Again, another FAIL. How many times do we have to have this conversation about the goverment running the post office? Hopefully for the last time: THE GOVERMENT DOES NOT RUN THE POST OFFICE. It has a board of directors and THEY make decisions and take those decisions to CONGRESS for approval.
The GOVERMENT does not make any daily decisions for the post office nor is there any office of the post office in the goverment.
The board of directors at UPS does not make daily decisions for UPS operations. However, they are the ones that set the direction of the company, they approve major acquisitions, they approve the technology we will invest in, the assets we buy (jets, hubs etc). So based on them not making daily decisions, does that mean they aren't in control of UPS?
The board of governors wants to cut costs and eliminate post offices but for years (and still going on). The government has stopped them. (Granted Post OFfices have been closing, but at a far slower pace then is needed or wanted.) Congress doesn't stop UPS if we were to close a facility.
The government has awarded a monopoly of mail to the USPS, their is no taxes imposed on the USPS (no property tax, for a long time no Social security tax (not sure if that is still true, but it was). No excise tax on vehicles etc. NO PARKING tickets (folks in NYC etc will know that's a lot of money to UPS and FDX).
Also as far as "Dude you don't get it".
Just because you don't use the USPS, doesn't mean millions of other people don't. As far as what makes money for them and what doesn't. A lot is in how they account for costs.
Let's bring it to a UPS example.
If we have a shipper ship one pkg from Pt A to a specific address. UPS probably on avg makes a small profit on that transaction (10%). However, if the shipper shipped a second pkg to the same address (let's assume both are roughly shoe box size). Will our costs double? Will we make the same amount of money? or to be more specific the same % profit? Granted, we will have double the hub handling cost (2 pkgs vs 1), double the preload handling cost (2 pkgs vs 1). However, how much extra will our biggest driver of cost be? How much more will it take the UPS driver to deliver the package? Very little if any extra time. The largest portion of the cost is the drive to the customer's location (the stop cost). Scanning and carrying one additional pkg is so small of an incremental costs. Therefore Our profit on that shipment is much higher since costs only slightly increased where revenue doubled.
So if the UPS gets more mail (any mail) 1st class, Junk mail whatever you want to call it. They will bring in more revenue with very small incremental cost added.
So doing what I suggested which is more targeted direct marketing. New revenue streams as I mentioned in previous posts by taking advantage of going to every address already would bring in revenue at small incremental costs increases.
Is the USPS mismanaged? Yes Do the majority of their workers need a kick in the butt and pick it up? Yes. Does the USPS need to revamp their mgmt team (Heck Yes)...
I'll tell you, if permitted the opportunity, I'd love to run the USPS and get control. E Commerce is a large portion of commerce now and it is growing incredbily fast still. People need to get their product to their house. SmartPost from FDX and Surepost from UPS is growing incredibly. Along with companies that rely on USPS for entire trip. If the USPS can keep rates reasonable and improve service so that they improve visibility and improve their service. I would bet on them to be around a long time. Esp since if they have bad years, they get govt backed borrowing at low interest rates.
