University of Virginia Library

Solution

High postal officials think
the solution to the Postal
Service's economic woes lies in
private enterprise. They are
committed to competing with
private mail delivery
organizations. However, the
Postal Service in some cases has
not even been successful in
competing with the mail
delivery performance
established before postal
reforms.

***

Many business firms feel the
mail delivery is too unreliable
to be trusted. Frequently, they
will send an executive to
personally deliver an important
document. He will fly out to
another city, hand over the
letter or parcel to the
company's office in that city,
and catch the next flight home.

The area of bulk mail
painfully demonstrates that the
Postal Service would not be
competitive to a reliable, fast
private delivery company.
Organizations such as United
Parcel Service provide a
tempting alternative, attracting
an ever-increasing number of
customers with their more
reliable delivery.

Small-time entrepreneurs
also see the mail delivery
business as an opportunity to
make some money by
competing with the Postal
Service. One such competitor,
Independent Postal Service,
even has its employees wear
uniforms and carry mail bags
similar to those of the Postal
Service.

According to Mr. Del
Grosso, the Postal Service is
attempting to become
competitive in this field also.
The Service is separating bulk
mail into a separate network,
apart from regular first class
mail, and channeling it through
facilities specially designed to
handle parcel post.

Speaking of the private
United Parcel Post, Mr. Del
Grosso said, "They have made
tremendous inroads in our
parcel post area, and we don't
deny this. But I think the
secret to our future success will
be in the establishment of our
bulk network.

"Right now, we probably
are not competitive in some
areas with United Parcel," he
continued. "But we intend to
be competitive in the future
and in the very near future we
intend to give the kind of
service that American people
want."

***

More ominous than new
competition is the fact that
even important employees are
complaining about the Postal
Service's performance. In some
areas, conversations with
Service workers reveal a
discouragement, a disgust with
the slow delivery.

An important career
employee in a southern city
recently expressed his extreme
discouragement and
disappointment with the state
of the Postal Service: "At the
Post Office [this year] I
experienced what was perhaps
the most frustrating year in the
29 that I have been with the
business."

Just this past summer, he
was enthusiastic about the
prospects of improved service.
Now, he hopes he can hold on
for a few more years so he can
retire.