Wednesday Update:
Wow. Thanks for the fabulous response to the brainstorm. We’ve been overwhelmed by the sheer number of thoughtful responses. To give everyone enough time to comment and us a little time to read through everything, we’ve decided to extend the period for taking comments and post a blog about the brainstorm with the poll on Monday. Until then, please keep sharing your ideas. All suggestions received by Friday morning will be candidates for the poll.
Oh, a word about moderation, we moderate every comment, and our policy is not to include comments that include vulgar words (even if the words are partially obscured with other characters) or involve name calling. We have not been able to approve a few comments that were otherwise very interesting because they violated our comment policy, so please double check your comment before you submit it.
Thanks again!
Original Post:
The Postal Service is facing a financial crisis and needs to pursue every option it can to improve its net income. Pushing the Envelope thought it might be a good idea to ask for your thoughts. How do you think the Postal Service can save money or raise additional revenue?
To make this a bit more interesting, the blog team will review your ideas and pick the most popular or most interesting for a poll. We’ll post the poll on Wednesday. So brainstorm now, and be sure to come back on Wednesday to view the shortlist and to vote for your favorites.
Share your ideas in the comments below. Describe the idea, whether it involves cutting costs or generating revenue, and how much you think it could add to the Postal Service’s bottom line. Happy brainstorming!
This topic is hosted by the OIG’s Risk Analysis Research Center (RARC).
527 Comments
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I would love to see a service where I could see online what is in my POB. Also how full or empty it is, so I knew when to make the trip in to get my mail.
You guys might take this a step further too and offer a service option for “deleting” some of the real pieces of mail from the box per our instructions. Eg I might actually pay you to remove the junk mail – understanding that this would not affect your revenue model of making money by putting the junk mail in the box. You make money putting the junk mail in the box and you make a little more removing it per my instructions.
You need to be thinking more virtual and what you can do to help save us customers time and effort and to help us be better citizens of the planet. If I do not have to get in my car and drive the 7 miles into my POB then the whole planet wins.
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I agree with Joe- I would even add scanning service- wherein I pay a small fee to have key mail items scanned, and emailed to me with the option of have the orginal shredded/recycled.
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packages-
offer contracts to customers at reduced rates the same way verizon fios or optonline does (internet – phone – cable – 3 for the price of 1) to companies that UPS or anyother competitors deliver to.
it would mean revenue that we were not collecting in the 1st place and a possible extended contract after the trial period has ended.
delivery
contract with an small airline to deliver across country
suggested rate discount
3 months – %10
6 mths — %25
12 mths —%50
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It has come to my attention that there is still a large population that does not have computers or that requires assistance in using the internet to fill out government forms. My suggestion is that, for a fee, the post office implements a service where by during a few hours a week postal staff and computers are made available to this group. With the assistance of a postal worker the forms are filled out and printed. Of course, the post office is not liable for the information provided by clients; the post office provides only the service of filling the forms. I realize that there has to be an investment before this is to take place, but the return on investment is worth the initial effort. Many undiscriminating people are charging huge amounts of money to complete these tasks. It will serve the community by providing a service that needs support and it will give the postal service a new venue for revenue.
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One invaluable service the USPS can provide is medical records storage. Every person should be able to transmit his medical records to a medical provider. Moreover, if you were in an accident it could be lifesaving to be able to access your medical records by the USPS. The USPS would maintain the servers and they would be available through any browser.
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I think that the USPS needs to realize it is an antiquated system The world has switched ot an electronic system and standard mail will someday go away or will be a premium service. I think in the small picture, closure of smaller post offices is a good first step. I personnally use postal services at a bare minumum. I look in my mailbox daily and yet it is usually just junk mail. All my bills are paid online and I have opted to not recieve paper statements. My paycheck is direct deposited and I have also opted with my employer to send me everything electronic. I think all small communitee post offices should be closed unless it is the only one. In my area I have 3 small communitee ones and one large one. I am sure all could be consolidated into the one larger one. All communities swhould have no more than 1 post office in a 15-25 mile radius. I am sure that would close alot of post offices. And delivery could be illiminated to 3-5 days a week. I of course do not mind this as I dont recieve alot of mail.
Also junk mail should be elliminated. It would cut down on the workload of the carriers which would cut down on costs. My junk mail is never looked at it goes straight to the recycle. Complete waste. At the very least I should be able to opt out which would increase costs. electronic spam is illegal. Paper spam should be too.
My long term sollution is to create a facility that mail could be sent to instead of our homes. People could sign up for a service that provides them a number sort of like a social security number. This could be used i nthe following manner
Dave Jones
AB6789234567
San Diego, Ca.
