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Internet Usage Boosts Post Office Revenue
setirw writes "Contrary to popular belief, the New York Times reports that Internet usage has actually boosted the USPS's revenue, instead of decreasing it. It is commonly believed that the rise of the Internet has negatively affected the Postal Service's revenue, since e-mail usage is rapidly superseding snail-mail usage. 'Six years ago, people were pointing at the Internet as the doom and gloom of the Postal Service,' said James Cochrane, manager of USPS package services. However, the widespread usage of e-commerce sites has boosted USPS revenue, since millions of packages are shipped from such sites daily."
As far as I can tell, with all of the junk mail that comes piling into my mailbox, the USPS ain't going anywhere anytime soon.
Besides, they more powers and subsidies than any other delivery corporation out there.
I highly doubt they were scared - considering the quality of service I receive in downtown Philly - job security is not an issue.
The opposite of progress is congress
For you registration whiners.
not to mention all the anthrax...
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I think this is obvious without any researches - if we buy stuff on the internet, they ship that stuff.
What would be interesting is how much less *letters* are now being sent via snail mail
I have an extremely entertaining conversation with one UK bank at the moment.
The clowns insist on using snail mail to reply to mails sent using their "secure" webmail. They have stated that they do not send emails to customers as a matter of policy and they are forced to stick to it even if this means filling Royal Mail coffers.
As e-commerce grows there will be more and more cases like this until the end-users start to actively use encrypted/signed email and banks start to require this for communicating with them.
Baker's Law: Misery no longer loves company. Nowadays it insists on it
http://www.sigsegv.cx/
First class mail isn't where the money is, especially home delivery.
If they could they would not even deliver on weekends. Hell they could save money by delivering fewer days. My Aunt and cousin are Postmasters. Home delivery is the big expense.
If it wasn't for filler (all that junk mail) first class postage would be even higher. Its still the best deal for getting something to someone.
* Winners compare their achievements to their goals, losers compare theirs to that of others.
I send my bills in letters, you insensitive clod!
My other Beowulf cluster is... er...
..is about minimising your fixed costs while maximising your variable returns.
Ok - IANAE (economist) and IANAPM (postman) - but this is probably a reasonable simplification.
With the postal service, fixed costs are about delivering a single item, where as high variable returns come from large packages. With the decline of letters and such (due to e-mail etc), and the concurrent increase in parcels (due to online shopping) - how could they not make better returns.
If a postal service is making losses and is in decline (as a number are in Europe), I would suggest that they should stop looking at environmental factors, start modernising their organizations and provide a service that complements the needs of their 21st century customer.
Genesis 1:32 And God typed
That is why they are just about to change the postal charges for packages to include the size of the object as well as the weight. http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/business/5231576.stm Previously they only charged based on weight.
If this were really happening, what would you think?
Postal services around the world buying loads and loads of mailservers just for driving internet usage ... I'll go check my spam-filter now.
Yes, I'm left. You have a problem with that?
That's the big question... I guess Viagra and Service Packs would be fairly equal in terms of shipments, and together, they should account for 90% of the non-AOL-CD shipments.
If you keep throwing chairs, one day you'll break windows....
The story on the old rumour mill over here was that Amazon was almost single handedly responsible for saving the royal mail in the UK due to the massive increase in revenue it brought with postage of larger packages.
Personally, I don't beleive Amazon would've single handedly saved it, but no doubt it contributed alongside all the other online retailers. I think it'll only get better for postal services and couriers too, it's the high street that should be (Well, "is" rather than "should be" in most cases) worrying as people shift from a culture of high street shopping to having everything delivered by mail.
thank eBay :P
and I always love how people thought that email would mean the demise of the post office; you can't attach furniture to an email message.
Do not downmod posts "overrated" simply because you disagree with them.
I mean, even before the advent of emails, who wrote a letter unless he ABSOLUTELY had to? Instead, people called or, if it had to be written, they faxed it. Simply because of the speed difference.
We used to have a Bill of Rights. Now, with the rights gone, all we have left is the bill.
Too many people on eBay use UPS. Netflix has 5 million subscribers and only uses USPS.
"When one door closes another door opens; but we so often look so long and so regretfully upon the closed door, that we do not see the ones which open for us."
- Alexander Graham Bell
It seems the post office are one of the few places that have found another open door rather than litigating to have the closed door forced open.
This is probably rather insignificant in the grand scheme of things, but projects like Postcrossing wouldn't exist if people weren't able to send post cards via snail mail, so at least in this case Internet has increased snailmail usage. Check out that site if you're interested in sending postcards to random people all over the world. It's rather weird, but I'm told it's an interesting hobby.
Follow your Euro bills at EBT
Right?
