Well, the numbers of pieces of mail are down (mostly the recession), the costs of running the USPS are up, despite cost cutting.

Congress has to admit a few things:

•     Give more leeway to the USPS when it comes to decisions [not mentioned the  voting USPS workers in each and every Congressional district]
•     A large number of USPS employees retiring in the next few years
•     Many post offices are not profitable now, alternatives needed
•     Saturdays, does delivery make sense?
•     Legacy costs – health care, pensions, all sorts of stuff you can’t imagine are there

What the Post managed to avoid – you go to use a USPS machine and about 60% of the time, the thing is not working properly. Err, you have to wonder would that fly in a totally privatized company.

Here is the link to the Washington Post lead editorial for March 10, 2010.

http://ow.ly/1gJoC

As the direct marketing industry we need to make sure that we do our part to help the discussion to be more friendly to our position. Now, direct mail is about 52% of the volume. We should have some clout and the Direct Marketing Association and others have a great opportunity to develop a leadership role.

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