Last Mile Brief 18/05/2023: U.S. Postmaster General to pledge action as USPS break even target looks distant

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Last week, the U.S. Postal Service announced disappointing financial results for the second quarter of fiscal year 2023 (Jan. 1, 2023 – Mar. 31, 2023).

In a press release, USPS announced that in a generally accepted accounting principles (GAAP) basis, its net loss for the quarter totaled $2.5 billion, an increase in net loss of $1.8 billion, compared to a net loss of $639 million for the same quarter last year. On a non-GAAP basis, adjusted loss was $498 million, compared to adjusted income of $427 million for the same quarter last year.

Following last week’s announcement, Reuters reports that U.S. Postmaster General Louis DeJoy will tell the U.S. House Oversight Committee today that “aggressive actions” shall be taken to improve the postal operators results.

“2023 break even goal proved to underestimate some organizational, operational, and financial challenges, and some economic factors that we are now facing that we could not have foreseen,” reads a section of DeJoy’s testimony as seen by Reuters.

In another part of the testimony, it is said USPS should not attempt to break even “at any cost” as that would put wider reforms at risk.

Photo by Tareq Ismail on Unsplash