The US Postal Service will focus more on innovation and technology in the future, according tosenior executives, and is testing new parcel collection terminals.
USPS Postmaster General Patrick R. Donahoe stressed in his opening speech at this year’sNational Postal Forum that the postal industry has to keep the distinctive features of physicaldelivery but enhance them with changing technology while USPS needs to expand delivery capabilitiesas its core strength.
Taking place in Orlando, Florida, from 1-4 April this year, the National Postal Forum is themajor annual event for the postal industry in the USA. Opening the event yesterday, Donahoehighlighted the potential and beneficial aspects of innovation and technology for the mailingindustry.
In particular, USPS is promoting its latest parcel delivery innovation GoPost, on the occasionof the four-day event. The new 24/7, self-service parcel terminals branded GoPost have already beenpiloted in Northern Virginia since the end of 2011. Seven terminals are currently being trialled inthe region with plans to expand throughout the Washington, D.C. area, according to US mediareports.
GoPost offers customers a convenient alternative to home or workplace delivery with terminalslocated in areas with heavy foot traffic so they can now have their packages shipped directly toGoPost for easy pickup. Customers can register online for the service and will then receive anaccount number and access card with a PIN so they can open the unit when the package is delivered.They are informed about the delivery by e-mail or via text message.
“As an industry, we have to retain what differentiates mail and physical delivery, and bring itinto the future. It’s astonishing how much is changing in the ways people communicate. Mail has tobe a part of these changes. We have to look at potential changes in technology and think about howto use those technologies to enhance the positive characteristics of mail,” Donahoe said.
He also emphasized the need for extending the delivery platform of USPS and providing growthopportunities for the mailing industry and US businesses. “Where we start is with the idea ofdelivery. That’s the core function of the Postal Service. We deliver what you create. And if we canexpand our delivery platform beyond what it is today, we can provide you with even greateropportunities.”
“The best way forward is to embrace the potential of change. As an industry, and as individualbusinesses, we need to think about the rewards of a more dynamic future,” he concluded.
The postal forum is taking place more than a month before the USPS six-month moratorium onplanned closures or consolidation of nearly half of its mail processing facilities expires. As partof its cost-cutting measures, the loss-making postal operator plans to save more than $2 billionthrough closing or merging with other locations at least 223 of its 461 mail-processing facilitiesby February 2013 with the aim to cut 35,000 staff. It also plans to restructure its deliveryoperations to save another $3 billion a year.
Responding to the planned restructuring and cost-cutting, the largest US postal union APWU isurging state and local organisations to participate in two nationwide protests in April, bylobbying senators at their home offices during the Easter recess, and with informational leafletingon Tax Day, April 17.
“Time is running out for Congress to enact postal legislation,” APWU President Cliff Guffeysaid. “The moratorium on post office closings and plant consolidations expires on May 15. Congressmust address the Postal Service’s financial crisis to avoid drastic cuts in service and jobs.”
In concrete terms, the American Postal Workers Union and the National Postal Mail Handlers Union(NPMHU) are asking their respective state and local presidents to arrange meetings with senators attheir state office(s) during the recess from 2-13 April. The unions are urging senators to supportamendments to the bill “that will protect current service standards, resolve the retiree healthbenefit pre-funding requirement, prevent the closing of small post offices, and maintain six-daydelivery”.
For the second event on April 17, the APWU and NPMHU are asking locals across the country todistribute informational leaflets at as many post offices as possible, with an emphasis on thosefacilities that draw media coverage on Tax Day. “The purpose of this event is to bring to theattention of postal customers and the public at-large the drastic cuts that management is planningif Congress doesn’t act,” the APWU stressed.
