Improved revenues from price increases and lower costs helped the U.S. Postal Service in reducing its fiscal second-quarter deficit from the prior year by 24% despite a slowdown in mail and parcel volumes. The postal organization on Friday reported an operating loss of $642 million, a significant year over year improvement. The net loss, which includes certain mandated obligations outside management’s control also fell — to $2 billion from $3.3 billion. The Postal Service attributed the decreased loss to a $463 million revenue gain and a $1.3 billion cut in workers compensation expense, partly offset by an increase in retiree health benefits and other operating expenses. Total operating revenue was $20.2 billion for the quarter, an increase of 2.3%, compared to the same quarter last year. The increase was largely due to price increases in parcel shipping, marketing mail and First-Class mail. Shipping and Packages revenue increased $348 million, or 4.5%, on a volume decline of 22 million pieces, or 1.4%. First-Class mail volume fell 6.3%. And parcel volumes likely will continue to decline after Amazon recently re-enlisted for last-mile postal delivery, but said it would hand over about 20% less volume than in recent years. “During the quarter we were able to get revenue, cost and service results moving in the right direction,” said Postmaster General David Steiner in a statement. “However, the scale of our financial improvements compared to the prior year was modest and we have a long road [ahead] to achieve anything close to long-term financial…
