Word: postal
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Dates: during 2000-2009
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...problem is that the U.S. hasn't come to grips with the fact that in a fast-changing world, mail delivery is better run as a competitive business than as a government monopoly. While many countries have privatized their postal systems, the USPS has a foot stuck in each world. It is a semiprivate corporation with a lumbering government bureaucracy. It is run by a board of governors made up not of crack chief executives but of a folksy blend of local politicians, small-town business leaders and federal bureaucrats. The board has no postal experience, and Postmaster General William...
...broad alliance--a striking move, since Smith has long been an outspoken critic of the USPS Although details are still sketchy, the deal would reportedly give the government carrier access to the air network of the company, which is based in Memphis, Tenn. In return, the blue-uniformed postal workers would pick FedEx packages up from your door and deliver them right to your door. In effect, that would hand FedEx the Postal Service's crown jewel: the exclusive, government-mandated right to open the mailbox at the end of every American driveway, known in the industry as "the last...
...gaining access to that "last mile" to Aunt Edna's mailbox, FedEx could leverage the arrangement by planting drop-off boxes in post-office lobbies. Even if government regulators limit the combination on antitrust grounds, FedEx is steaming ahead with other joint ventures, including a deal with the French postal agency La Poste. Fred Smith has already proved FedEx's global fortitude. Most analysts see his domestic strategy as a shrewd way to position his 29-year-old company for what many believe will be the USPS's inevitable dissolution...
Unless it undergoes radical reform soon, the days of the U.S. Postal Service are probably numbered. Even its primary market, first-class mail, is expected to shrink 27% over the next decade, representing the loss of an additional $17 billion in revenues. And some analysts warn that deals with private carriers will simply undercut USPS assets, leaving it with little more than its most rural--and least profitable--routes...
Postmaster General Henderson resists even the suggestion that the Postal Service could disappear and has vowed to shake up his mammoth organization. Yet in testimony to Congress last month, he seemed resigned to a fate that is uncertain at best. As he argued for support of the postal-reform bill that has languished in committee for so many years, the USPS veteran fell back on a sentimental plea. He cited statistics showing that 66% of all Americans believe the mail is our most private and secure form of communication. "These findings are a testament to the enduring strength and unique...