Gluttony Could Spoil Postal Feast

YOU HAVE TO pity the U.S. Postal Service these days. Every time it turns around, there seems to be someone who wants to grab his share of the marbles. Look at it from the perspective of a postal executive and you’ll know better what I mean.

Competitors want to deny the postal service access to new markets, even those in the international and parcel delivery arenas which the USPS has long served. Companies such as Federal Express and United Parcel Service not only jealously guard against USPS incursions into niches they’ve carved out for themselves over the years, they are also sure not to concede to the USPS any more than the toehold it now has in these markets. If you need to be convinced of this, take a look at the spate of legislative proposals introduced this year in the House and Senate at the behest of USPS competitors.

The postal service’s major rivals aren’t the only ones that would deny the USPS new business opportunities. Companies such as Mail Boxes Etc., Parcels Plus and others in the pack-and-send industry moved swiftly to shut down efforts by the USPS to expand its meager investment in that sector.

Customers often have strenuously objected as well. When, for instance, the postal service thought it would be neat to expand its involvement in the distribution of printed retail advertising through such programs as Neighborhood Mail and Auto Day, some of its oldest and most loyal customers were the first to complain.

Indeed, customers may be at it once again now that the postal service has proposed a “hybrid” mail program called Mailing Online, a program reportedly designed to electronically transmit bulk messages to near-destination printing facilities where they can be converted to printed copy, placed in envelopes, addressed and deposited locally in the mail. It’s an idea that’s been around before both in the United States and abroad.

The last time such a venture surfaced in this country (the old E-COM proposal of the early ’80s), the postal service touched off a firestorm of protest that included even the U.S. Justice Department among the opposition. The idea of taking a message and providing lettershop-like services to facilitate its delivery undoubtedly will rekindle the kind of opposition mail service firms once mounted over E-COM.

Wanting a share of the USPS’ marbles isn’t limited to service proposals. Mailers have been most adamant in demanding that every innovation or new bulk mail preparation program be matched by a full distribution of work-sharing savings in the form of postal discounts. Some mailers have been known to oppose ideas that didn’t include new discounts, even if such ideas ultimately would have worked to mailers’ advantage-the payoff being improved efficiencies and long-term, systemwide postal savings.

Then, of course, there’s labor. In recent years the postal service has done well, largely because of a robust and inflation-less economy. Rank-and-file postal workers have kept track of three years of unprecedented surpluses the USPS enjoyed. Labor is preparing to engage management in contract talks that will determine largely what the USPS may become in the next decade. Is it any surprise to hear from some in the labor community that they want their share of the marbles? As American Postal Workers Union president Moe Biller declared, it’s now time for the USPS “to show me the money.”

Customers, competitors and labor have enjoyed quite a bounty over the years at the postal banquet. But it would be wise for all of us to keep in mind that the continued growth of electronic communications technology soon will mean there will be less to go around.

This doesn’t have to happen, though, if we remember to acquit ourselves well, rather than feeding like pigs at a trough. Grab jealously for the main course, and all that may be left will be scraps on the table.