Interesting to note that a survey was done recently of the most trusted Government branches/offices/operations and the USPS was ranked #1. This is in direct contrast to the Executive Branch of government.
t ml
http://www.directmag.com/news/usps-022306/index.h
He who knows best knows how little he knows. - Thomas Jefferson
So if you set unambitious goals and meet them, you're a winner. If you are the best ___________ shop on the planet and fail to meet really ambitious goals, then you're a loser. This sounds like especially unenlightened management-speak.
By this metric, GW Bush is a winner and may be our best President ever. He has accomplished a great many of his goals. And those historians who compare him to the other Presidents and say that he may be our worst President ever...losers. Sorry, no sale.
Censorship is telling a man he can't have a steak just because a baby can't chew it. --Mark Twain
I'm convinced the only thing keeping the British Post Office running is eBay.
don't forget invoices, letters from lawyers etc.
Lars T.
To the guy who modded me down from perfect to terrible Karma - Apple haters still suck
Of course if the USPS didn't have a government-sponsered letter monopoly to use to gouge the letter-sending public, they couldn't ship packages below cost to undercut UPS and FedEx, and then no one would use those bums for anything.
Does this mean they'll be repealing the email tax I've been hearing about?
They make more revenue, but they've also raised the price of postage several times in the past 5 years.
Maybe this is the real story:
Less mail, higher charges = more money for USPS
Yesterday I got a postcard from the US Postal Service advertising free "how to sell stuff on EBay" seminars to be held at the local post office.
If this were the case, why has postage gone up so much in just the past 10 years?
Oh they're hurting all right. Maybe if they developed betetr QoS themselves, they wouldn't be in this bind.
...the government wants to tax the hell out of e-Commerce. Way to cut off your nose to spite you face, assholes.
The last 2 cent raise from 37 to 39 was not for USPS revenue, it was a general tax that went into the general fund for Congress to spend. There's another raise to 43 cents scheduled June 2007, again as a general tax increase.
This is the first time this has been done, ever. It was fiscal conservative (!) George Shrub who did this. He's spending money like a drunken social worker, and it's OK with his war-monger worshippers.
Junk, that is Standard, Mail is immensely profitable. With processing by Mailers+4 (hint:money making opportunity for a sharp programmer), it goes on a pallet, is machine sorted, and isn't touched again by a human until it's popped into your box. That's about 15 cents gross profit per piece.
USPS delivers more in one day than FedEx and UPS and all others do in a whole year. By rights, First Class should be about 30 cents.
I think with the advent of spam, The junk mailers realize they have to send out more of their filth to keep their market share of ripping off old people, and annoying the rest of the general population. This probably makes up and more for the loss of general letters and bills comming thru the mail system. I wish unsolicited mail(both regular and electronic) was illegal much like faxspam.
While I'm ranting on junk mail, I would also like to bitch about the douche that throws the free papers in my yard twice a week, and the people that send me phonebooks every 3 months. Phonebooks should be strictly opt-in, I think a majority of people have found better ways to find the information that is normally gotten from the 10lbs of advertising ladend crap they so graciously dump on my doorstep every 90ish days.
Sure, postage will come back down right after oil drops to about $30/barrel, healthcare costs follow suit, everyone decides that we want to live on a commune and share wages.
Problem is, everyone wants to make more money, have health insurance, and all the other ammenities of modern life. So in order to keep those postal employees, the USPS, BPO, Australian Post, and all the others have to raise their rates to offset the costs.
At least with this latest rate increase that the USPS is announcing, they are offering ways to reduce the postage. If you are a mailer that routinely sends flat mail (not folded in any way) you will pay a higher rate per ounce than if you send a half fold or a tri fold. This is because of the sorting equipment that is used, flats have a number of different sizes that they can be so the sorting equipment has to operate much more slowly than a 6x9 envelope that will only be a certain thickness and a general area where the addresses will be.
*Slaps Forehead*
So THAT'S why they keep having to raise the price of a stamp. Uh, wait...
There's bunches of online vendors I do business with who I have to use paypal with (if they support it) because they will only ship to my billing address and won't ship to a PO box, and I have my mail sent to a PO box because I've had too much trouble with material sent to my street address going missing.
I don't know what the underlying reasons that they only use Fedex or UPS are, I just now they're pretty damn pervasive, and I wish the USPS would make them unnecessary.
particularly at using those very same information systems to both improve their services and availability. Have you been to a post office with an automated postal center? They're amazingly easy to use and convenient! A number of commercial sites that would have used UPS or Fedex in the past have used USPS, and I notice no decline in service. In fact, our postal carriers are among the most friendly people that visit our house. They're always helpful.
I think USPS has only USPS to thank for its improved outlook.
