Essay on Usps: the Future of Postal Service

If the mail monopoly were removed, then private companies would quickly gain control of the most profitable routes, leaving the postal service with universal obligations but no profits and therefore no funding with which to serve these routes. Many economists have challenged this urban to rural subsidy. In a testimony to the President’s Commission, Robert H. Cohen, an economist and the Director of Office of Rates at the USPS, demonstrated evidence that universal service does not depend on a postal monopoly. In regards to the urban to rural cross subsidy, Cohen (2003) claimed that “the proportion of unprofitable routes in the U.S. is approximately the same for urban and rural areas” (pg.2). Cohen conducted this study by examining “rural carrier routes” and created a list of these routes ordered by the number of mail boxes delivered per mile of the route (pg. 14). Since these rural routes inevitably include some urban routes as well, Cohen (2003) only looked at the bottom 60% of his list, or those routes which deliver the least amount of mail (pg.14). He found that of these routes, 53.1% are profitable and 46.9% are unprofitable earning a total profit of $175 million in 1999 (pg. 14). In comparison, 56.5% of the urban routes that he looked at were profitable and 43.5% were unprofitable earning a total profit of

Over the years, the Postal Service has played many roles. By statute, the mission of the Postal Service is to “bind the nation together.” This is typically thought of as providing hard copy delivery. But, historically, the mission of the Postal Service has been broader, including educating and informing the public, enabling commerce, and representing the federal government in local communities. The key to determining the appropriate future business model of the Postal Service is clarifying its role. What future role does the

There is still a need for the United States Postal Service (USPS) today then just as anytime during the history of the United States. The USPS provides valuable and equitable services to all Americans everywhere in the United States, regardless of distance from their nearest post office. “Universal Service” a key term provided in an article by the Bloomberg Business week journal, describes what the USPS provides. The cost of delivering mail in rural communities is much higher than in urban areas. The USPS chief executive officer stated “You cannot charge 46 cents to deliver a letter by snowmobile in Alaska and make it work” (Bloomberg Business, 2014). Privatization of the USPS would possibly cause regional price differences that can place many Americans in rural areas at a

Due to the rising popularity of email and the easiness of scanning documents, less and less mail is being sent every year and because of competitors like FedEx and UPS the United States Postal Service (USPS) is having financial problems. All over the world there has been sweeping postal reform. New Zealand moved to three day mail delivery, Canada eliminated home delivery in cities, and the United Kingdom recently privatized their mail system. The United States Postal office has been losing money and reported a loss of $15.9 billion dollars in 2012. The USPS has been increasing stamp prices to make up for this financial loss, most recently increasing stamp prices from forty-four cents to forty-five. With congressing blocking the latest USPS

In Daniel Stone’s editorial article, “Flying Like an Eagle”, he advises the USPS some guidance to boost up their profit and their usage to the community. One of his inputs on the

"The United States Postal Service and the National Rural Letter Carriers’ Association are time honored institutions that provide a “post office on wheels” to the American public on a day‐to‐day basis. With the first rural delivery established in 1896, a century of evolution has changed the rural carrier position to what it is today. (NRLCA)

The Post Office Department known as the United States Postal Services (USPS) (Annual Report, 2009) today, is a dominate player in the mail delivery arena and has been existence since 1776. The Post Office was originally a governmental agency, but due to mismanagement by Congress, was reorganized in 1971 and no longer a part of the presidential cabinet; but became an independent establishment of the executive branch of the Government. To date, the USPS maintains a monopoly on the day-to-day delivery of mail but competitors do share the market on some of the other types of deliveries; shares the market on some of the other types of deliveries (i.e. express

Especially in urban cities buzzing with the latest technology, many would agree that, “you don’t need a full-service post office every few blocks in New York, for example” (Source A). In addition, I spend every summer with my dad in Chicago, and because there is a USPS post office right around the corner of our apartment building, I have noticed from passing it every day that it is the one store on State Street that is empty 90 percent of the time. In my experience, Postmaster General John Potter is correct in wanting to “close and consolidate 154 post offices”, significantly reducing operating costs and employment. Strategy is key; by shutting down the offices with the lowest production and necessity, USPS will no longer be uselessly spending money.

Another growing idea is the privatization of USPS and the removal of its monopoly on mail delivery. It seems the ultimate goal of this would be alleviating the government’s hold on the Post Office altogether, therefore reduce any burden that it has. Perhaps it would also allow the Post Office to expand its services in order to meet the growing needs of consumers and adapt to the

According to (SOURCE C), people are starting to migrate to the internet, and other cheaper mail options. As O’Keef says, they have experienced a 13 percent increase in mail volume in a fiscal year, more than any double previous decline, and lost 3.8 billion dollars. The USPS is anticipating even steeper drops in the years to come. According to (SOURCE E), the USPS is having a tough time, they are being battered by the high price of fuel. The USPS also takes a dig at our economy saying how it is responsible for their decrease in mail volume, calling the economy soft. The USPS is hit again in (SOURCE F), it states “not only are they losing revenue, they have been required to pay their own cost since 1970, which made a profit until 2006.” The decline in mail has caused major problems for the USPS, they delivered 17 percent fewer pieces in 2009 than in 2006, and lost $1.4 billion dollars. That money was borrowed from the U.S. Treasury. There is not that many alternatives for these issues, but there is one, that solution is in (SOURCE A), it simply states that they should not mess around with their delivery schedule. The USPS should be adding to their services, instead of subtracting from them. They dropped from a six-day service to a five-day service. As Richard Honack says- “to all

Royal  Mail  is  the  largest  provider  of  postal  services  in  the  United  Kingdom  and   one  of  the  largest  postal  service  providers  in  the  world.  This  paper  analyzes

The availability of substitutes is medium mainly because there aren’t a large number of substitutes out there for express mail outside of the industry. Most next day deliveries are business documents, parcels, letters, ect, not typically cargo. So substitutes could include email and faxes, both are faster and cheaper than express mailing. Depending on the nature of the business, video conferencing or the old fashion telephone could be used. If the parcel is going somewhere local maybe could use bike messengers, or just hand deliver. There are also the second tier players, like RPS, DHL and TNT, while they are still in the delivery industry; they tend to specialize in areas other than express mail. With RPS, it is second day service at 40-50% less, and a business that does a large amount of overseas or international express shipments may want to substitute with DHL or TNT, who specialize and differentiate themselves in the international market.

Now a days, kids are coming out of the womb with smart phones and wifi passwords. They do every thing on the internet - apple pay, amazon , text messaging. The use of sending letters is no longer relevant because there is email and social media. Stone writes, “ More people are e-mailing? So meet their needs.” If everyone is is on the internet, then that is where USPS needs to be. USPS can send email updates in newsletters. USPS could come out with a new online newsletter every week. It would be hard to forget about USPS if it entertained you with staff interviews, interesting facts, and updates once a week. USPS should still be available offline because even though the vastly population is online, not everyone has access to

b) Regular mail only cost 32 cents for letters. The post office is also very convenient. However, in regards to packages, the post office is very poor in quality service and efficiency (cannot track packages efficiently and has an on-time delivery record much worse than commercial carriers)

USPS should consider shifting part of its mail volume to rail. By making this change it has been estimated that USPS could save at least $100 million per year. Additionally, “because of its lesser sensitivity to fuel price increases and greater control of its own infrastructure, rail transportation has major, long-term strategic advantages over highway” (Berman, 2012).