Troubled USPS Testing Same Day Package Delivery

They may deliver your internet package purchase the same day, but they still want to ditch Saturday delivery.

CSM:

Teaming up with major retailers, the post office will begin the expedited service in San Francisco on Dec. 12 at a price similar to its competitors. If things run smoothly, the program will quickly expand next year to other big cities such as Boston, Chicago and New York. It follows similar efforts by eBay, Amazon.com, and most recently Wal-Mart Stores Inc., which charges a $10 flat rate for same-day delivery.

The delivery program, called Metro Post, seeks to build on the post office’s double-digit growth in package volume to help offset steady declines in first-class and standard mail. Operating as a limited experiment for the next year, it is projected to generate between $10 million and $50 million in new revenue from deliveries in San Francisco alone, according to postal regulatory filings, or up to $500 million, if expanded to 10 cities.

The filings do not reveal the mail agency’s anticipated expenses to implement same-day service, which can only work profitably if retailers have enough merchandise in stores and warehouses to be quickly delivered to nearby residences in a dense urban area. The projected $500 million in potential revenue, even if fully realized, would represent just fraction of the record $15.9 billion annual loss that the Postal Service reported last week.

But while startups in the late 1990s such as Kozmo.com notably failed after promising instant delivery, the Postal Service’s vast network serving every U.S. home could put it in a good position to be viable over the long term. The retail market has been rapidly shifting to Internet shopping, especially among younger adults, and more people are moving from suburb to city, where driving to a store can be less convenient.

Postal officials, in interviews with The Associated Press, cast the new offering as “exciting” and potentially “revolutionary.” Analysts are apt to agree at least in part, if kinks can be worked out.

Retailers are still trying to figure out internet shopping and what the customer will respond to. Shipping — its cost and convenience — would appear to be an area ripe for exploitation if the USPS can anticipate consumer desires and be ready to respond if a market really develops.

Same day delivery sounds pretty cool but can the Postal Service really be competitive with such heavy labor costs? They say they can and more power to them if they can compete in this emerging market.

But the new service won’t nearly be enough to offset the $16 billion deficit due to the fall off of first class mail delivery in recent years. For that, the Postal Service needs a congressional bailout. And that means cutbacks in rural delivery, Saturday delivery, and finding savings in labor costs.