THE USPS' PRODUCTS NEED SOME NEW THINKING

The following is a perspective by postal commentator Gene Del Polito for Direct magazine.

One of the most memorable exchanges at the hearings held before the President's Commission on the Postal Service was one involving Postmaster General Jack Potter. The PMG had been asked by one of the commissioners about his plans to expand postal markets. Potter responded by saying rather candidly that the Postal Service really only had one thing it could market, i.e., its rate card. By this, the PMG meant that as a closely regulated monopoly, the essence of the Postal Service's markets and services was defined by the Domestic Mail Classification Schedule (DMCS) and its derived postal rates.

While others wondered why the PMG didn't answer differently, the fact is that he was correct. The USPS indeed does define its products from the DMCS--a schedule that is partly within its control and partly under the sway of the Postal Rate Commission.

Never the less, if a rate schedule's all you've got, then the rate schedule should be where you put your time and energy to bring about new product offerings and improvements. The trouble is that this requires a little creativity and out-of-the-box thinking. Unfortunately, both seem in short supply over at the USPS these days.

Mail is still, and for the foreseeable future is likely to remain, an important vehicle for business development and commerce. To remain attractive to its most likely users, though, the Postal Service has got to do a major overhaul to its schedule of products and services. Mailers needs have changed. Postal products haven't. Nor has the Postal Service's perception of why mailers use mail or what is likely to encourage them to continue doing so in the future.

The Postal Service likes to restrict its thinking within the bounds of its four walls. If it lets in anyone, access is restricted to those "consultants" that have learned that the best way to win the next postal contract is to tell the Postal Service what it wants to hear, rather than what it needs to hear. Consequently, when the USPS sequesters itself to think of something new, at best it manages to serve up the "same ole, same ole," or, at worst, comes up with some new approach that ultimately will dissuade businesses from using the mail.

It's time for the Postal Service to give product redesign some new thinking. If it doesn't, then there might not be much of a product worth thinking about.