Pros And Cons Of United States Postal Service

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.

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

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 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

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

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

To many individuals, this is traditionally seen as a bureaucratic problem; however, personally I do not believe that the problem is purely the result of public sector negligence. Like many government services, it is more likely that the answer lies in serious reform rather than complete suspension. Interestingly, I located an article about the nonprofit - National Academy of Public Administration – that suggested a kind of public/private hybrid approach to fix the USPS’s difficulties. The concept entails “farming out” much of the behind the scenes process while a federal letter carrier would still handle front-line delivery services.

One way the postal service can become more useful is to become more involved in e-business(Source A). If more people are emailing and using internet for communication, the postal service should become more involved and get their name and business out there. Another way to rebrand the USPS is to make a play for control of government broadband[Internet Access](Source A). The government is making rapid plans to expand broadband access. If the government puts this underneath the postal service, this would be able to make create a new name for the postal service. It could be defined as a communications-delivery service rather than a perceived, “team of letter carriers”(Source A). A final way to help reconstruct the USPS is the rebrand. As simple as it sounds, the majority of the people in the United States today do not understand the importance of what the postal service means to our country. The brand of the USPS also does not give a good perception of what they do and how they do it. “Fly like an eagle, what does that even mean”(Source A). Many people do not know what this means. “A company’s brand is its most valuable tool, or its biggest liability(Source A). The USPS can easily reconstruct themselves as a communications-delivery service by changing and rebranding their company. Using e-business, government broadband access, and rebranding can all be steps and help grow and continually make the USPS a more useful source of

The Privatization of Royal Mail Maastricht  University   School  of  Business  and  Economics   Maastricht,  5th  April  2014   Wall,  Sebastian  (SW)   ID  numbers:   I6029483   Course  code:     Group  number:  1   Tutor’s  name:    Professor  Hans  van   Mierlo   Writing  Assignment:  Final  Paper         1   Executive   Summary      

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

Jobs such as bowling alley pinsetters, lamplighters, iceman, and telegraph operator have become obsolete; in twenty years mailman will join this list. The United States Postal Service, in the eyes of the state, is no longer recognized as a government agency causing the postmanpostal man to pay their own health care. The mail companies now are becoming behind on payment, because of the little cost of stamps, packages, and letters. The Bureau of Labor Statistics reports an estimate of a total twenty-eight percent decline from the year two thousand twelve to two thousand twenty-two;, The Bureau of Labor Statistics also reports a total number of one hundred and thirty-nine thousand and one hundred layoffs of the same years previously mentioned

The USPS is at a point where it does not have the financing available to maintain its operations. One reason for the annual net losses is due to the declining rate of first-class mail. The second reason has to do with the required prepayment of $5.5 billion per year toward retirees’ healthcare costs. In order for the USPS to overcome this deficit, they will need to consider their short time frame, government restrictions and labor union backfire in considering the best alternative. One alternative would be to privatize postal services operations which would allow the USPS to change its pricing structure, yet it would potentially significantly reduce market share. A second alternative would be to undergo a system-wide

The goal of The United States Postal Service is to create “a free flow of information between citizens and their governemnt as a cornerstone of freedom, often spoke of a nation bound together by a system of postal roads and post offices.” (Longley 2013) Postal offices are forbidden to open any letters unless it is undelieverbale. The United States Postal Service (USPS) is resposible for providing postal services for the United States to all Americans no matter the geographical location. The United States Postal Service is an independent agency of the United States federal government that was

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).

Team B has decided to do our paper on the United States Postal Service. The reason for this is that this service utilizes each of the functions such as globalization, the newest technology, the best innovations, and diversity and ethics combined all in one great service we each use on a daily basis in one way or another. During the reading of this paper, one will find that the following has been researched and discussed: the explanation of the four functions of management, also how the following factors affect the four functions of management: Globalization, Technology, Innovation, Diversity, and Ethics. As we look at these factors, we will learn how the Postal Service gets the mail from point