It is a great time for the Postal Service, as it has begun to see some daylight after the years of losses. The mailing giant only suffered $5 billion in losses last year, which is a big difference from almost $16 billion in 2012. This is due to some major restructuring with the company’s business strategy and it’s working. The Postal Service is now pursuing to shut down Saturday mail deliveries, which will give it even more flexibility to implement other services that generate more revenue.
The Federal Times reported that the Postal Service is now seeking after delivering packages on Sundays. This would mean it will provide package deliveries every day of the week. It is something that the Postal Service has found is being well-received by customers so far, as it currently offers package deliveries in a number of US cities already. Those cities include New York City, Los Angeles, some areas in Texas, and some Mid-Atlantic areas.
The company believes the shift to Sunday service will be pay off, as Postmaster General Patrick Donahoe made the announcement of the company changes at the annual National Postal Forum. He stated at the forum, “That is why we are moving toward the seven day model. It has caught on like wildfire in New York. We have a whole group of customers there”. When the demands and needs of the customer changes, businesses must evaluate their services and change along with them. The Postal Service is making the right changes before the company was going to clearly hit rock bottom.
At the forum, Donahoe also mentioned about the new venture of same-day delivery, which the Postal Service is offering in New York City, which is also known as Metro Post. It has been successful there as well. Same-day delivery is a service that is becoming more popular involving meeting the delivery needs of online customers. Online retail has consistently grown at 16% annually in recent years, as more customers shop and conduct business via mobile devices. Now, there is a huge market for customers that desire their online purchases to arrive at their front door the same-day.
It’s a service source that the Postal Service can have an advantage in long-term. E-retailers like Amazon, eBay, and Wal-Mart have implemented same-day delivery in a number of US cities. However, unlike the Postal Service, none of them have a vast and robust vehicle fleet that can cover the entire country. The other viable option for the e-retailers is to invest in their own delivery fleet or partner with a same-day courier like A-1 Express to perform the deliveries for them. The Charlotte Courier can help online companies with same-day delivery nationwide.
All of these e-retailers show no signs of slowing down, as they continue to make major investments to develop their own effective version of same-day delivery. Amazon and Wal-Mart even provide same-day grocery delivery services in Seattle, Los Angeles, Denver, and more. The Postal Service is currently partnering with Amazon to perform their same-day deliveries in New York and this relationship will probably grow.
Reference: 3.18.14, www.federaltimes.com, Andy Medici, Postal Service pushing package delivery into Sundays