How to Read
Our Annual Report
2000 Highlights
Letter from
the Postmaster General/CEO
2000 Year
in Review
Delivering
the Future
The Governors
of the Postal Service
Audit Committee
Financial
Section
How to Read
Our Financial Statements
Quick
Find index
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2000 Annual Report
- page 14 of 70
The Postal Service remains a key element of the
nation’s complex communications network. In many ways, the Postal
Service and its customers are experiencing the best of times. Service
remains at an all-time high. Postage rates are among the lowest
in the world. The Postal Service brand offers unparalleled reach
and value, providing mailers with a unique gateway to the household.
But the Postal Service is no different from any other business in
America. Technology is changing everything—and faster than anyone
expected. And we must change along with it to protect the values
that support our brand—tradition, trust, reliability, scope and
affordability.
The simple fact is that we are at a crossroads. Keeping the mail
relevant in the future will require new ideas and new business models.
Without them, the best of times can easily become the worst of times—both
for the Postal Service and for the mailing community, whose success
is so closely tied to our own. Our approach to future success is
based on meeting three critical challenges: affordability, mail
industry growth, and reform in our regulatory environment.
Affordability
We have to continue to transform the Postal Service into the supplier
of choice for high-quality, low-cost products and services. We have
to be affordable. We have to bring our internal cost structure down
and restrain prices. That is the only way we will survive if, as
projections suggest, key segments of our letter mail volume migrate
to electronic messaging.
This is not just a Postal Service issue. It is not just about the
price of postage. It is about the combined cost of conceiving, producing,
preparing, collecting and delivering a single piece of mail. When
the total investment in that moment can cost more than $1 for each
piece of mail, we have to be concerned about helping our customers
limit their transaction costs.
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