There exists no way of exchanging information without making judgments. --Bene Gesserit Axiom
As mentioned, eBay sellers often use priority email.
Why? Because the integration between eBay, PayPal, and the USPS is so seemless. With just a few clicks through a few screens a bidder has paid you, and you are printing out a pre-paid shipping label that you stick on a free box the USPS delivered to your door and that you can drop off in special priority mail drop containers that do not require standing in line.
You can also pre-print other forms of shipping but Priority is generally a little faster (though there is no gaurantee) which means everyone is happier.
I would say the masterstroke of gettting eBay shippers to primarily use USPS and on top of that use one of the more expensive shipping options means huge profit increases for the USPS. Now instead of sending letters which must generate very little profit they ship more packages with a better margin.
"There is more worth loving than we have strength to love." - Brian Jay Stanley
The postal centers are awesome, but what is even more awesome is that you can access all of those features online as well and just pre-print your postage before you even leave the house - no need to stand in line then. Not to mention the awesome integration with PayPal and eBay.
"There is more worth loving than we have strength to love." - Brian Jay Stanley
The internet opened up everyone's junk closet to the world, and we all pay the post office to shift it. They may be losing regular letter postage to email, but parcel mail must be more profitable.
Hal Spacejock: Science Fiction with Nuts
Its really hard to go postal using E-mail....
The survey was specificly about privacy concerns, not quality of service or anything else.
Have you been touched by his noodly appendage?
And I have to say that I deal with the post office a LOT and I've never had any trouble with their customer service. In ten+ years of buying and selling through the mail, I've had one lost package, and one damaged package, compared to 3 or 4 lost Fed Ex packages, and literally every UPS package has tears, dents, gouges, and severe corner damage--thankfully the things I get sent via UPS aren't fragile (i.e. boxes and bubble mailers).
the other door isn't a door at all, it's people sneaking in through the lavatory window and making off with the product.
amazon has made usps rich
Well the monopoly they have over mail delivery is a pretty big non-cash subsidy, in my book.
I'm not saying that the USPS isn't pretty good at what it does, and I use them all the time, but let's be honest: they have a market that's protected from competition by law. No private corporation is allowed to carry letters for anything less than (IIRC) twice the USPS rate or $3, whichever is lower.
That they're self-supporting is good, but they'd really better be considering that nobody is allowed to touch their business area.
"Ladies and gentlemen, my killbot features Lotus Notes and a machine gun. It is the finest available."
Er, no.
_ Service#Airline_and_rail_division. All of the air and rail transportation of US Mail is handled under contract, and a fair bit of the over-the-road trucking is as well. It's not cost effective for the USPS to maintain their own fleet of aircraft, when they can just have private companies compete to provide that service to them as contractors.
You've got that backwards. The USPS doesn't own any planes, and they have a relatively small fleet of trucks for the volume of stuff that they deliver. It's the Postal Service that uses a lot of other people's trucks and planes, not the other way around.
In particular, a lot of US Mail is shipped on FedEx aircraft. It used to be that a lot of mail was hauled on passenger airplanes (and the passenger airlines used to compete for these contracts, which is a story in itself) but they no longer allow packages on passenger flights for safety/security reasons, so they now put most air mail onto other freight aircraft. FedEx has one of the largest fleets of air-freight craft in the world, so it's natural that they actually do a lot of the transportation.
See http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_States_Postal
"Ladies and gentlemen, my killbot features Lotus Notes and a machine gun. It is the finest available."
why can't they stop stuffing everyone's mailboxes with tons of advertising that no-one reads.
USPS can make a bomb on shipping peoples teleporters around, then complain about how they're going to go out of buisness..
Then what happened to the $0.32 stamp?
I don't know of anyone in the pre-email world who used fax machines for personal correspondence.
I never wrote a whole lot of letters just because I didn't live that much of my life before email was available, but my parents certainly had whole files of paper letters and would write all the time. Probably still not as often as they send personal emails, so I'd say the amount of communication that people do today via email is greater than what they ever did via mail, but I think you're exaggerating the lengths to which people went to avoid writing letters.
It's not that much harder to write a letter than it is to send an email, when you're used to it. People had inboxes and outboxes and typing desks and stationery; people were set up to write letters and manage paper documents. Executives and lawyers had professional secretaries who managed correspondence and took dictation. Firing off a letter to someone in a paper-based office wasn't that involved or hard -- everyone was used to it.
Actually, I would bet that it probably takes less time to turn on a typewriter, insert a sheet of stationery, and start typing a letter, than it does to power up a computer, connect to the Internet via dialup, start an email program, and start writing an email. For the un-technically inclined, it's also a lot less intimidating. It's only recently, with the ubiquitity of always-on computers and Internet connections, that we've clearly achieved greater ease-of-use than the paper-based systems we perfected for decades did (and even then there's room for argument).
