Monday, April 18, 2005
Postal Rates...
USPS Files for 5.4% Rate Increase
...will probably go up again. And again, I wonder at the logic of raising rates to support a declining service. Rather than fix the underlying problems of a (mostly) terrific service which is hamstrung by the requirements of universal service and flat pricing on first class mail, rates will go up and:
1. More mass mailers will move to electronic delivery
2. More regular folks will pay bills online
3. Magazines will continue to unlock different ways to deliver their content (for a take on digital editions of magazines from Rafat Ali, click here)
4. General volume and revenues will go down
5. Rates will increase again and...
6. We start the process all over.
I suggest the following, before levying a general rate increase:
1. Lower rates for the heaviest users of the postal service, to ensure a steady revenue flow and to slow the migration of these users to electronic delivery
2. Privatize rural delivery
3. Develop delivery alliances with newspaper delivery groups and with FedEx and UPS
4. Force senators from Hawaii and Alaska to subsidize universal service with state, rather than Federal, money.
There are other big issues of course: labor and pension, workforce size and so on. Those are the real 'third rails' of this problem, and as controversial as Social Security reform.
Comments
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...will probably go up again. And again, I wonder at the logic of raising rates to support a declining service. Rather than fix the underlying problems of a (mostly) terrific service which is hamstrung by the requirements of universal service and flat pricing on first class mail, rates will go up and:
1. More mass mailers will move to electronic delivery
2. More regular folks will pay bills online
3. Magazines will continue to unlock different ways to deliver their content (for a take on digital editions of magazines from Rafat Ali, click here)
4. General volume and revenues will go down
5. Rates will increase again and...
6. We start the process all over.
I suggest the following, before levying a general rate increase:
1. Lower rates for the heaviest users of the postal service, to ensure a steady revenue flow and to slow the migration of these users to electronic delivery
2. Privatize rural delivery
3. Develop delivery alliances with newspaper delivery groups and with FedEx and UPS
4. Force senators from Hawaii and Alaska to subsidize universal service with state, rather than Federal, money.
There are other big issues of course: labor and pension, workforce size and so on. Those are the real 'third rails' of this problem, and as controversial as Social Security reform.
