Post Office Horse Buggy

The United States Post Office, the USPS, has been in decline for some time as technology not only brought us email but tablets, smartphones and ultrabooks.  Not only do most Americans have access to email easier, they have access to email faster — and with that, many Americans bank and pay bills online.  Furthermore, Federal Express, UPS, DHL and other courier services not only provide the service better, they provide service much more efficiently and effectively. Consider the fact that just a few weeks ago, a delivery of an envelope sent via USPS got incorrectly delivered to Delaware of all places  since as far I could see, after a couple days delay, it was clearly marked Philadelphia. The USPS system, once one of the crowning achievements of Americana, has fallen to the modern digital world.  With Saturdays being cut out for mail delivery, the USPS is coming upon its last legs, quite possibly within a decade or less.  Given the world has evolved, the United States Post Office system hasn’t — aside from putting up a clumsy and not very user-friendly website.

What does the USPS need to do? Fringe Fiction has some ideas.

• Privatize.  With the government supplementing and endorsing the USPS, the USPS was never really forced to change with the times.  Put in perspective, it is still a horse-and-buggy system.  
• Develop an efficient network to track deliveries.  With the USPS tracking system, “delivered” or “out for delivery” doesn’t usually mean the day of.  For the most part, it takes at least one or two more days for the package to arrive.  The second part of this is to have workers with a sense of urgency.  I’ve had packages that were supposed to arrive in Philadelphia but were actually sent to Delaware of all places.  It simply boggles the mind.
• Develop an application for shipping, mailing and tracking among other things. An Android and iOS application would be nice.
• Better locations for post offices. The locations need to be near places of business.  Sometimes, they are located in isolated locations where no one bothers.

The Post Office will soon disappear if it doesn’t change, doesn’t evolve.  It will go the way of dinosaurs if it is not careful.

Related articles

• Report: USPS to End Saturday Mail Delivery This Summer (wreg.com)
• No more Saturday mail delivery, USPS says (cinewsnow.com)
• USPS: We Need Help! E-Commerce Is A Huge Opportunity, But We Don’t Have The Technology To Keep Up (businessinsider.com)
• USPS: We Don’t Pay Traffic Tickets (newser.com)
• Yes, Republicans are trying to shut down the United States Postal Service (deathandtaxesmag.com)
• USPS ends Saturday letter delivery. How much fuel will it save? (csmonitor.com)
• USPS Changes Causing Stress for Ecommerce Sellers (vendio.com)
• Time to save the postal service (blogs.reuters.com)
• USPS Cuts Saturday Delivery (newser.com)