[ Wednesday ]
Humpty Dumpty at USPS
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In spite of the fact that the postal service in the U.S. continues to increase its postage rates, and introduces new programs for package and letter delivery, it continues to come up short.
Competition in the marketplace has delivered several efficiently operating companies in the package delivery space. And these all came at the expense of the postal service. The answer to inefficiency within government agencies and pseudo-government agencies is to request a bailout, or at the very least, institute a new round of price increases.
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An example of that mindset is with your local government's transit system. Ridership is down due to poor maintenance, lack of security, scheduling and routing, and employee turnover. The answer: Raise fares and drive away more potential customers.
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The postal service has taken some similar steps. Many local post offices have been revamped to a more modern look, complete with kiosks and new color schemes. But the lines (queue) at the counter are still long, while employees mill around in plain view of impatient customers wondering why more windows are not opened.
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New package and express mail services have been added, at competitive rates, to answer the market share losses to UPS, FedEx, and others. But problems with deliveries are still apparent. Here is an example of recent online orders placed, and the delivery results (in reverse order) :
Delivered by UPS:
Jan 21, 2005 1:36 P.M.
ATLANTA, GA, US
Jan 18, 2005 11:33 P.M.
PHOENIX, AZ, US
ORIGIN SCAN
1:30 A.M.
BILLING INFORMATION RECEIVED
Notice the locations, and that the order was received on the 18th and the package arrived on the 21st.
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Now the USPS:
01/26/2005
11:24:00
Delivered
ATLANTA,GA
01/17/2005
16:53:51
Pickup
SYLMAR, CA
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For additional information on service offerings, see www.usps.com .
MM [07:42]
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