Which direction should the USPS go? Raise stamp prices or reduce customer service, both roads lead to increased profitability, say the USPS prognosticators.The US postal service does not use tax payer dollars, so it claims. Yet on January 31 of this year, it was a little short of cash, so it borrowed $12.1 billion from the treasury. It does intend to pay it back.
To cover rising costs, the USPS is considering raising the price of postage stamps to $.50. Is email looking better and better? Has anyone at the USPS heard of the price elasticity of demand? It is the change in demand with a change in price. Why not just raise the price of stamps to $1? The we could just stamp stamps out completely. Stamps may soon be a collectible.
Yesterday, I did mail three thank-you letters because there still is a thinning school of thought, albeit declining rapidly, that a letter has more positive meaning than an email. It is an old school of thought to be sure.
Another suggestion, for USPS profitability is delay delivery of first-class mail. Hey Bob, you made that up right? No sirree Bob. That is one of the suggestions -- slow down customer service. If slowing customer service down works, then Macy's has a new future in retail success. The notion, that reducing customer service is a road to profitability, would revolutionize business concepts. Where does the USPS get these horrible ideas?
FedEx and UPS are no doubt having side splitting laughs at this suggestion. They are like vultures waiting by the sides of the road for the kill that is clearly coming.
It is the grand canyon effect again.
Read on Robert J. Sherwood
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