Consumers benefit from USPS efforts

A recent op-ed column by Don Soifer, executive director of the U.S. Consumer Postal Council, not only contained factual errors, but showed not attempt to provide a balanced look at the U.S. Postal Service.

The U.S. Consumer Postal Council is affiliated with the Lexington Institute, whose mission is to limit the role of government in commerce. As one might expect, these groups believe only profit-making companies have the best interests of consumers at heart. Ergo, the USPS, an independent establishment of the government, doesn't care about consumers and is an inefficient monopoly.

Soifer ignores the facts. The reality is that since the USPS was created in 1971, it has grown to service a burgeoning U.S. economy. Today, it serves every consumer by providing delivery service to everyone, everywhere and around the world without reliance on government subsidy. Our work force of 700,000 delivers 206 billion mail pieces to 143 million addresses. We do it through the sale of products and services that generate $70 million in revenue.

Let's look at some of Soifer's errors.

He says the USPS has experienced flat productivity. Wrong. For five years in a row -- on our way to a sixth -- the USPS productivity has increased.

He says "murky accounting practices ... make it impossible to tell whether the Postal Service is unfairly increasing prices on Aunt Minnie to give discounts to big mailers." Wrong again. USPS rates are reviewed by an independent review agency, the Postal Rate Commission. Each class of mail, such as express mail, priority mail, first-class and standard mail must pay its own way.

Soifer also says consumers have no choice. He is wrong again. Consumers have had choices since the invention of the telegraph (fax, e-mail, text messaging). That is why the USPS has to remain productive as it competes for business in a dynamic marketplace.

From the consumer perspective, I think the most important point is that the Postal Service has not increased its prices since 2002, more than three years of rate stability. During that time, expenses have been held in check -- in fact, they've gone down -- and we closed the books on fiscal 2003 and 12004 comfortably in the black.

Overall, mail volume is up and long-term debt, which a few short years ago stood at $11.3 billion has been virtually eliminated. We have reduced career staffing from its peak in 1999 to pre-1985 levels without layoffs.

I am pleased to learn that Soifer sees what he calls a "silver lining" in the fact that the USPS, under the direction of Postmaster General John E. Potter and the guidance of the Postal Service governors, has worked wonders in transforming the Postal Service. The Government Accountability Office reported about this success.

The GAO noted that several of the Postal Service's "key achievements" included "debt reduction of $9.3 billion, net income of $7 billion, productivity gains of 4.2 percent, the elimination of accumulated deficits and reductions of about 45,000 career employees."

In short, the silver lining is all in a day's work for us.

We have become more agile, providing easy access to services and products. We created the Internet-based Click-N-Ship to allow easy access online. We have installed automated postal centers in heavily traversed areas to allow customers 24-hour, seven-day-a-week self-service.

Lastly, our on-time delivery scores, as tracked independently by IBM Consulting Services, stand at 96 percent nationwide. The customer satisfaction index, as measured by the Gallup organization, is at 93 percent nationwide.

I believe we pass the test with consumers, even if those wanting to privatize government services refuse to accept the facts as they are.

Azeezaly S. Jaffer is vice president of public affairs and communications for the U.S. Postal Service in Washington, D.C.