Expect to see
television ads promoting the USPS Priority Mail service beginning this week. I
was privy to a conference call with journalists hosted by U.S. Postmaster
General Patrick R. Donahoe and Chief Marketing and Sales Officer Nagisa Manabe
who were trying to spread the word to both consumers and small businesses about
the attractions of using Priority Mail to ship packages. The USPS recently
rolled out changes to Priority Mail, including rebranded Express Mail to
"Priority Mail Express."
A spokesperson said future plans include
moving to a guaranteed service for day-specific delivery. Right now, only
Priority Mail Express (the former Express Mail service) is guaranteed delivery
- the other dates (1 Day, 2 Day and 3 Day), which the duo referred to as day-specific
delivery, are estimates based on the package's departure and ship-to location -
in other words, customers cannot request 1 Day, 2 Day or 3 Day Priority Mail.
The USPS has flexibility to make changes to services and rates to what are
called "competitive" offerings, under which Priority Mail falls.
Eyeing carriers such as UPS and FedEx, apparently the USPS believes it can
further improve Priority Mail (and improve its bottom line) by guaranteeing
delivery dates. But would a hypothetical increase in package volume as a result
of such a change be enough to satisfy the desire to boost postal revenue?
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