The US Postal Service has a sustainable long-term future and could be profitable today if Congressresolved certain legislative issues, Postmaster General Patrick Donahoe insisted yesterday in his
annual state-of-the-business address to the mailing industry, blasting the “crazy” idea that USPSmay go out of business.Donahoe told the audience at the National Postal Customer Council (PCC) Day that it wasimportant to change some negative misperceptions about the industry and emphasised that the companyhad a solid business plan to return to long-term financial stability.
“The first big misperception relates to the fact that people question whether the PostalService is going to exist in the future,” he said. “This is one of the craziest ideas out there. Weare a $65-billion business inside an $800-billion industry. We’re going to be here for a longtime.”
But he said nothing would have a bigger impact on the health and future of the mailingindustry than resolving the US postal sector’s legislative issues. “The Postal Service is movingforward with the parts of our business plan that we can control, and securing comprehensivelegislation will allow us to implement the rest of the plan,” said Donahoe. “Our industry isfundamentally strong today and has a bright future. Mail retains just as much value as it ever didand will continue to be a highly effective communications and marketing channel, and despite someof the headlines we see occasionally, mail remains an incredibly effective and important part ofmarketing America’s products and services.”
But he said the laws that govern the Postal Service are very restrictive, imposing mandatesand preventing the Postal Service from adapting to the marketplace “and making changes that any ofyou would do in your business, and as a result the Postal Service has been recording majorfinancial losses”.
Donahoe added: “It’s important to understand that the Postal Service could be profitabletoday with the right legal framework, and so we can’t let businesses that work with our industrymake the mistake of assuming that financial problems in the Postal Service have anything to do withthe value of mail or the future of our mailing industry. It all comes down to laws that govern thePostal Service.”
Despite concerns about obtaining legislation, Donahoe said the Postal Service was focused oninnovating to create new opportunities for growth in the mailing industry. “That means that in anincreasingly digital world, we need to continue to find ways of increasing the value of mail forboth senders and receivers,” he said.
And by using new technology, mail was only going to be that much more effective in thefuture, he claimed. “Changes in technology are enabling greater opportunities for integratedmarketing, and the real power comes when mail is combined with other channels for reachingcustomers, especially integrated with digital channels,” he said. “That’s the part of our industrythat’s changing and creating big opportunities.”
He said better use of data and technology was going to transform the value of mail. “And it’salready starting to happen in a big way,” Donahoe added. “We’ve seen a very quick adoption of QRcodes and that’s great, but QR codes don’t even scratch the surface in terms of potentialconvergence with digital tools and mobile technology, and we really need to get up to speed withthis convergence. This is a great opportunity that we have as an industry to shape the future ofmail. I think it’s exciting, and as an industry we need to convey that excitement to Americanbusiness. We need to start describing what the future of mail looks like and build someanticipation.”
One of the most important aspects of innovation at the Postal Service was the way technologyis used through ‘Intelligent Mail’ barcodes to harness data in the Postal Service network. He urgedmailers to adopt the new barcode technology in order to provide them with greater visibility intothe effectiveness of mail.
The Postmaster General also reminded PCC members to speak with one voice in order to stop themisconceptions that many in the business community have about the mailing industry. “One of thebiggest misperceptions is the idea that mail is somehow losing is value,” he said. “According toour research, two-thirds of consumers polled said they value what they receive in the mail.”
While the Postal Service focuses on finding new ways to add value to the mail, it alsocontinued to forge ahead with plans to realign its network of mail processing facilities to becomea leaner, more efficient logistical model, he added. These streamlining efforts would “keep mailaffordable and support the needs of the mailing industry in American commerce for decades to come”.
The annual PCC event brings together thousands of US mailers, industry partners and customersnationwide to recognise their contributions to the Postal Service and outline future plans andgoals. PCCs are a network of community-based business mailers and representatives of the PostalService, who meet regularly to share ideas and resources to create a closer working relationship.
