Is Mail Dead? On May 26, 2011, Business Week ask just that and presented their findings to conclude mail was almost dead unless the USPS "reinvented" itself in a European model of service.
In response, the following was posted on the NACUMS listserv shortly after the article was published:
I have read the article just now and am not particularly worried or depressed. As with most articles, the author has a particular bias and blind spot concerning his subject. First of note, he continuously refers to standard mail as junk mail. This pejorative is regularly used by people happy to see 'snail mail' go away because it shows how superior, tech savvy, and ahead of everyone they are in relation to other poor unfortunates who still use the service. So, the fact that the author is painting a bleak picture is as much a product of selective facts as wishful thinking. The contempt is obvious during the description of an interview with PMG Potter on page 3. "He acknowledges that first-class mail is in an inexorable decline, but he sees junk mail rebounding with the economy. In the last quarter of 2010, junk revenue climbed 7.1 percent." Junk revenue? But the author, while noting all the issues, still seems to blame the whole idea of having mail to begin with so fails to move beyond this point. But I believe that those factors, if mitigated, would actually show the USPS to be viable and thriving, if diminished from its glory days.
What is the true status of the USPS? Here's what I know. Many of its problems are not of its own making, and I believe that if several issues can be resolved, the post office would actually be in pretty good shape.
1) By law the USPS cannot close Post Offices due solely for economic purposes (page 3).
2) By law the USPS must prepay a special $5.5B each year into its retire health-care plan (page 2,7). It is the only federal entity that has to do this.
3) By following law, the USPS overpaid its federal retirement program by $75B (page 2). It is the only federal entity forced to put that much away.
4) Postal Unions, backed by political allies, have the power to block meaningful contract changes. Unlike most others in the private sector, they have been able to protect their fabulously generous retirement packages ("The USPS's leaders rewarded their union employees with more expensive benefits than most federal employees enjoy. According to the U.S. Postal Service Inspector General's Office, it covers 79 percent of most of its employees' health benefits, compared with the typical 72 percent for federal workers." Page 6), protect work rule restrictions limiting what you can ask an employee to do, prohibit layoffs, and get "3.5 percent raise for APWU members over the period of the contract, along with seven upcapped cost-of-living increases" for the next 4 years. (page 3). And that was a cut! "Fredric V. Rolando, president of the 275,000-member National Association of Letter Carriers, doesn't sound like he's interested in making major concessions."
Even if just 1-3 could be solved we would see most of the USPS issues disappear. And if 4 could be solved, it would flourish.
However, that is not really our issue. I would like to remind everyone that we are not in the mail business. Each and every one of us is in the Education business, because we work at a college or university. Mail is not important because it is mail, it is important because right now our schools use it to convey information, marketing, and other vital business interests. If the school can find a way to exchange this information another way, just as effectively and with less expense, so be it. And as long as mail is an important service I will gladly and willing oversee its operation. But if the mail eventually disappears, because it no longer serves any purpose at the university, I expect to move to another area where my skills can be used to the benefit of the University.
I feel that many are concerned about the decline of mail, not because they are so in love with mail, but more because it could affect future employment. But remember, you are not just skilled in mail, you are operations managers and supervisors who represent the university, instill the vision and goals of the school in your staff, develop processes, work with customers to meet their needs, problem solve, and work as stewards with University resources. Those are the skills you need to develop, promote, and advertise to your school. When they see the job you have done overseeing the mail operation, they will find that those skills are transferrable to other areas that need to be done as well.
Mail is still vital, and will be for the foreseeable future. The sky is not falling, but it is certainly possible that mail goes the way of the buggy whip. But be honored that they university chose you to oversee this operation while it was vital, and be prepared to do the same for another vital university operation if mail does go away.
Mark Goodrich
University of Rochester
President, NACUMS
