The USPS Breaks New Ground And Gets Its Second Wind

Or vice-versa, as time will tell.

Putting aside their self-inflicted catastrophe in first class mail losses, parcel is seen by some as USPS' only hope for survival, let alone prosperity.

On the surface, the Postal Service would seem to have it made, as it jumps into the parcel fray with guns blazing. They've been granted significant rate reductions, further Increasing their price advantage over UPS and FedEx. They've got another edge, without the price burden of the major carriers' accessorials, including profit-boosting fuel surcharges.

And, favorable winds could be rising. USPS is becoming the last mile solution for major carriers without their footprint density. They are handling many Sunday deliveries. But, they face challenges.

Billions in fleet upgrades. Lagging technology and visibility applications. Cost layers, rather than asset leverage, in the Sunday initiative. Margin drains from the other side of the business. Longer term, and more significant, is the mission-vital need to transform the organization, to make it genuinely service-driven, to cut through wasteful bureaucratic processes and HR/LR handicaps.

We can tell how fragile our parcel is by the distance our mail-person feels is needed to drop it; the higher the drop, the more valuable the contents. And, she obviously feels that bending, squeezing, and folding smaller packages to force-fit them into our community-standard mailboxes is somewhere in her official position description.

Who and what will win out? Good sense or bitter anti-customer feelings? Service or revenge? The answer will determine USPS' ultimate fate, not price advantage or structural designs that the prevailing culture elects not to own.