US Postal Service Testing Same-Day Delivery In New York

It can be said about the US Postal Service that the company has no quit in it. With the recent years of drought in first-class mail sales and losing billions due to lower mail volume, the Postal Service could have started cutting services or even shutting its’ doors. However, it didn’t. The company chose to roll up its’ sleeves, find another way to use their assets and make something work. Looks like it finally has.

The US Postal Service has reported that in the last three months of 2013, the company delivered 1 billion packages. This is a 10% increase in comparison to the same period in 2012. It also showed revenue went up 14% to $3.4 billion within that time. This is a huge sign for the future of the postal giant. Metro Post, its’ new same-day delivery service, was also launched last year in San Francisco and in New York in December, also helping the USPS gain some momentum. Same-day delivery is a new concept that a number of online retailers, such as Amazon, Wal-Mart, eBay, Google, and more, are testing to meet online demand.

Metro Post in New York is doing a whole lot better than the pilot program in San Francisco. It was launched last year in hopes of same-day delivery working in one of the most popular cities for it, however, it didn’t do well at all. San Francisco Metro Post delivered only 95 packages in five months. “It was a rushed pilot—they announced it, but it wasn’t really ready to go. Sometimes you learn more from the failures than the successful ones.” said Jim Sauber, chief of staff of the letter carriers’ union. This is not the case for the New York Metro Post. Since its’ December conception, the service has had 68 packages delivered within a day.

Another move the USPS has engaged with New York Metro Post is partnering with web-based retailers and deliver for them on Sundays. The postal company is currently working with web-based online giant Amazon in not only New York, but also Philadelphia and Los Angeles. The article discussed how the Sunday service is very attractive to customers and is growing quickly. So far, Metro Post has delivered over 2.5 million packages for Amazon. If this continues to go well, it could lead to other innovative ways the two companies can partner up and perform same-day delivery elsewhere. There is known the USPS only has five letter carriers operating in New York.

With the downswing of first-class mail sales, the Postal Service is making the right turns now to generate revenue by venturing out and offering other services. The core driver of all of their sales is the growth of business online. Other web-based and physical store retailers that don’t have their own vehicle fleet like the Postal Service, can turn to a same-day courier services like A-1 Express to make their deliveries. This New York Courier has the courier expertise and superior performance to meet a wide range of same-day delivery needs nationwide.

Reference: 2.13.14, www.businessweek.com, Devin Leonard, The U.S. Postal Service Tests Same-Day Delivery