Ep 225: Future of the USPS letters and parcels services

Jan 24, 2021

The US Presidential election is over… but what’s the future for the US Postal Service? Mark Fallon, President and CEO of the Berkshire Company, joins me to discuss the future of the Universal Service Obligation in the USA… and much more:

• USPS postal rate reform
• Pricing for letters (indexing)
• Non-controllable expenses – including pension payments
• What pension payments mean for pricing in practice
• Delivery density and its relevance to pricing
• Cluster boxes
• Why everything has to be resolved by litigation in the USA
• Lack of legislative framework for the postal sector
• Delivery standards during the USA elections
• Defining the universal service obligation (USO)
• Costing the USO
• Ensuring all users of the mail are considered when formulating a USO
• A Presidential Commission?
• The digitally excluded
• Regulation and monitoring USO compliance
• Parcels and the USO
• The postal service and e-commerce
• Catalogue distribution and online sales
• Sunday delivery (parcels)
• Amazon volumes for Sunday delivery
• What’s next for the USPS?
• Postal reform legislation in the new Congress
• Continuing impact of COVID-19