U.S. Post discounts global deliveries

The U.S. Postal Service, trying to compete more
>aggressively with shipping companies, is offering its first-ever discounts
>on two- and three-day delivery service between U.S. cities and more than 200
>other countries, the Wall Street Journal reported in its Friday online
>edition.
>
>The discounts, which began quietly last week, cut rates for its
>two-year-old Global Express Guaranteed delivery service by as much as 38 percent, the report said. Delivery companies frequently use price breaks to lure larger customers, but the Postal Service is banned by law from doing so on most deliveries, including first-class mail, according to the newspaper.
>
>Customers shipping as few as five pieces a week will qualify for discounts,
>possibly helping the post office get volume from companies that are too
>small to win price breaks from shipping companies, the report said.
>
>”For us to ever enter the commercial market, we have to offer these
>discounts,” said John Kelly, the Postal Service’s president of expedited
>and package services, according to the report.
>
>The newspaper noted that delivery companies such as FedEx Corp. and
>United Parcel Service Inc. have spent heavily to expand their global
>delivery services, forcing the Postal Service to overhaul its international
>express-mail service.
>
>According to the report, postal officials said it is too early to tell how
>much international shipping volume might be generated by the discounts.
>
>A UPS spokesman said the new discounts show the need for tighter controls
>on the Postal Service’s moves into private competition and its handling of
>profit from first-class mail, according to the newspaper