US Postal Service, “Do Not Return to Sender” it!

I must admit that some years ago, I did not like the US Postal Service (USPS). USPS service was unpredictable, letters got lost, and mail was delivered to wrong addresses. USPS employees were experiencing a great deal of stress. Once in a while, newspapers would headline: Another USPS Employee Went "Postal", and ... The infamous term "Going Postal" entered household vocabulary.

Then, there was FedEx. They looked at USPS that was not able to afford to buy the most needed equipment. FedEx formulated a better solution that was win-win for the FedEx, and the customer. FedEx purchased airplanes, created the hub-and-spoke delivery system, computerized delivery tracking and charged many times USPS customers could charge.

Fast-forward to present day, Mountain View, CA! As a Senior Management and Technology Consultant, I have been observing and studying USPS for a long time. Your article, "U.S. Postal Service's Sticky Situation", which sites GAO report, primarily focuses on problems. I would like to encourage you to look at solutions.  

Our mailman of more than thirty years, Arnel, has dutifully delivered our mail to our mailbox each and every day during this entire thirty years. Seldom, if ever, we received somebody else's mail, or they received ours. He is pleasant to talk to you and takes his job seriously! Your assessment that USPS is vital to U.S. economy is valid.

On several occasions, I was so impressed that I wrote a thank you and job well done letter and sent to it to Mountain View Main Post Office in Castro Street. Speaking of the main post office in our town, we have nothing but praises for their service! The employees are highly efficient, knowledgeable, helpful, and professional. This includes the two women who helped me with my passport application when I had to get an expedited one. I have seen the same type of service in Oakland (Kaiser Building), San Francisco (Financial district), Denver (Airport), Phoenix, and other places. I have sent Thank You letters to some of them too.

I also, continue to be impressed with FedEx, UPS, and DHL as well. As an advocate of free market, I maintain that competition is good for business. However, let us not discourage USPS that has worked so hard to deserve our praise. Let us not take a chance and derail all the new and innovative services that they have successfully put in place. The USPS has come a long way from those so-called "Going Postal" days. Let us not do a knee jerk reaction and cause massive layoffs and destroy the morale in USPS. 

As my book "Layoffs & Hope" emphasizes, there are better ways instead of knee jerk service reductions and layoffs. Keep in mind that USPS employs 727,000 employees according to GAO report. Consider these alternatives:

• Junk Mail: This is the number one customer complaint, headache, and dissatisfaction. Stop or charge more for its delivery. Junk Mail is clogging the arteries of USPS's delivery just like bad Cholesterol does to human veins. Junk Mail is also an assault to going green as it wastes too much energy.
• Free USPS from Over Oversights and Regulations: Being subjected to Congressional oversight, Government Agencies, and oversight by other Organizations has paralyzed USPS to utilize free market and compete on a fair basis.
• Higher Across the Board Charges: Let us be realistic, even a double stamp cost may not impact 90% of customers. Cost per Value-Add of a USPS First Class stamp vs. almost anything else (cup of coffee, middle class income, and/or public phone charge). I dare to say that another increase of even 20 Cents will not really bother average customer. Remember, average customer pays bills, or sends a few letters a week. This point was made clearly in your article. Price of the US stamp is the lowest, compared to Japan and Mexico.
• Saturday Delivery: USPS is the only government entity that works six days a week. If anything has to be given up, this is the best candidate. I anticipate minimal complaints.
• Give USPS a Chance to Pioneer Something Else: Let us apply Kevin Covey's concept that says we have just entered the Knowledge-Based era in management to USPS. Let us empower them with ability to benefit from even more modernization to reduce operating costs.
• Human Capital: This is even more important than the old fashioned Capital. Let us ask Arnel and his co-workers, which is everybody in USPS to tell us how they will improve the service and reduce costs.
• E-Mail and Google Reform of USPS: E-Mail cannot be used as the enemy. It could be the best friend of USPS. How about E-Mail to Letter Conversion and distribution by USPS. By instilling Google power such as most effective mailing list best of demographics, let us use the click conversion technology and apply it to mail.
• Imagine: We have got a good thing going in the USPS. Let us not take chances, and make USPS most profitable, and the best of the best in the world. It is time America did what America does best which is leading the free world.

We can do this!