The USPS announces strategic realignments

By: Mark Haslan

With the digital delivery of information quickly becoming the standard, conventional snail mail has been given an ultimatum – reform or be phased out. As such, the United States Postal Service announced earlier this week that it would be realigning two of its business groups within the mailing and shipping services organization.

As a part of the realignment, the USPS will be merging its expedited shipping and ground shipping groups into a single service unit. The new group will be led by Gary Reblin, the former vice president of the expedited shipping department. Reblin will be in charge of making improvements to customer service as well as shipping products and services.

The USPS is also working on developing better customer information platforms. The new product visibility and operational performance group will tackle that issue by developing better scanning and product services. Jim Cochrane, the former vice president of ground shipping, will lead the new product visibility and operational performance group.

"Gary and Jim have solid track records in building our shipping services business," said John Potter, the postmaster general of the USPS. "Their proven leadership is critical to continued growth in our shipping business and the implementation of technology-driven solutions that match the needs of a rapidly evolving mailing industry."

The new internal restructuring will allow the company to offer more competitive packaging products to the end consumer. Staffing for the new groups is being filled by personnel from the older groups, with no new employees expected to be hired.

The reorganization is a part of the USPS’ greater initiative to regain financial stability. For the past few decades, the USPS hasn’t changed its policies too dramatically, but with people turning toward digital messaging, the organization has been struggling. Over the past decade, mail volumes have dropped off tremendously and in 2008, the economic recession did further damage to the company as cash-strapped advertisers cut back on marketing materials.

Despite the USPS’ struggle to remain profitable, small business owners have still been seeing success with direct mail marketing campaigns. A recent article from DMNews stresses the importance of relevancy in a direct mail campaign. By delivering the right message to the appropriate consumer at the opportune times in nine words time, business owners can ensure that their brochure is read by the intended target.