Technology keeps reshaping Postal Service
Q. A Sebastian resident would like to know why the Post Office has changed its hours, closing earlier than it had in the past.
A. The U.S. Postal Service is an independent government agency that relies on postage and fees to fund its operations. It is legally defined as "an independent establishment of the executive branch of the Government of the United States," therefore, it is wholly owned by the government and controlled by appointees and the Postmaster General.
There are 11 members of the board that oversees the USPS, nine of which are appointed by the president of the United States. The presidential appointees then select the postmaster general or chief executive officer, who oversees the day-to-day activities of the service, and those 10 members then nominate a deputy postmaster general of chief operating officer.
There is a statutory monopoly on delivering non-urgent letters, but the USPS faces competition for package delivery services. Interestingly, the USPS does not have to make a profit, it merely has to break even, which it has continually done since 1984, says Joseph Breckenridge, USPS spokesperson.
THE INTERNET'S IMPACT
The competition starting heating up for the Postal Service in the 1990s, when the Internet and e-mail became a household feature and private package delivery services started becoming more popular, such as UPS, FedEx and DHL.
"The competition made the USPS better. It forced us to find ways to do more with less. And, the winner is the American people," Breckenridge says.
USPS has kept up with its competition by offering more convenient services like Click-and-Ship, where postage can be paid for and shipping labels printed from your home computer. The package can be picked up at your home with free delivery confirmation letting the sender track the package, says Antonio Ruiz, Sebastian Post Office Officer-in-Charge.
"The USPS has taken a more customer friendly approach," says Breckenridge.
A reduction in business, especially its core product or single-piece first-class mail and a slowing in growth of all first-class mail, Breckenridge says, also made the USPS review its business strategies.
Reasons for dwindling Post Office business includes many new and convenient features that computers offer, such as:
• personal bill pay, i.e. a lot fewer bills traveling through "snail" mail;
• online banking and bank statements, i.e. a lot fewer bank statements and other banking correspondence in the mail;
• other statements being offered through e-mail, i.e. insurance;
• Internet shopping, i.e. merchandise comes directly from a store or manufacturer, eliminating the need to be sent via mail from person-to-person
• and e-mail, i.e. a lot fewer hand-written letters and cards.
Gas price increases also have greatly affected operating expenses.
"Just one penny increase on a gallon of gas costs millions more dollars to operate the vehicles," Breckenridge says.
LITTLE BIT OF HISTORY
The first Postal Service started in America in February 1692 with a grant from King William and Queen Mary. The USPS was created on July 26, 1775 in Philadelphia under Benjamin Franklin. It became the Post Office Department in 1792.
In 1971, the department was reorganized (unconstitutionally) as a quasi-independent agency of the federal government and became the USPS.
The Postal Service today is the third largest employer in the United States, only behind the U.S. Department of Defense and Wal-Mart, and it operates the largest civilian vehicle fleet in the world with 260,000 vehicles.
Despite gradual decreased income due to factors stated previously, the USPS still keeps busy delivering more than 210 billion pieces of mail a year (home and around the world), or about 40 percent of the world's mail.
Breckenridge says the Postal Service has not laid workers off, but decreasing Post Office hours helps reduce some costs, like wages and energy usage. And, through attrition, the size of the work force has been controlled.
In fact, about 700,000 Postal Service workers today deliver 210 billion pieces of mail. The same number of workers back in the 1970s delivered only 60 billion pieces of mail. However, automation makes that possible.
Nowadays with automation, a letter which used to be hand sorted through every step of the mail process is now only touched when the mail carrier delivers the letter to the mailbox. The letter is sorted and categorized through machines.
Even though the Postal Service has been negatively affected by technology, Breckenridge says technology also has helped increase business. The number of people (population increases) using computers has helped boost business and there are still items that must come through the mail, like magazines, which also have increased in number, due to the number of magazines available.
Final Note: If you are tired of constantly returning to the Post Office to buy new stamps because of the price increases, the Post Office is now offering a forever stamp. The forever stamp will be sold at the standard rate (of 41 cents today), but it will always be valid for 1st class mail, no matter how much rates rise in the future.
Information for this article was found at the USPS Web site at www.answers.com/
topic/united-states-postal- service.
Nancy Whelan is a correspondent for the Sebastian Sun. Feel free to contact her at [email protected] with any questions you would like answers to, or just to see a particular topic covered in this column. Share with her what's on your mind.
