Pricing increases on parcel delivery helped the U.S. Postal Service in Q1, as parcel volume declined 3.5% to 70 million pieces, while parcel revenue gained 2.4% to $8.84 billion. Overall revenue increased 1% to $21.5 billion, with a net loss of $1.03 billion, an improvement over $1.55 billion a year earlier.
A decline in parcel volume is being seen across the board in the challenging climate, with both UPS and FedEx seeing it diminish in recent quarters.
The so-called controllable net income for the USPS, after backing out unfunded liabilities and workers’ compensation, was $180 million, compared to $880 million last year. In 2022, Congress approved a postal reform bill that eliminated the requirement to prefund retiree health benefits.
“We are making demonstrable progress with our Delivering for America plan,” said Postmaster General and CEO Louis DeJoy in prepared remarks. “We continue to focus on service reliability for the American public as we modernize our outmoded and aging postal network to move mail and packages in an integrated network and deliver to nearly 165 million delivery points six days a week while covering our costs.”