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MIT prof thinks e-mail could save the postal service
By adamg on Wed, 01/11/2012 - 8:10am
The Tech reports an MIT professor thinks the USPS can reinvent and save itself - and the jobs of tens of thousands of workers - by getting into the field of e-mail management and helping companies deal with the never ceasing barrage of electronic messaging:
Ayyadurai believes the USPS can provide a service that will help companies become more efficient at managing their own email. Under his plan, the USPS can retrain workers it intends to lay off in order to support the proposed system and generate enough revenue to avoid bankruptcy. Though some email management systems outsource work to countries like India, Ayyadurai argues that the USPS is a trusted and reliable brand, and can do a better job.
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Comments
wow this one is really going
wow this one is really going to confuse tea partiers.....
Ayyadurai argues that the
If this was really the case why are many people and companies deciding to give their businesses to private shipping companies instead?
Because they offer a totally
Because they offer a totally different product.
They don't have a choice
The Private Express Statutes explicitly forbid any company from offering regular mail delivery. There are exceptions for express mail and parcel delivery, but only the USPS can carry regular mail.
Beside the point
Interesting, but beside the point. The question was why people and businesses use UPS and Fedex instead of USPS. Your response might make sense if the case was reversed. In short, this isn't a question of "why can't Fedex deliver regular mail". (If they did, they'd probably be charging much more than $.44 for it.) The question being asked is why do people prefer Fedex over USPS in the areas where the two do compete, which is in delivering high-priority packages and mail.
People and businesses use UPS and Fedex for a variety of reasons, but among them are a faster set of shipping options (none of the 6 to 10 day stuff), stronger guarantees and (I'm guessing) performance for on-time delivery, on-site package pickup, and free shipping supplies. They charge more overall for these things. Businesses really care about the first three items, and people care about them all to varying degrees.
In other countries, the post
In other countries, the post office assists citizens in just about every bit of paperwork they need to do with the government. Taxes. Voting registration. Everything.
That is what the USPS needs to start doing.
Worse than DMV
This is a totally screwed up organization and the last thing we need them doing is taking on more responsibility. Ever been to the Back Bay Post offfice? Usually there are half a dozen people in line and between zero and one person working the counter (who are all nice and doing their job - but the simplest of transactions like mailing a parcel can take forever).
Seriously, this is an organization wasting money on TV ads telling me that I should get my bills on paper in the mail and that sometimes a nice smiling person will deliver my bills and junk mail by hand. I really like my mailman and he does a great job - but if he only came 2-3 times a week I'd be perfectly happy and my bills would still get paid on time.
I don't expect them to be as efficient as Fed Ex/UPS - they have to do things that the privates won't do - but dealing with them as an organization can give you a migraine. Some serious streamlining is in order before we give them anything else to do - they can't handle what they have - and management is fully to blame.
Uh, the reason there's one
Uh, the reason there's one person behind the counter is budget cuts. So, you have a point, but at the same time...
What is the point?
Honestly, MIT?
The USPS serves no real purpose these days other than the fact that legally other services like UPS, Fedex, and every other service that actually has to have a balanced budget lest they go out of business are not allowed to deliver mail.
It's pension obligations have made it completely insolvent and 90% of it's traffic is complete junk (pretty accurate statistic btw - think of the environmental impact. Weren't we just complaining about phone books?). Like many other industries, the internet is just completely making physical mail obsolete for the majority of the population. Protecting this relic from the realities of modern society is simply bad policy.
It was useful once upon a time when the nation was establishing itself and deliverymen could literally be killed trying to traverse the nation, but there are better options today. Sell it off and get the government out of mail. They don't add anything to the concept anymore, and its wasting everyone's money.
Nobody needs help with email, especially just to insulate a company that sorely needs to be downsized because it is a fantastic waste of tax dollars in an era of incredible debt.
And here we go again,
congresscritters have made it completely insolvent. Having to prefund benefit obligations out 75 freaking years would do that to any government or private business.
Thats not to say some reform is needed in both service and employment. But it is the guillotine hanging over their heads that need not be there, but for politics.
