WASHINGTON, Feb 5 (Reuters) - The U.S. Postal Service on

Thursday reported a net quarterly loss of $1.25 billion as it

faces ongoing liquidity concerns and renewed calls for reforms

to address its financial difficulties

Operating revenue ‌in the three months ending December 31

fell 1.2% to $22.2 billion over the same quarter in 2024, ​when

it reported a $144 million quarterly profit.

Officials on Thursday called on policymakers to reform ‍the

Postal Service Civil Service Retirement obligations, give USPS

more flexibility ⁠over pricing and ⁠increase its $15 billion

statutory debt limit.

"Where we're falling behind is a misaligned financial and

business model," said Postmaster General ‌David Steiner on

Thursday, saying USPS has created ​a team to review all aspects

of the business to reduce costs and capital spending citing its

"dire financial situation."

USPS has reported ⁠net losses of about $120 billion since

2007 as ‍first-class mail, ​its most profitable product, has

fallen to its lowest volume since the late 1960s.

Steiner told Reuters in December the agency faces a

precarious cash position, ‍warning that without reforms it could

be out of cash in early 2027. There's only one thing I am

absolutely certain of -- if we continue to do things the way

we're doing it today, we're dead in about a year," Steiner said.

USPS last month launched an online bidding platform to take

proposals for access ​to ‍its last-mile delivery network, opening

more than 18,000 destination delivery units and local processing

centers nationwide to a broader range of customers that could

raise ​badly needed funds. Steiner said Thursday more than 1,200

companies and individuals have requested to join the bidding.

USPS delivers to more than 170 million U.S. addresses six

days a week, with the last mile the most expensive part of

deliveries. The last mile is also hugely expensive for companies

like FedEx ( FDX ), UPS and Amazon ( AMZN ).

Steiner, who took over in July after the ​White House pushed

out the prior postal leader, told Reuters it was "never even

feasible" to privatize USPS. "There's nobody in the private

sector that would want the Postal Service ... The delivery of

the mail is an unbelievably ‍costly endeavor."