February 6, 2013
It seems that every second day you see a new negative press mention of USPS being bankrupt, closing a branch, arguing with congressional regulators over how to manage the business, or making a case in the press that their pension costs are being incorrectly allocated (aka, we are not bankrupt). The end result has been confusion, and probably some difficulty for regional postmasters everywhere in working with their customers.
Today, the USPS did something fantastic. They saved Saturday parcel deliveries.
Yes, I know they ended Saturday letter mail deliveries. Some important mail like pension and social security checks come on Saturday. But, it’s mostly junk mail being delivered on Saturday. So today the USPS said “we love you” to ecommerce.
Why is this so important that I think it’s fantastic? Simple: the USPS was the best low-cost option to deliver an ecommerce order on Saturday without paying UPS or Fedex Saturday delivery fees. This means that for the largest growing part of the USPS revenue – small parcel – they have loudly declared, “we are going to be the best!”
Bravo!
My bet is that now the regional postmasters and many of their sales teams will be more able to work with parcel shippers and global carriers with much more certainty.