The letters would get routed to a central facility where it is opened securely and scaned and then emailed or stored in your own personnal eMailbox. This could be a service people pay a subscription for and they could give out this “address” out to whoever they wished. It would never need to change and when people move there would be no overhead of makeing those changes. Postal delivery could be cut to 1-2 times per week if at all. I think eventually deliverys could be elliminated. I realize there are alot of baby boomers out there that may resist this, but the younger generation would embrase it as it would make their lives easier. Immagine checking your mailbox on an iPhone app! All your mail right there. No need to put a hold on delivery when on vacation, just check your mail on the beach! going digital in some manner like this is the future. Hopefully USPS is smart enough to embrace it in some form.
I saw that the idea of an eMailbox is being considered.
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I live in a rural area, about three miles from my local post office and a half-hour’s drive (on a good day) from the nearest larger city.
I would LOVE to see the USPS negotiate a UPS and FedEx shipping option to “leave at local post office”.
The money UPS and FedEx saves by not going all the way to my driveway (and by not having to wrap packages in nasty plastic) could go to the USPS. That’s revenue! (It’s also a further revenue-generating opportunity because it brings people into the post office, and that’s an opportunity to sell stamps and other mailing services.)
I would be a much happier customer, having been given this choice — my important packages that I can’t convince shippers to send by USPS would stay safe and dry at the post office (and UPS would no longer shot-put my packages 10-20 feet over my locked gate … yes, they do this!). And for “signature required” deliveries, I would no longer have to drive a half-hour minimum (after spending at least an hour working my way through UPS’s phone system) to pick up my package at their local sorting facility one or two or three days later (because they have to “find” the package and get someone to get it off their truck … amazingly, the USPS can get a letter across the country in the time it takes UPS to communicate with its own drivers).
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How about a service addressees could subscribe to in which the USPS would withold direct mail advertising?
I’m sure this has been kicked around already; I didn’t read the previous 495 comments.
The subscription price could be set high enough that it offsets revenue losses from lost advertising. Even if the subscriber numbers were low, profits would be gained and transportation costs would be saved.
Also a potentially more economically feasible alternative to total replacement of the old Grumman LLVs would be to retrofit them by replacing the worn-out old Chevy Iron Dukes with some kind of small biodiesel plant. If a refurbishment program were done cleanly you could cost-cut the price of total unit replacement while gaining fuel economy. Two types of savings there.
Shoot, you could really get wild with it and have a big whooping PR dream-come-true by developing some kind of joint partnership with a fast food chain, wherein your empty mailtrucks could swing by restaurants on their return routes, picking up waste oil for biodiesel refinement.
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Why can’t the post office perform other consumer services such as drivers license, car tags, the simpler tasks that require the customer to bring in all the completed forms. I realize this is a state function right now, but if post offices are under utilized, why not let them take on some of these other functions. I brought this up a public closure meeting in a rural community and the state representative there did not think this would work because it’s two different agencies, federal and state. Aren’t we all trying to save money??? I believe there’s a movement at the top of USPS to privatize the whole thing, sad thing is, no one is going to take on universal service, every mailbox every day, six days a week.
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Hello….Start selling advertising. Stamps..mailing boxes etc..
Want to guess how much Google…Coke…Visa and others would pay
to be on your product?? Good-bye operating defecit
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This is an interesting idea. Small google ads on your envelope… I could deal with that.
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Hi,
looks like there are tons of great suggestions…..forgive this one if it is a repeat…
As I stood in line, waiting at my post office, I noticed the phrase, “Friends & Family” reminded me of a Verizon tactic, where you can list “most used” phone numbers –those several numbers would be free calls.
Would it be viable to offer a version of that, to regular customers? (I know, free mail service sounds like a losing situation, but setting certain parameters might work)
Good Luck!
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Diversification of products and services. See if the postal department can help the public with CD’s, retirement savings, education savings bonds.
Consider tie-ups with other mail carriers for enhanced customer services.
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I’m not sure if anyone has mentioned this to you but, obviously the email market has taken alot of your business. Well, what is stopping the USPS from doing the same thing? I think that there is alot that you can do from a usmail.com email site. Like, maybe buy stamps, buy greeting cards and post cards. Or maybe have a section where I could say that I need a package sent somewhere and you come pick it up. I’m sure there is alot of things that you could offer from an email site that would make lots of money for the USPS.
But, If you do this you have to make it cool, hip and the thing to do. That is the secret to success for sites like these. Remember the reason that google and facebook are so successful is that they remain cool in the mainstream. They appeal to the younger crowd. You have to make it simple and quick to navigate. Don’t fill it up with to many graphics and animations.
I really don’t think you have much choice but to do something like this. If you can’t beat them at least try to join them. You have alot to offer. Alot more than the rest of them do. You can also hire sponsors for the site and run there adds on the site.
