There Can Be Gold in Them Thar Envelopes

The following is a perspective by postal commentator Gene Del Polito for Direct magazine. Trust me....The views expressed here are more than just the author's.

So far, the U.S. Postal Service has done an amazing job reducing costs. Thus far, however, there is very little that mailers have seen from the Postal Service regarding any intent to increase the appeal of its products in the face of stiffening media competition. Here's one proposal to get the Postal Service going in a direction of added value and mail volume and revenue growth.

In the early days of the Postal Service's letter-mail automation program, the optimal mail handling capability of its optical character readers and barcode sorters was somewhat limited. The maximum "ideal" weight for automation-compatible letter-mail was rated at no greater than two ounces. That may be fine for those mailers who have slimmed the size of their mailing packages to practically nothing, but a two-ounce weight limit would have imposed some very significant restrictions on mail's utility to advertisers and marketers.

Fortunately, as mail automation technology improved, so did the maximum weight handling ability of the Postal Service's machines. Over the years, this has been a topic of some conversation between the Postal Service and mail marketers, and the maximum weight of an automation-rated letter has inched from 2.5 ounces to 3.5 ounces within the current rate scheme.

Increasing the maximum weight of automatable letters has been a boon to advertising mailers and the Postal Service alike. This increase in letter-mail automation weight has stimulated a significant growth in new volume and revenue. Indeed, users of heavier weight pieces have testified to their ability to launch whole new mail-based programs that have won the Postal Service substantial mail volume and revenue growth across all mail classes.

There's still more the Postal Service can do to increase the benefits it can gain. Postal engineers know that today's mail processing equipment can accommodate letter-size pieces that weigh as much as six-ounces. So, given the mailing industry's propensity for squeezing the maximum value out of each half-ounce of mail weight, there is no reason the Postal Service shouldn't expect even greater business growth by increasing the maximum weight of automation-rated letters to at least four ounces. That's only only one-half ounce more than is permitted today, and still two ounces below the maximum weight USPS machines can handle.

Such a change can easily be accommodated in the upcoming rate case. The Postal Service has the experience and the data to justify such a change, and mailers have demonstrated the market-based wisdom for doing so. So, let's do it!