Sound Business or a Way to Keep Post Offices Open?
A year after the U.S. Postal Service launched its Every Door Direct Mail program, the USPS has pulled in more than $153 million in revenue from small local businesses it’s convinced to market through the mails.
The program is a saturation mail service that charges as little as 14.5 cents per piece — lower than comparable standard mail rates — and lets small local companies send as many as 5,000 pieces per day without requiring a postal permit, according to the USPS.
What’s more, local businesses can take their mailings right to the front counter of the local post offices serving the neighborhoods they are targeting.
Either Every Door Direct Mail is a sound way to attract new customers to the mails or a defensive maneuver aimed at keeping open local post offices around the country.
Or both.
As of this writing, the Senate was debating S. 1789, a bill that would substantially reform the USPS, partly relieving it of many of its financial burdens while giving it some emergency cash to stay afloat.
But it’s far from certain this debate will lead to new legislation since any Senate bill would have to be reconciled with the House of Representatives before it goes to the President.
This all may be a futile exercise. Some industry watchers don’t really think there’ll be any serious movements toward postal reform until after the election.
Closure of local postal facilities is a hot button issue for many in the country.
Recently, a number of catalogers said the USPS could shed some facilities and employees and it would actually benefit the industry.
On the other hand, groups like the American Postal Workers Union and several members of Congress oppose this bill, fearing it would lead to a degradation of the postal service as we know it.
Whatever happens, Every Door Direct Mail seems a little smarter and more useful to the mailing community than asinine ideas such as using post offices to sell beer and wine, as Postmaster General Patrick Donahoe proposed a few months ago.
