Internet Usage Boosts Post Office Revenue

setirw writes "Contrary to popular belief, the New York Times reports that Internet usage has actually boosted the USPS's revenue, instead of decreasing it. It is commonly believed that the rise of the Internet has negatively affected the Postal Service's revenue, since e-mail usage is rapidly superseding snail-mail usage. 'Six years ago, people were pointing at the Internet as the doom and gloom of the Postal Service,' said James Cochrane, manager of USPS package services. However, the widespread usage of e-commerce sites has boosted USPS revenue, since millions of packages are shipped from such sites daily."

Bugmenot

[9x320]

For you registration whiners. [bugmenot.com]

duh!

[Shivetya]

First class mail isn't where the money is, especially home delivery.

If they could they would not even deliver on weekends. Hell they could save money by delivering fewer days. My Aunt and cousin are Postmasters. Home delivery is the big expense.

If it wasn't for filler (all that junk mail) first class postage would be even higher. Its still the best deal for getting something to someone.

Re:So?..

[sangreal66]

USPS Priority Mail is pretty common on eBay and smaller retailers

Postcrossing

[avij]

This is probably rather insignificant in the grand scheme of things, but projects like Postcrossing [postcrossing.com] wouldn't exist if people weren't able to send post cards via snail mail, so at least in this case Internet has increased snailmail usage. Check out that site if you're interested in sending postcards to random people all over the world. It's rather weird, but I'm told it's an interesting hobby.

Re:So?..

[Gospodin]

My personal experience is just the opposite. I ship almost everything from Amazon using the free "slow boat to China" method, and I've gotten orders delivered the next day or the day after quite often. If it takes 4-5 days I'm surprised. It really helps that they have warehouses around the country.

That said, it's interesting to hear your thumbs-up appraisal of Amazon Prime. I've considered the free trial just to see what it's like. So far I'm resisting it - I'm afraid it would lead to a lot of impulse buys.

Why eBay users all use USPS Priority Mail

[SuperKendall]

As mentioned, eBay sellers often use priority email.

Why? Because the integration between eBay, PayPal, and the USPS is so seemless. With just a few clicks through a few screens a bidder has paid you, and you are printing out a pre-paid shipping label that you stick on a free box the USPS delivered to your door and that you can drop off in special priority mail drop containers that do not require standing in line.

You can also pre-print other forms of shipping but Priority is generally a little faster (though there is no gaurantee) which means everyone is happier.

I would say the masterstroke of gettting eBay shippers to primarily use USPS and on top of that use one of the more expensive shipping options means huge profit increases for the USPS. Now instead of sending letters which must generate very little profit they ship more packages with a better margin.

Monopoly grant is a big subsidy

[Kadin2048]

Well the monopoly they have over mail delivery is a pretty big non-cash subsidy, in my book.

I'm not saying that the USPS isn't pretty good at what it does, and I use them all the time, but let's be honest: they have a market that's protected from competition by law. No private corporation is allowed to carry letters for anything less than (IIRC) twice the USPS rate or $3, whichever is lower.

That they're self-supporting is good, but they'd really better be considering that nobody is allowed to touch their business area.

Wrong: USPS uses FedEx aircraft!

[Kadin2048]

Er, no.

You've got that backwards. The USPS doesn't own any planes, and they have a relatively small fleet of trucks for the volume of stuff that they deliver. It's the Postal Service that uses a lot of other people's trucks and planes, not the other way around.

In particular, a lot of US Mail is shipped on FedEx aircraft. It used to be that a lot of mail was hauled on passenger airplanes (and the passenger airlines used to compete for these contracts, which is a story in itself) but they no longer allow packages on passenger flights for safety/security reasons, so they now put most air mail onto other freight aircraft. FedEx has one of the largest fleets of air-freight craft in the world, so it's natural that they actually do a lot of the transportation.

See http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_States_Postal_ Service#Airline_and_rail_division [wikipedia.org]. All of the air and rail transportation of US Mail is handled under contract, and a fair bit of the over-the-road trucking is as well. It's not cost effective for the USPS to maintain their own fleet of aircraft, when they can just have private companies compete to provide that service to them as contractors.