill and the progress that was generated.
My best wishes to all for a pleasant holiday season and a successful 2003.
###