I don’t know why they didn’t see this one coming, but the internet is affecting the U.S. Postal Service so adversely that the Postmaster General is threatening to shut down services by the fall if they don’t receive a Federal bailout and debt restructuring agreement. According to the Postmaster General, costs associated with employees and funding their retirement is pushing them into serious debt, but I’d like to dispute that.
Employers are always quick to blame pensions on their financial woes, but their sales have been declining for years! I don’t which planning manager at the U.S.P.S. did not see e-mail as a possible threat to its regular mail business? While that part of their business model might have declines, their package service has increased due to the rise in internet sales. Amazon and eBay package shipments alone should have pushed quite a bit of customers through their doors to use the package service.
Here’s a video below highlighting some of the U.S.P.S.’ problems. What do you think that they should do?