I really hope that we can figure something out to save our USPS. You have been a crucial enity in the U.S. since we have became a country. Good Luck…
Yours Truly, Ronathon
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Ways USPS can save big bucks:
1. Immediately stop Saturday delievry service. Don’t talk about it any more just DO IT!
2. Immediately set USPS employees pay and benefits scale to Fed Government employees scale. Right now, for example, per hour wage for a GS 12 USPS employee is higher than a Corps of Engineers employee. Med insurance premiums are less than other non-postal employees. So it costs the USPS more to fund employee med insurance than Fed agencies.
3. Immediately STOP issueing special commemorative stamps. Stop paying for art work, printing, etc., have one basic stamp (US Flag) with no postage shown on it. If postage has to go up you don’t have to issue new stamps. This is already in use.
4. Immediately, if not sooner, cancel the IBM Mail Delievery Test and other such research tests, if ongoing. I have been participating in the test for several years documenting mail pieces I receive in the mail. How long does it take the USPS to determine if mail is being dlelievered timely?
My mail delievery is excellant. All the USPS employees I come into contact with in Tulsa are dedicated and courteous. I hate to see USPA mis-management hurt what has been working so well at the local delievery level. Start with the actions I have described above or at least have the courage to cost them out & see how much savings can be had by their adoption before you lay off 38,000 employees. I believe you owe that to your customers as well as your employees.
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US Postal mail should be a premium service. $1+ for a stamp, or more depending on destination and weight. The post office should stop trying to make money on volume, and push people to go electronic and handle only what people are truly willing to pay for hand mail. If you want something hand delivered across the country, pay for it. I send 1, maybe 2, things per month via regular mail. Everything these days can be paid electronically. Even if you are in a “rural” area without internet service, you can set up automatic payments and you don’t need a connection to pay your bills when they’re due. Maybe the USPS can help citizens who lack the skills to set up automatic pay services, or create/pay a private organization to help in the initial set up. Mail should be cut to 3 days a week, Mon. Wed. Fri. The world needs to learn to use the more efficient (electronic) tools available to them. Paying a fee to not receive unwanted mail would be great, too. I’d gladly pay $5 or $10 a month, or more, to not get junk I toss daily. Whatever they do, the USPS role needs to shrink. It’s no longer the most efficient way to communicate.
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I betcha if USPS would create a forever stamp with IN GOD WE TRUST on it, they couldn’t keep up with demand and that might in fact pull them out of the financial crisis they’re in. Anyone else feel the same? Hopefully, someone at USPS will read this and send it to the Postmaster General.
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I wish you would put time stamps on the posts. You see, I don’t get to post “on the clock” to offer ideas & comments to help, as I have since it’s inception, unless I do it on “my own time”. I think your traffic counts to the site would diminish significantly if you did.
From what I’ve seen so far, I’ve deduced that most of the ideas are submitted “on the clock”.
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There are many fake websites to submit change of address, hold mail, basic services that charge people anywhere from 1.00 to 30.00 to “process the request” and people pay it, with out thinking twice,
And yet the post office only charges 1.00 for verification “not taking in mind that some credit cards have a 5.00 min anyway” I think personaly they should up that to a 5.00 min for change of address, But still offer the ability to go to the local post office and still be able to fill out the form for free.
Regarding hold mail, the post office only allows customer to put mail on hold for 30 days, I think you should extend that out by a month or two and offer it to customers for a small charge.
Also the ideas for selling ad space for stamps is great, But I would take is a step further and offer route sponsorship like the “adopt a highway” slap some patches on the mail bag
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The A.P.C. (Automated Postal Center) is not very intuitive and very cumbersome to use. After using one at least once a week for several years, to mail large envelopes for my wife, I would consider myself a expert user. After several years of using these machines I still find them hard to use. I propose striking a deal with Apple to interface the Ipad in a secure manor in place of the current touch screen. The USPS would benefit by getting a much more efficient A.P.C. and Apple could benefit by exposing their technology to the masses. Apple could advertise their product and even sell Ipads at each post office. The next project could be to replace the clunky terminals used by the window clerks with Ipad devices.
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Turn the Postal service into the local police force they patrol the neighborhood anyway and nothing stops them rain snow ect.
Arm them and give them the money locals would pay for a police service or make them the national police service and close the FBI.
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Ok so I think it is time for the STATIONS to communicate directly with the employees running their mail. I think this simple little form of communication would be AMAZING!!. Clerks at the station need to know that it is the clerks in the processing facilites that decide what mail is processed. If for example carrier 32 has a problem with their mail they can communicate directly with the employees running their zone. Problems will be addressed faster (NOT 2 weeks later) We could decrease overtime!!! If we as processing clerks only knew what the carriers and office clerks needed to do their job successfully
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