Post Office Changes Reflect Web Impact

Starting in August, these will be empty on Saturdays

In half a year, there will be a change in the delivery of mail that is perhaps not dramatic, but is nonetheless significant as it suggests a megatrend that is reflective of the modern electronic age. Free mail delivery, including Saturday service, started 150 years ago. In 1863, Abraham Lincoln was President and he had then just issued the Emancipation Proclamation, an historical event recently commemorated with the release of a new Forever stamp. Thomas Edison was a teenager, still about a decade away from gaining fame for his invention of the phonograph, followed by decades of other major inventions. One can only assume that Edison would have been thrilled to see smartphones and tablets being the modern-day result of many of his efforts. 


The big change from the U.S. Postal Service is that starting in August, there will no longer be Saturday delivery of first-class mail, although packages will continue to be delivered and post offices already open on Saturdays will remain so. The USPS reports that over the last five years, there has been a 37% decline in the volume of first-class mail, in large part due to the prominence of e-mail and social networking. The decline in revenue plus the cost of retiree health benefits has resulted in major cost-reductions. The post office is looking to trim just under 200,000 workers from its payroll without resorting to layoffs. While first-class letters have been in decline, the rise of e-commerce has meant an increase in package deliveries by 14% over the last two years, according to the USPS. 


So for the foreseeable future, expect to see more deliveries by the USPS, not to mention Fedex, UPS, and others. Mobile smartphones and tablets are making online purchases easier than ever before. Convenience to the consumer should not be underestimated.

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