It is difficult to imagine life without the postal service, but there are so many signs on the horizon signaling its demise that it is difficult to imagine a future that includes the lumbering, blue-uniformed dinosaur. Also key to the postal service's future will be its ability to sell customers on the many needed changes. That has not been easy in the past as automation and other changes aimed at increasing productivity have fallen short of expectations and lowered customer satisfaction.
Productivity is, in fact, a major concern for the postal service.
In 30 years, it has been able to boost its productivity by only 9.1 percent, according to some experts. The inability to make maximum use of new technologies is one reason that productivity gains have been sluggish. It's hard not to conclude that personnel and management issues also contirbute to the low productivity gains. Whatever the case, if the postal service is unable to get a grasp on productivity issues, it will miss out on future growth opportunities. Slowly but surely its customer base will migrate to other delivery options that are certain to surface and fill the void.