We are republishing the following piece by Marc Zazeela of APC Logistics because it reminds us of something very important in the midst of a very intense battle over 6-day delivery and an exigent rate increase.  The USPS is a pretty amazing institution that does an incredible job.  Of course, even The Prescott Report finds fault with it from time to time. In our last issue we chastised it for ignoring smaller mailers and failing to develop programs to promote international mailing and shipping.  We’ll continue to criticize the cozy relationship between the USPS and the State Department in their manipulation of the UPU regulations on cross-border mail and ETOE’s, and the blinkered refusal to acknowledge that many huge mailers don’t live in a bi-polar mail world, but a multi-country mail world, which no one, except perhaps Deutsche Post and Swiss Post, have figured out.

Nevertheless, as Marc reminds us, the USPS is unjustly accused on several grounds.  Moreover, it does an amazing job and deserves respect for the extraordinary things it does better than any other postal service in the world – serve its many millions of customers over an enormous land mass of incredible diversity of geographies and population densities with extraordinary efficiency. It also does this using state-of-the art technologies for efficiency and is much greener than critics acknowledge.

United States Postal Service Myths and Facts

Marc Zazeela

March 24, 2010

The United States Postal Service is one of the most maligned organizations in America.  Americans take a lot for granted, especially the USPS.  It is, by far, the most efficient and the busiest postal administration in the world.  The United States Postal Service delivers about one half of all the mail delivered worldwide, each and every day.    The USPS delivers over 660 million pieces of mail to over 142 million points every day.  Despite this Herculean task, they are universally assailed as being the model of inefficiency.  Over the years the postal service has been the butt of many jokes and has even become part of the American vernacular.  Can you say “going postal”?  But, have they really earned their reputation?  Here are five common misconceptions about the U.S.P.S.

Myth #1 – USPS is a waste of taxpayer dollars - This could not be further from the truth.  In 1982 the Post Office Department was reorganized to become the current form of the USPS.  They are a commercial entity, not a government body, which relies entirely on the sale of products and services for its revenue and operating capital.  There are small federal subsidies to cover the franking privileges of government organizations and postage for the blind.  Otherwise, the total cost to the U.S. taxpayer is $0.00.

Myth #2 – USPS is the model of inefficiency - Through various cost cutting initiatives, automation upgrades, and workforce reductions, the USPS processes more mail today than it did 10 years ago; and with fewer employees.  According to PMG John Potter, in 1998 it took 70 USPS employees one hour to sort 35,000 letters.  Today with the addition of advanced sorting equipment, the same volume of mail can be processed with only two employees; a 97% reduction in the labor necessary to perform this operation.  And, if that isn’t enough, the World Economic Forum ranks the USPS in the top 4% of the world’s postal administrations.  In the face of their huge budget deficit, $7 billion this year, they are considering a number of cost saving measures.  One is to reduce mail delivery from 6 days to five.  Who is really going to miss mail delivery on Saturday?  And, they plan to close about 677 underused, local postal stations.

Myth #3 – Mail is unreliable – On the contrary.  According to a recent survey conducted by IBM, the USPS has achieved record levels for reliability.  Last year (2009) the on time record for overnight delivery of First Class Mail was at 96%.  Of course we’d like to see 100%, and there are those who will whine that 96% is not good enough.  Considering the sheer volume of mail, and when compared to the world’s postal systems, that is an efficiency record worth bragging about.  And another fact, according to the Federal Trade Commission, is that your mailbox is more secure than your pocket.  They found that you are more likely to experience identity theft through the loss of a wallet or purse, than you are through the mail.

Myth #4 – USPS is unfriendly to the environment - Obviously, burning fossil fuels does play a part in the USPS operations.  The only ways to move mail from point A to point B involves the use of fuel powered vehicles for transportation.  The USPS has been at the forefront of alternative fueled vehicles.  Their fleet of 44,000 alternative fueled vehicles is one of the worlds largest.  It includes vehicles that are powered by hydrogen, electricity, fuel cells, biodiesel, and propane.  Moreover, much of the free packaging material that the USPS supplies has either been manufactured using recycled materials or is made of recyclable materials.  The USPS recycled almost ¼ million tons of material, last year alone!

Myth #5 – USPS cannot compete with the private sector - Why then, do two of the biggest competitors, Fed Ex and UPS, pay the postal service to deliver more than 400 million of their ground packages each year under a newly implemented “last mile” program?  And, while the price of a stamp has increased 33% from $0.33 to $0.44 since 1999, the competition has raised their rates a whopping 60% over the same period of time.  When compared side by side with the competition, the USPS represents a real bargain.  They are not losing market share to competition, but to market forces.  The volume of First Class Mail alone, dropped by 17% in the last year.  The USPS has enough service options to satisfy almost anyone’s mailing or shipping needs.  The next time you are considering the best ways to move your packages or mail, consider the company that does it better and has been at it longer than everyone else!

Marc Zazeela

marcz@apc-pli.com

www.apc-pli.com