U.S. Postal Service

Recently stakeholders have expressed an interest in understanding how other major posts’ prices are regulated and how posts manage the relationship between price regulation, profitability, and service. The OIG worked with WIK-Consult to provide research on how postal prices are regulated in five...

The OIG teamed with Temple University to examine the neurological response to sequenced ads. Physical ads, shown twice, led to better memory and higher subjective value than any other tested sequence. Single-media advertising sequences (physical-physical and digital-digital) had better results in...

The OIG worked with an expert in postal costing and economics to analyze product cost changes in four traditional USPS products: First-Class Mail, Standard Mail, Periodicals, and Package Services. The analysis compares costs from fiscal year (FY) 2006 to FY 2015. Four external factors drove product...

Extraterritorial Offices of Exchange (ETOEs) are businesses operated by – or in connection with – foreign postal operators. ETOEs perform a wide range of postal functions that can vary by country, but generally include consolidating, documenting, and transporting outbound international mail. Since...

While continuing to fall, the overall rate of volume decline for letter mail has slowed substantially in recent years. Business-to-consumer mail like First-Class Mail Presort and Marketing Mail represents a growing portion of total mail volume – over 78 percent in 2015. There is substantial...

The OIG identifies eight innovation opportunities for the parcel box, providing use cases and an explanation of how the Postal Service has used the innovation in the past. The U.S. Postal Service could provide incentives to encourage shippers to try parcel innovations. These incentives could also...

After years of dwindling mail and booming e-commerce parcels volume, it is easy to overlook the mail business’ actual strategic relevance and financial sustainability. The OIG and WIK-Consult found that mail still matters. In nearly all the posts analyzed it has remained a remarkably resilient and...

The parcel market has evolved rapidly over time, significantly altering the relationship among the players. The parcel market used to be a zero-sum game where growth in parcel delivery by one entity meant a reduction in parcel delivery by competing firms. Professor Panzar’s thereotical model shows...

Understanding, attracting, and retaining customers is necessary for the Postal Service to thrive in an increasingly competitive marketplace. The OIG researched four postal customer satisfaction surveys and found that measuring customer satisfaction and loyalty provide a robust picture of brand...

A large majority of Americans say they believe self-driving cars will be used for delivery and transportation within the next 10 years, but they are split over whether they like the idea — many are concerned about the concept’s safety. The more people know about self-driving vehicles, the more they...