Posts Tagged "U.S. Postal Service"

Naming Rights, Retail Ad Space and Other Ideas

on Nov 19, 2012 in Ideas Worth Exploring | 6 comments

Twenty years ago, when professional sporting teams started selling naming rights to their stadiums and arenas, many purists called it a low point in the commercialization of sports. But today, the number of arenas and ballparks not named after a corporate sponsor is small. For revenue-seeking team owners, it is just too hard to pass up the money that comes with selling your stadiums’ name. Strategy, business development and marketing all play huge factors in naming-rights deals, with top prices for these deals reaching about half a billion dollars, according to Sports Business Journal.

As a business-centered organization looking to boost revenues, does the U.S. Postal Service have opportunities to sell naming rights? The idea of selling the naming rights to an entire Post Office might not be palatable to Congress, as lawmakers like to name post offices after fallen soldiers or local heroes. But what about selling space in parts of the Post Office? For example: this retail counter brought to you by XYZ Co.? Sides of vehicles or automated postal centers in high-traffic areas of retail centers could also hold valuable advertising space. With its national reach, yet local presence, the Postal Service is visible in every community nearly every day. Companies and nonprofit organizations would likely find the opportunities to reach such a large audience appealing.

Every Door Direct Mail: Coming to a TV Near You

on Jun 4, 2012 in Products & Services | 14 comments

Following the success of the Priority Mail ® Flat Rate Box® advertising campaign, the U.S. Postal Service has decided to use the “If it fits, it ships” letter carrier (actor and comedian Mike Bradecich) as the public face for one of its newest products, Every Door Direct Mail (EDDM). The campaign’s new tag line, “Every home, every address, every time” describes the new product’s main advantage: small businesses can target every address in their local area without having to provide every name and address.

What would an optimized Postal Service infrastructure look like in the 21st century and beyond?

on Mar 14, 2012 in Five Elements of a Postal Solution | 10 comments

This is the second topic in our “Five Elements of a Postal Solution” blog series. Link to last week’s topic.

Link to the March 13 blog by Cliff Guffey.
Link to the March 14 blog by Alan Robinson.
Link to the March 15 blog by John Callan.
Link to the March 16 recap.

The Postal Service Network of the Future

The Postal Service has proposed to reduce its network of post offices by more than 3,200 and consolidate over 250 mail processing locations. The goal is to optimize Post Office locations and streamline the processing network to better align with mail volumes that have declined more than 20 percent over the past five years. The Postal Service’s infrastructure was built to handle a mail volume of over 213 billion pieces. It is driven by a Congressional mandate for 6-day delivery to every delivery point, First-Class Mail® overnight delivery service standards in local areas, and a Post Office network viewed as a community infrastructure.

The Postal Service estimates that streamlining/optimization would generate over $3 billion in annual savings to help reduce the losses that topped $5.0 billion in 2011. Much of the projected optimization savings is associated with reducing the size of the workforce as approximately 80 percent of the Postal Service’s costs are employee related. The Postal Service is subject to collective bargaining and must follow its union agreements in any downsizing effort. More than 480,000 members of the workforce are covered by union contracts with binding arbitration frequently used to settle contract negotiations. In certain cases, these contracts have no layoff provisions and the ability to cross craft employees from one function to another is limited.

Many community leaders especially from small towns and rural areas have voiced significant concerns about elimination of needed postal services in their neighborhoods. Others have raised concerns regarding downsizing of needed jobs in the midst of an economic downturn. However, it is difficult for the Postal Service to justify a network built for mail volumes that are significantly higher than the current volumes being processed. It is also difficult to envision a future scenario in which mail volumes approach the numbers needed to support the infrastructure that is in place. Finally, in the digital age, the services needed by communities are evolving and the infrastructure for the 21st century may need to change to meet those needs.

We would like to hear from you on what an optimized Postal Service infrastructure looks like in the 21st century and beyond?

For this week’s topic, we’ve also asked the following guest commentators to discuss this topic over the next three days:

• Cliff Guffey, President, American Postal Workers Union, on Tuesday, March 13.
• Alan Robinson, President, Direct Communications Group, on Wednesday, March 14.
• John Callan, Director, Ursa Major Associates, LLC, on Thursday, March 15.

We hope you can join the debate. Please check in throughout the week for their thoughts, and share your comments along the way. On Friday, March 16, OIG will summarize and conclude the discussion on this important topic.

Our Guest Bloggers

Cliff Guffey	Alan Robinson	John Callan

Cliff Guffey is President of the American Postal Workers Union, which represents 220,000 employees in the clerk, maintenance and motor vehicle crafts.

Alan Robinson is the President of the Direct Communications Group. He has thirty years of experience helping firms and government officials deal with the regulatory, policy, marketing, and management issues associated with changes in competition within transportation, parcel delivery and postal markets. His thoughts on the challenges facing the Postal Service can be found at the Courier Express and Postal Observer.

John Callan is Managing Director of strategy consultancy Ursa Major Associates, LLC, focusing on the growth opportunities and transformational challenges in the postal-parcel-logistics space. He is also the founder of The PostalVision 2020 Initiative designed to envision the American postal ecosystem of the future.

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What is the Office of Audit and why do we blog?

on May 30, 2011 in OIG | 8 comments

au-dit (noun) – a methodical examination and review

What is the U.S. Postal Service Office of Inspector General Office of Audit?

We’re a team of auditors and evaluators helping to maintain the integrity and accountability of America’s Postal Service, its revenue and assets, and its workforce. We do this by conducting independent audits and reviews of the Postal Service. Each year we develop an audit plan with projects focusing on the perceived risks facing the Postal Service. We also include projects that address stakeholders’ concerns. The overarching goal of our audits is to provide Postal Service management with information on how to best address the challenges they are facing.

Why do we blog?

To put it simply – we blog to get your ideas on how to make the Postal Service better! We look at our blog as a “virtual think tank” where Postal Service employees, customers, and stakeholders can present their thoughts and solutions for a more efficient and effective Postal Service. We’ve received a wealth of information that has helped us with our audits and has given us ideas for future work.

How can you help? Let us know what you think!

• What are some critical challenges facing the Postal Service that you would like to see us explore through our audits?

• What could the Postal Service do to improve its service to you?

• What could the Postal Service do to increase its revenues or reduce its costs?

• What other ideas do you have?

Would you like to learn more about us?

Please visit Reading Room section our website where you can review our published reports to Postal Service management as well as our semiannual reports to Congress or just learn more about us. We also welcome your comments on our upcoming audits and reviews, which we feature on our Audit Projects page. If you have an audit idea and do not see anything related there, please submit your idea to auditprojects@uspsoig.gov

The Office of Audit’s Audit Operations team is hosting this topic.