SOUTH DAKOTA STRAIGHT TALK

Note: This post should be considered venting and is not intended to reach the level of a full blown rant. (additional disclaimer – I am an intense user of USPS services and speaking specifically of their service find their pricing competitive, service fast and reliable for small parcels. Besides getting mail pickup and delivery at my place of business, I am generally at the Downtown Post Office twice each day picking up my mail and posting parcels. The window personnel I deal with are professional, knowledgeable, friendly, and relatively efficient (waiting as they wrap packages for patrons can be a little trying).

The United States Postal Service has not had much good news lately with a decrease in mail volume in 2008 of 9 billion pieces or 4½% and it is expected to double in 2009. Losses this year are expected to be $6 Billion. Pretty easy to understand really – the private package delivery services (that cherry pick the business without having to deliver Universal Service and of course Electronic Communications (email), and the recession has crippled mail volume and the junk mailers.

To remedy the decline the Postal Service’s management must change their business plan. To deliver the mail using the model developed by the first Postmaster General Benjamin Franklin (under the Continental Congress from 1785 – 1788) (sorting the mail into little pigeon holes and hand delivering the mail to each patron’s door) does not comport with modern technologies and capability.

Rather than reforming the business plan and reforming management practice to cut expenses, Management are further diminishing revenues by cutting Service. Nationally the Postal Service has had layoffs, consolidations and the Postmaster General has proposed cutting mail delivery from 6 days a week to 5. Do not expect Congress to grant the necessary waiver the Stamp General wants.

This week in an effort to cut costs, the Postal Service put the Sioux Falls Downtown Post Office up for sale. I am not privileged to their logic nor their operating numbers but this seems crazy. This is the same building that there was spent undoubtedly hundreds of thousands of dollars removing asbestos and remodeling two years ago. It may be remembered at the time the furor over changing rental box numbers and sizes and the related expense caused to their patrons. At the time of the reopening Saturday morning business hours were eliminated as was the stamp vending machine in the lobby (try to understanding the logic of that in light of cost cutting). Recently morning service to box holders from 7am to 8am was also eliminated as stated for security reasons. The Meadows Station is still open on Saturday though their hours of service were also recently reduced.

I am not a management expert or efficiency expert but I offer a few suggestions worth considering.

Rather than selling the Downtown location, utilize the large empty plant and offices there by eliminating other properties that are being leased for mail processing and office space for clerical work, marketing and management personnel.

Install at their box locations and Post Offices stamp vending machines, particularly ones that accept credit cards.

For residential mail delivery use box sections on corners, city wide like those found in some newer neighborhoods or like those found in apartments.

Standardize the envelope sizes as an example to #10 and #6 envelopes. Other sizes that are not as machine able for sorting would carry a significant surcharge. Likewise require mailers to use standardized mail labels with 9 digit zip codes. Others too would require a surcharge. Keep in mind that 80% of homes and an even larger % of businesses have access to a personal computer and the Internet. (BTW www.usps.com is a pretty good website and a great way to purchase postage). For those without Internet access, USPS could provide machines in their locations that provide labeling and even put them in other libraries and government buildings.

At the end of the day Good Service will solve their problems not lack thereof. In context of the Government now owning General Motors should we expect that GM will be managed with the vision and execution of the Post Office?

That might be something to think about as we embark on Government sponsored Universal Health Care.