The idea here is to bankrupt USPS by pointing to it as a failure, and then grabbing that cash. It's going to be interesting to see who has their hands in that prefunded honey pot if the plan does go through.
Also, USPS is still vital. Thats a nice story above, but it couldn't be farther from the truth.
Small Mom & Pop businesses heavily rely on it in for internet commerce. Almost anything I've bought that isn't from a internet giant comes through USPS shipping. Then there's the fact that there's simply locations where other shipping providers simply won't operate, especially in rural areas. Hell, FEDEX and UPS even contract out to get their overnight shipments on USPS planes, because it really be costly to do it themselves otherwise. When UPS and FEDEX can't get a package to you via their limited network, they transfer it to the USPS which delivers it the rest of the rural way.
Thats very easy for us in metro Boston to look over. Even easier when the only places you send mail is to and from firms in big cities.
I do agree their function as a information service has been taken over by email and the internet. But their function in building commerce and shipping goods has not adequately been taken over by the other big shipping firms.
This is a public service. One that still used and relied on by many people. One that was actually becoming more competitive with the private market until congresses stepped in and decided that it must be destroyed.
Maybe I'm missing something...
But I don't see anything in this that means that the USPS shouldn't be privatized. If it was sold off to the other companies, they could simply buy the facilities where coverage is week. As it gets divided, it just means that they'd have to transfer to whoever serviced the area USPS did. There's nothing here that implies that we should keep it in government ownership.
Public service is not carte blanche for inefficiency when it can be perfectly served with other means that don't get subsidized by taxpayers.
Again, just because USPS is used by mom and pop now, doesn't mean that they couldn't just switch to another service as USPS's assets are divided up to companies more capable of managing it and not subject to the whims of congress selling out taxpayers for votes from special interests.
You're talking like the market wouldn't swoop in to fill the void left by selling off USPS - it can and it should.
He has a point
Despite my rip above on the USPS because they are poorly managed, basically by trying to be all things to all people, anondeuce is right - they have to do some things at a loss because nobody else would do them - rural deliveries and low cost military deliveries as a couple of examples. The prefunding - analagous to what we do to the MBTA here by making them pay Big Dig debt - is a legitimate complaint about partially why they are broke.
That said - I repeat - there is plenty of streamlining needed - trying to mail a simple package can sometimes make your head spin. Give me a simple formula - weight, size and distance to destination and when I want it to be there - it works sometimes, but not always (I once sent out 30 IDENTICAL mailings literally down to the paperclip - about half came in as one price and half as another price - went the next day with the same mailing materials and the price changed because the paperclip caused the package not to be smooth according to this clerk). So one package, depending on the machine and the person had 4 different prices to mail it. Prefunding pensions may be part of this - but there's a lot of other stuff going on too - like TV ads telling me it's nice to mail things by hand which I avoid like the plague.
I agree too,
Lots of streamlining needed. Lots of older, higher paid bodies need to be pushed out the door. Some regions could cut service based on how busy they are and supply premium service for a price.
But in the end it is a public service after all. Much like roads, trains, phone lines and fiber; if they're privatized the loss leaders will be cut and large swaths of the nation will have no option. Thats bad for our information and eCommerce economy as a whole.
USPS is more akin to infrastructure now, than it is to a business. We could sell it off / privatize it; but we'll be paying 10 fold for the same service, or well see major cuts in areas where it can not operate above cost.
Looking at the benefits to eCommerce it has fueled, I'm not sure the benefits outweigh the costs of doing so.
A push towards efficiency is whats needed, not a push toward profitability.
You are missing something
FedEx and UPS don't deliver to rural areas because they can't make money doing it. Its too expensive. It requires a public utility, like the post office. "The market" doesn't "swoop in" to fill voids where there isn't money to be made. If you tried to privitize the services to those areas I'm sure UPS or FedEx would gladly oblidge provided that: (a) they were subsidized by the government to cover their losses, or (b) they could charge much higher fees for delivery to/from those areas. There is no point in doing "a" other than to satisfy the hatred of some of "the feds." Option "b" isn't going to happen for a variety of reasons not the least of which is that congress would never permit it and, indeed, it would be grossly unfair to people who live in rural areas.
