The Postal Service's Transformation Plan Makes For Interesting Reading

The following is a perspective by postal commentator Gene Del Polito for Direct magazine. The views expressed are solely the author's.

If you haven't yet read the U.S. Postal Service's 2006-2010 Strategic Transformation Plan, you should. It will provide as clear and concise a roadmap as to where the Postal Service will be going over the next five years -- with or without postal legislative reform. The people who put this paper together did an excellent job, and they should be congratulated.

The Plan sets forth a general framework for the evolution of postal operations and services that mailers can expect to see in the short term. It provides enough information about prospective changes to postal products, mail preparation requirements, addressing requirements, network changes to put mail users on notice that the postal world in which they labored in the past is about to change. Part of that change will be manifested in changes to which they must adhere to ensure the most cost-efficient and productive use of mail as a business transactional medium.

This plan didn't develop in a vacuum. It reflects a considerable amount of input the Postal Service has received from its customers over the past five years. The plan envisions the smaller, inflation-bounded changes called for by mailers and postal reform proposals. It emphasizes the increased use of information technology to improve the cost-efficiency and productivity of postal operations as well as increasing the value of services offered to customers. It takes adequate note of the need to modernize operations, improve mail flow, and maximize the shared work that mailers provide in the preparation and distribution of their mail.

The Postal Service candidly acknowledged the challenge that lies ahead in trying to support a universal mail delivery system with a core of mail offerings that have changed and will continue to change over time. More financial transactions will be going by other means, and more will need to be done to make using the mail a persuasive business proposition.

There are some changes that may ring discordantly in some private sector ears. The one example that immediately comes to mind is the Postal Service's increased emphasis on what it calls "value-based pricing." To some, this sounds like postal code for increasing the price of products and services already enhanced by efforts mailers themselves put into basic mail products.
Then again, can you think of any business in America that doesn't try to maximize its gains by capitalizing on whatever real or perceived value it offers its customers?