Massive increase in international shipping in US as of today!

The REAL issue is the fact that they are literally losiong nearly 1 if not more million dollars a damn day. They have to up the prices a lot if they ever are going to lowere that.

 

Perhaps it's an unfair assumption, but I have this feeling that most American's have an unbalanced sense of entitlement. Canada and other parts of the world have been paying higher prices on pretty much everything for a while now. Call it economical sensibility I guess, but most people understand that times are tough. I would expect that the US would have to give in to this fact at some point or another.

 

USPS use other commercial carriers to fly their mail, e.g. FedEx.

FedEx are using a lot of Boeing 757-200SFs. The 757-200 has a fuel capacity of 11,489 US gallons, maximum range of 3,900 nautical miles and cargo capacity of 1,670 ft³.

The current cost of aviation fuel is 315.2 cents per US gallon, an increase of 3.2% since a month ago, or 2.8% since a year ago.

So.... it costs $35,845.68 to fuel one 757-200 for a 3,900 nautical mile journey. Last month, it would have been around $34,734.19 - an increase of over $1,000.

New York to London is about 3016 nautical miles, by the way.

I know that an increase of about 67 cents per cubic metre on a 3,900 nautical mile journey doesn't sound a lot.... but that's just one slice of the pie. I'm sure other prices have gone up, too - airport fees, delivery van fuel prices, wages, other overheads - and probably they're compensating for debt.

Do the prices take into account the costs on both ends? I mean, USPS will fly mail over to the UK and get Royal Mail / Parcelforce to deliver it (and Parcelforce charge a hell of a lot more). Our fuel costs and delivery costs are a lot more. Or do we work on a "we send you 50,000 parcels, you send us 50,000 parcels - that makes us even" basis? I've always believed it was more along the lines of the latter.

 

IIRC USPS main income source were express letters for business documents and stuff, but since the internet can send PDFs instantly that income has evaporated.

 

When you have to prepay pensions for the next 75 years, that's right SEVENTY FIVE, for most of your employees past, present, and future, you have to be losing money.