Calling All Revenue-Generation Ideas
You can’t cut your way to prosperity. That seems to be the message coming out of many of the comments we received on our recent blog about the next phase of network consolidation. So, if cutting alone isn’t the answer, what are your ideas for revenue growth?
Five years ago, we ran a blog post asking stakeholders for their best brainstorming ideas to help the U.S. Postal Service improve its net income. Interestingly, the suggestions seemed split about evenly between cutting costs and generating revenue. So, this time, we want to ask just about revenue-generation ideas. Of course, we welcome any thoughts you have on ensuring a viable Postal Service. That’s what this forum for stakeholder feedback is all about. So this week we ask you to consider the following:
- What is the number one idea you have to raise Postal Service revenue?
Share your ideas in the comment section.
sell ad space on the side of postal trucks and delivery llvs and allow ad on stamps.
Charge for holding mail.
As it stands, we hold mail at the USPS for 30 days. Some customers want to be gone longer and, quite honestly, Premium Forwarding Service does not always work, as the carrier has to forward that mail.
Let’s go in a different direction: charge for holding mail in excess of 30 days.
The rate is $5 a tub or fraction thereof per week (or whatever fee you want to put in place). If a person gets a large parcel, that will fit wholly in a tub.
This allows several things:
1) The mail is held at the local branch, where the customer knows it is secure.
2) The USPS doesn’t have to worry about ‘chainers’. (These are people to hold for 30 days, take it off for two or three and put in another 30-day hold, effectively bypassing the system).
3) If someone is will to pay those costs for PFS, then Extended Vacation Hold would look like a bargain.
True, we would still have to be diligent for those who want to try and circumvent the process (as some folks want something for nothing), but this seems to be a way to generate funds for something that is rather soft.
Certainly they would be apprised as to total costs before they could pick up their mail and, as I see it, if they do not pick up the mail after 30 days, that is a charge.
They would be locked into the contract in excess of 30-days, so they couldn’t do 60 days, and have someone pick up the accumulated mail at 30 and then get a month free.
There are certainly things that need to be worked out, but this is an opportunity to generate funds and, hopefully, help with our image, as we are really safeguarding the mail.
You can cut to prosperity, cut the multiple layers of useless and worthless upper management.
Improve on the retail products in offices in many areas.We take inventory all the time, we are shipped more of the overstocked items and none of the items we actually sell. Let the office order what they know sells. Revamp offices to actually display the products. Ex:our lobby is to small to display everything. We have a small room adjacent to the lobby. If we knocked out a 8 ft. wall to this room we don’t use; we could make room for shipping products. Twenty percent of our customers that ship, prepare their packages on site. Make the lobby more usable space for customer. Everytime a customer ships we sell tape and boxes.We are moving towards a package delivery company and we are not prepared on the retail side.
Start weeding out upper management, remove incompetent Post Masters. Start in Sioux City a LOT of wastefull spending on greivances that could have been prevented.
Passport Acceptance Hours & Passport Photos. USPS gets $25 per Passport Acceptance & charges $15 to take passport photos.
As with any business you eliminate the competition UPS, FED-EX, Staples etc….