Package Coalition Hill Briefings on Package Delivery and the U.S. Postal Service Recap

The Package Coalition works to preserve an affordable, reliable, and profitable postal package delivery system as an essential part of America’s infrastructure and economic growth.   Package Coalition Hosts Hill Briefings on Package Delivery and the U.S. Postal Service The Postal Service Reform Act (PSRA) was enacted one year ago with strong bipartisan and bicameral support. The PSRA was designed to help stabilize the U.S. Postal Service (USPS)to ensure it can continue to fulfill its mission of delivering mail and packages together six days a week to every address in America.   Almost a year since postal reform passed, the Package Coalition hosted a briefing with Congressional staff to share first-hand perspectives from some of America’s leading retail and e-commerce brands on why fair competition and affordable package delivery services are essential to American families and consumers; jobs and the growth of e-commerce; and  Americans living in rural and remote or underserved areas of the country.   How USPS Supports Small Businesses & Entrepreneurs Angela Hooks with Etsy explained the majority of the platform’s creative sellers and micro businesses use USPS to ship their goods. With sellers based in 99.9% of the country’s counties, they are more likely to be based in rural and suburban areas compared to the normal population distribution. The sellers aren’t shipping experts, but Etsy helps them use affordable USPS shipping – often directly from sellers’ homes to buyers’ homes. Most packages are lightweight so the Postal Service is the most reliable and affordable because it is already going to every house, (almost) every day.   Similarly, Jodi Chandler from eBay described the Postal Service’s benefits for their sellers and customers. Most small businesses don’t have their own logistics and delivery networks, so USPS is a critical partner in helping them compete with larger operations. It also helps them to avoid “residential” or “rural” surcharges that private express carriers impose on over 24,000 zip codes.       Getting Mail-Order Medicine Straight To American Homes Across the Country & Around the World CVS Health customers rely on the Postal Service to receive critical medicine deliveries and other supplies directly at home. The company highlighted how USPS empowers reliable and affordable mail-order medicine directly to populated urban areas, the most remote locations in U.S. states and territories, and APO, FPO, and DPO addresses around the world. For many Americans in remote and rural locations, the Postal Service is a lifeline with direct access to needed goods like medicine. Seniors and other vulnerable populations are especially sensitive to cost, and packages via the Postal Service bring medicine straight to their mailboxes at an affordable price.   USPS Must Continue to Deliver Mail & Packages Together, 6 Days a Week For more than a century, Pitney Bowes has been helping small businesses craft solutions for delivering mail and packages to their customers. Leigh Walton reflected on how Pitney Bowes’ experience with both letter mailers and package shippers boosts their understanding of the incredible capabilities of the Postal Service’s 6-day-a-week integrated delivery network. The Postal Service’s package business is growing and profitable, not only because of the substantial increase in online e-commerce but also because the Postal Service enjoys economies of scope between its letter and package delivery services.   Because the Postal Service is delivering both mail and packages together as part of an integrated delivery network, it can realize cost efficiencies that allow it to provide both services more affordably. As Congress intended, the Postal Service passes on those efficiencies to American businesses and consumers in the form of lower prices or prices competitive with private carriers. And the profits the Postal Service is making on its package business help defray the costs of sustaining a nationwide delivery network.   Postal Package Delivery Is Good for Americans, Good for Businesses, and Good for the American Economy Amazon considers USPS one of its first and oldest business partners. In fact, today nearly 2 million small or medium-sized businesses are selling on Amazon’s marketplace, according to John Rosato. These small e-commerce businesses have a variety of choices for how to deliver goods to customers, including the reliable and affordable services provided by the  Postal Service.   Just as the Postal Service is important for package delivery, package delivery is important to the Postal Service. In 2022, package delivery, provided $12.5 billion in profit for the USPS, helping the agency preserve . its statutory mission to provide trusted and affordable service to every address in the nation.  The continued growth of the Postal Service’s package delivery businesses is good for Americans, good for American companies, and good for the American economy.   Benefits of the Postal Service Reform Act of 2022 Ensures delivery of mail and packages together 6 days a week ●      Ensures American consumers and businesses benefit from the economies of scale and scope of the Postal Service’s integrated nationwide delivery network ●      Ensures affordable access and reliable service ●      Confirms USPS as part of the national critical economic infrastructure   Rationalizes retiree health benefit funding obligations   Restricts non-postal & increases transparency  ●      Ensures USPS focuses on its core business of delivering mail and packages ●      Permits USPS provision of governmental services ●      Increases transparency by requiring USPS to report on service performance   Keeps America united ●      Ensures the nation is bound together through the Universal Service Obligation ●      Individuals and businesses in rural states have the same access and service as those in urban areas. The Package Coalition is an alliance of America’s top retail, e-commerce, and logistics companies committed to preserving reliable and affordable postal package delivery services. The Postal Service delivers packages directly to the doorstep of more than 161 million delivery addresses across the country, contributing trillions of dollars to the US economy and supporting millions of jobs and small and medium-sized businesses. Learn more.