When you’re an American institution saddled with a business model from the last century and hemorrhaging billions of dollars a year, it never hurts to get the high-altitude view of your challenges.
That’s what the U.S. Postal Service’s inspector general aims to provide in a newly released report examining “fundamental questions” for the agency’s future. Those questions include whether the Postal Service ought to keep its letter and mailbox monopolies; whether it should be allowed to expand into non-postal lines of business; and whether it should be considered a profit-driven business or part of the national infrastructure.
Particularly thought-provoking is the discussion of the Postal Service’s role—and whether it can keep playing that role—as a stepping stone to the middle class for people without college degrees.
For anyone with an interest in the business of mail, it’s all worth a look.
1 Comment
a: Keep monopolies as per Constitution guaranteeing access/delivery for all at same rate.
b: Prohibit expansion into non-postal related bs ventures. It’s a service – not a business.
c:Not-for-profit. It’s been made (by CONgress) to be a more business like entity. Look at the corruption now within. Who woulda thunk? Pay as you go – no tax dollars.
d: Use realistic accounting principals. For an acceptance unit to take in the mail along with the fees and then process it counting revenue on that installations books, then sending it out to the local PO’s for delivery – counting the delivery costs to the locals, yet giving them none of the revenues from said mail…well, duh… I guess there are a lot of offices losing money. No offices should be closed to “improve the bottom line”. Management needs a thorough house-cleaning – top down.