When people think about writing letters today, they think of how much of a pain it would be now, where most of the home and office infrastructure for managing paper has disappeared. People don't have desks with lots of empty space for reading and responding to mail, or file drawers for personal correspondence, or Rolodexes for managing postal addresses. Without that infrastructure, letter-writing is a PITA. Most people today, if they want to write a letter, have to either type it using a computer (making it just as involved as an email), or hand-write it (PITA), find an envelope, find stamps, find a mailbox, etc.
But that's not really fair. Writing an email would be a pain in the ass too, if you didn't have ready access to a computer, email program, and Internet connection. The way we write paper letters now would be like writing an email by Telnetting into a SMTP server -- we don't use any of the tools or infrastructure that was designed to facilitate that mode of communication.
"Ladies and gentlemen, my killbot features Lotus Notes and a machine gun. It is the finest available."
Obviously, not everyone has the same experience with the USPS. Mine has been very good.
I ship a fair number of packages. I have a FedEx account and have found that most of my packages are cheapest to send via FedEx Home. I also have a USPS account. I ship USPS when I'm shipping media mail or when the package is lightweight. FedEx rates are generally better for heavier packages (4 pounds up). That's especially true if the ship-to address is a business, if it's not in the boondocks, and if the package needs insurance. One insight into why FedEx might be cheaper is that per wikipedia: "FedEx Express contractually flies a large number of packages for United States Postal Service totaling one billion dollars worth of packages per year, making it one of FedEx's biggest customers".
USPS has modernized and continues to do so. I recently used the web to have my mail held while I was out of town; worked like a champ. Their other online services are quite good; I just wish I could print more classes of postage/mailing labels online w/o having to use another (expensive) service provider (e.g. stamps.com).
Rates are up, but they're still much less than rates elsewhere in the world, especially considering the geographic distances involved. Service seems to me to be better too.
The USPS is head and shoulders above what the old Post Office was years ago. I just hope they continue to improve and innovate.
United States Postal Service is a self-supporting agency. Their entire goal is to make a profit and not receive one dime from Federal government. They ARE a BUSINESS and they run like a BUSINESS. It is why postage goes up and they modernize. They are in reorganization mode now to increase profits. I just hope they see a need to change package tracking. It sucks.
Also, Postmaster General is also called CEO of USPS. Read USPS website. You can also read their financials and business plans.
The reason why USPS has a monopoly on letter delivery is because of the laws. Only two people is allowed access to your mailbox, you and USPS. Those neat little boxes are protected by federal law.
As for the increase in profits for USPS, I bet it is mostly due to eBay.
\
The more of your time they waste, the more money they make. Went to the Post office to mail a package. Four out of eight stations open, customer at each, BUT no line! Woo-Hoo, I'm next! Not.
Customer leaves so does the post-person, another, another, now one window with one customer and 20 people behind me. After waiting 10 minutes, they finally opened a station and the line started moving again.
Very suckessful business model:
1-Have a service that requires a queue of customers
2-Make sure the queue is at the threshold of pain for customer/acceptable loss
3-Ferengi Magic happens
4-Profit$
1011 1010 1101 1100 0000 1111 1111 1110 1110
The USPS wastes over a billion a year on returned mail.
Direct marketing and corporate postal customers get postage breaks because them make the mail piece
machinable. 1st class mail is often handwritten and requires eyes.
It seems obvious that the USPS would want to score corporate and package delivery business and lose the letters to Santa.
...the only government branch "in-the-black".
Rishi Chopra
www.rishichopra.org
until someone invents a teleporter.
Some folks HAVE to use the USPS. Particularly for those of us in Hawai'i (and Alaska), UPS/FEDEX/DHL are insanely expensive. And yes, when an on-line seller won't use the USPS, we just don't do business with them. I can rant for hours about how good Amazon (gasp!) is with USPS shipping, and how bad their "partners" are because most refuse to use USPS.
...can't ignore this: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_United_Sta tes_Postal_Service_rates
Stamps went up to 0.29 in Feb '91, and up to 0.39 in Jan '06. A 33% increase in 15 years. And that's just the first class rate. So, there's more to this story. Like, the USPS is greedy.
why? forty-two.
Yah I've had discussions with my wife and dad about that kind of thing....to do it the star trek way would be too complicated and dangerous....dematerialize matter and be able to re-materialize a person exactly as they were before? Reminds me of "The Fly"...just doesn't seem very possible anytime soon anyway.
Although bending space/time seems like more of an option....but thats even more out of our grasp....doesn't seem as dangerous but then again, there are other factors to think about besides molecules.
Anyways I'm just a noob with such topics but enjoy discussing them outside of the Sci-fi world.