Category: U S Postal Service

Disruption, Postal Change, U S Postal Service

United States Postal Service

Privatization, or strategic asset?

Since the 1980s, the ever-present debate has been what to do with the United States Postal Service. Like a tug of the war the struggle has shifted from side to side – from ‘it’s a government monopoly that restrains trade in the private sector by locking out private delivery companies from lucrative access to the home mailbox while being heavily subsidized by taxpayer dollars, …’ to it’s a ‘strategic asset of the United States of America’.

And while the debate continues to this day, with citations of how the Continental Post Office, then the Post Office Department, and now the independent US Postal Service has served this nation are known knowns, there numerous lesser-known facts about the organization. Two notable ones – if there was no Post Office there would be no mail order industry, i.e., no Rural Free Delivery to deliver the Sears Roebuck and Mongomery Wards catalogs that launched the B2C fulfillment of millions packages via Parcel Post service; if there was no Post Office there would be no commercial airline service transporting millions of kilos of US Mail, and passengers daily. Yes, the US Post Office actually spun off its airline to the commercial sector in 1927. The Post Office, and later the US Postal Service was a pioneer not only in logistics and transportation, but technology as well. The Post Office Department began research and development of optical character recognition [OCR] technology in the 1950’s leading to equipment capable of sorting up to 36,000 piece of mail per hour. Other R&D projects led to hybrid mail systems, global fax networks, and electronic funds and payment systems. All the while still delivering personal and business correspondence whose unique feature is that it cannot be hacked. Today the USPS has over 1,560 patents.

So, the current news bites that a recent investment bank research paper has triggered today about what is the value of a privatized Postal Service’ brings to the debate into very sharp focus. The paper, reported on by MSNBC makes some bold assertions about the monetization of a series of spun-off businesses, but in doing so it opens the door to intense scrutiny about the true value of the United States Postal Service. We leave you this thought and look forward to returning in the next weeks with some outside the box (and envelope) observations. – – “What’s over your horizon?”

U S Postal Service

News Release 28 June 2024

the CEP Group Makes Strategic Shift in USPS Shipping

Effective this week we are shifting ALL our US Postal Service shipping to FedEx. The most recent USPS shipping failure left us no alternative. On June 10th we shipped ICT equipment to a former teammate and current associate, via USPS Ground Advantage, insured, direct signature required. After three weeks of tracking updates showing the shipment travelling a circuitous route between Florida and PR, including multiple arrival scans on different dates in processing facilities; on Tuesday this week, June 25th, the USPS emailed us a notification of proof of delivery stating “We regret to inform you that we were unable to locate any delivery information in our records for your item.”

Subsequent to this we reached out to Linda K. Crawford, Southern Area vice president, US Postal Service for an explanation. As of this evening neither she nor her office has responded.

At close of this week if there is no resolution we are considering advising our shipping clients that we will provide reviews of their shipping profiles to assess their supply chain risk exposure to USPS shipping.

And when the US Postal Service has lost your shipment, at least they are good enough to tell you –

Notification of Proof of Delivery_Redacted – Copy (2)Download
Disruption, FedEx, The Postal Industry, U S Postal Service, United Parcel Service - UPS, USPS

Waiting for the Third Shoe?

Many of my fellow 3PL and CEP cohort are anxiously aware of the current UPS / Teamsters negotiations on the UPS national contract (shoe #1.) and the FedEx / ALPA Pilots labor negotiations (shoe #2). But many of you may not know about ‘The Third Shoe’ in this year’s logistics sector cliff hanger – the US Postal Service’s current labor negotiations with its largest workforce segment, OVER 335,000 Letter Carriers delivering mail and packages to 12.7 million business addresses and 152.2 million residential addresses.

So, if even one of the trio shuts down for a few weeks, meaning the ‘brown boxes’ stopped getting delivered, and the ‘purple tails’ stopped flying, and the merry mailman stops ringing you bell this summer, who are you going to call?

NALC and the Postal Service open negotiations for sixteenth collective bargaining agreement | National Association of Letter Carriers AFL-CIO

Direct Mail, Integrated Marketing, U S Postal Service

Evolution of a Medium, or it’s decline and fall?

The U S Postal Service ramps up its marketing for Direct Mail – using the medium to showcase the message. The ‘current’ campaign uses a highly sophisticated direct mailpiece (see description below). Based on our experience developing integrated direct marketing campaigns for Express Mail in the USPS Northeast Region in the mid-1980s, the current campaign is likely targeting SMEs with a list built from a.) In house customer account files, b.) Respondents from prior marketing campaigns, and c.) Purchased lists based on USPS criteria for market segments for direct mail.

The mailpiece itself combines several interactive elements to engage the audience’s senses including sight – the visual elements of design; touch – the physical mailpiece itself, a hard copy Business Reply Card to mail back for more information and featured publication, and the interaction of rubbing the ‘cookie images’; smell – to release the aroma of the cookies, as well as digital interaction with a QR code to scan in order to obtain a copy of publication the “Evolution of a Medium”

The one glaring flaw of the campaign is its timing, as evoked in the copy and artwork; i.e., a tie in to the Holiday Season as referenced by the scratch and sniff holiday cookies. And most interestingly, the direct mailpiece image that was scanned in the Informed Delivery ® service is hot linked to a USPS response microsite – Uncover the secret ingredients with USPS. | USPS Delivers, in effect serving as a demonstration of the service, and an example of an integrated marketing medium.

Unfortunately, it appears that the Postal Service cannot deliver even its own mail on time which is particularly poignant amidst its latest existential crisis. Somehow, delivering mail months late (yes, we are still receiving holiday cards from friends and family as of this month, birthday cards mailed to family members that would have been delivered within the normal First Class Mail standard time frame of 2-3 days nationwide never showed up, and checks mailed to professional industry organizations in January have disappeared.

So, the question remains, is this the Evolution of mail, or the decline and fall of a Postal Service?

Payments, U S Postal Service, Walmart, Western Union

Western Union Partners With Walmart!

January 19, 2021

Western Union services will roll out in more than 4,700 Walmart stores starting this spring. A leapfrog over the competition, or a ‘Hail Mary pass’? – https://bit.ly/3pbAfgo

And further to the discussion where in the world is the US Postal Service’s “Sure Money® (DineroSeguro®)”. Yes, the service has been around since the mid 1990’s but have you seen it advertised lately? The USPS has about 30,000 retail outlets versus Walmart’s 4,756 stores.

And why didn’t USPS partner with Walmart? Walmart’s footfall and customer demographic are a natural fit. “Has the USPS lost its business development mojo?” Stay tuned for the next installment – “Retail Self Service Kiosk – What Took So Long?” #USPSLostBizDevMojo