USPS Problems Starting to Surface Publicly.

From Time.com and NPR.org

“Neither snow nor rain nor heat nor gloom of night will keep your mail carrier from making the daily rounds, promises the U.S. Postal Service's unofficial motto — but the economy might. With 9.5 billion fewer letters and packages delivered in the 2008 fiscal year compared with 2007, the biggest mail volume decline in history has contributed to the agency's $2.8 billion loss for the year. That partly explains why shipping prices will rise 5% this month (a bigger hike than all shipping increases in 2008), with a stamp price jump to follow in May. The decline could also put your local letter carrier out of a job, and it has even stoked fears that the centuries-old Postal Service could one day go the way of the telegraph…”

click here to read entire Time.com article.

“…Stephen Kearney, senior vice president of customer relations for the Postal Service, says the drop in mail volume "accelerated throughout the year. ... Our mail volume had its greatest decline since the Great Depression."

In the fiscal year that ended in September, mail carriers delivered 9.5 billion fewer letters and packages than the year before...

…Fiscal year 2009, which started Oct. 1, isn't looking any better, he says.  "We may have losses that are larger than the $2.8 billion we had last year," he says. "Revenue is not doing well so far in October and November."

"…For instance, are they going to be able to continue six-day-a-week delivery," he says. "Are they going to be able to keep all those small post offices operating?…"

click here to read or listen to entire NPR.org broadcast.