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2000 Annual Report
- page 17 of 70
Regulatory Reform:
An Absolute Requirement
The ability of the Postal Service to change and
continue to meet customer needs is not a question of will. We are
controlling costs, improving existing products and services and
developing new ones. What we cannot control is a regulatory model
that was created in a far different competitive environment.
Regulation constrains us from fully realizing our potential to operate
in a businesslike manner. Our rate-making process supports a rigid
pricing system that, while cost based, does not allow us to fully
leverage our assets by adjusting pricing to meet market conditions.
Nearly five years of debate about postal reform—in the Congress,
in the Postal Service and in the mailing community—has generated
a number of thoughtful but, ultimately, unsuccessful reform bills.
Unfortunately, we still lack the flexibility we need for long-term
success in today’s competitive environment.
We continue to seek commercial freedoms, including market-based
pricing, flexibility in introducing new products, the ability to
generate income for investment and a labor-management model that
brings the voice of our customers to wage decisions that, in affecting
hundreds of millions of dollars in labor costs, directly affect
the prices they pay.
The lines between public and private providers of postal products
and services are blurring. We must be able to compete fairly and
to act in concert with the needs of our customers.
Other posts are already realizing the potential of commercial freedoms,
with their governments allowing them to aggressively come to terms
with the new business environment. They are free to invest, able
to enter into forward-looking pacts with labor, and encouraged to
seek partnerships, alliances, and new markets, including expansion
into the United States.
The need for regulatory reform grows stronger with each passing
day. We will continue our efforts to achieve a new regulatory model
that, in helping the Postal Service to succeed, helps our customers
as well.
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Nearly five years of debate about postal reform—in the Congress, in the Postal Service and in the mailing
community—has generated a number of thoughtful but, ultimately,
unsuccessful reform bills.
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