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Internet Usage Boosts Post Office Revenue

Posted by ryuzaki0 on from the forward-progress-not-always-bad dept.

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."

4 of 140 comments (clear)

  1. So?.. by Klaidas · · Score: 5, Insightful

    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

  2. The Royal Mail knows this by Don_dumb · · Score: 5, Interesting

    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?
  3. Sounds like a similar story to the UK... by Xest · · Score: 5, Interesting

    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.

  4. To quote a famous man... by MWelchUK · · Score: 5, Insightful

    "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.