Better the pension
Better the pension obligations are funded than not. Most other government agencies and municipalities are blatantly underfunding and over promising pensions and benefits to their employees. The unfunded pension liabilities of government workers is going to be major issue, resulting in the bankruptcy renegotiation of obligations or taxpayer extorted bailouts, in the next few decades.
Hell, FEDEX and UPS even
I'm pretty sure it's the other way around. I thought the deal was that the USPS would use Fedex for their overnight shipments and in turn Fedex would be allowed to setup their dropoff boxes at Post Offices.
I guess you don't deal with UPS or Fedex much. Limited network try sending a package by UPS ground and by USPS and see which one gets there faster. The company I work for sends many pkgs per day via UPS and never once have we had a problem shipping to any location rural or otherwise. Sure there may be extra service charges associated and maybe early morning delivery may not apply but still it gets there.
what would replace the USPS for periodical delivery?
I get one weekly magazine (New Yorker) and several monthly magazines (Atlantic, Technology Review, Mother Jones) via USPS. If there were no more USPS, what would happen to print magazines?
A lot of weekly papers (such as the Somerville Journal and Jewish Advocate that I subscribe to) are also delivered through the mail.
Good point, Ron!
Way to go!
Those magazines would simply
Those magazines would simply ship by another carrier? I don't understand why this is so unfathomable.
It's only delivered by USPS because they have a monopoly on mail. I'm sure UPS and Fedex and DHL and whatever other companies are out there that deliver would love to pick up the slack and deliver your magazines.
USPS has no monopoly on second-class mail
Only on first-class mail. Sure, UPS or FedEx could deliver it, if you want to add about $6 per issue to the cost of a subscription.
The Somerville Journal and the other local suburban weeklies could go back to having their own carrier system (which they probably used to have decades ago), but that's not going to work for the Atlantic, New Yorker, and other national publications.
Businessweek?
Businessweek delivers their copies like a newspaper now - private company tosses it on your doorstep.
Remember: print is dying
Remember: print is dying anyway. That's part of the problem: fewer people are subscribing to magazines. Similarly, high-gloss magazines are learning that their target audience owns a tablet to keep up with the Joneses, and that if you pitch buying an app with a digital "subscription", they reclaim readers and save money.
As for newspapers, they're shifting to a blogging digital model.
Not surprisingly, this is part of what's killing the Postal Service.
let's get rid of the penny
let's get rid of the penny first, the USPS has a comparatively important role relative to that
I can sign on to this
1) Get rid of the penny, as it's absolutely useless. Probably the nickle too.
2) Get rid of dollar bills, and issue $1 and $2 coins
3) Mandate on the federal level that all prices include any applicable taxes on the shelf.
Economically these are all no-brainers to do, save the government (taxpayer) money, and promote more fluid capitalism.
$1 and $2 coins and the lack of a penny or nickle means you typically get less change. I'd also suggest making the dollar coins smaller, since their size has always been a complaint.
Metric System Next
That would also save US companies and the government money by using the same unit system the rest of the world uses.
legally other services like
you've got a great knowledge of the law... not really
Jeff B, learn some facts. The
Jeff B, learn some facts. The USPS is not a "fantastic waste of tax dollars" ... mainly because USPS is not a recipient of tax dollars. It is funded by the sale of stamps.
(There have occasionally been small exceptions in the form of government grants for initiatives re: voting by mail.)
Cripes.
Not the Right Direction
USPS competing against the big tech players doesn't make sense. They don't have the skill sets inside the organization and an understanding of how to chase this business profitably.
I could see them getting into providing email terminals, like internet cafes which pretty much disappeared here. They have a good spread of locations and operate much like a retailer (though without a very strong retail mindset).
Wanna know what would save the Postal Service?
Not having a congressional mandate to fund its pension plan for the next 75 years, within 10 years.
It's being forced to make ballon payments on the pensions of employees that haven't even been born yet.
I don't know of a single public or private organization with a similar mandate.
It's a trick by the GOP to kill the Post Office, so it can point to its "failure" as a reason to dismantle it / allow for its business to be handed-off to private companies.