Industry Offers Advice To Postal Commission

The presidential commission on the United States Postal Service (USPS) has been hearing a lot from the printing and publishing community. President Bush set up the commission in December to examine and make recommendations to reform the government agency.

R.R. Donnelley, the nation's largest printer, with annual sales of $5.3 billion and a logistics unit that directs more than 20 billion print and mail pieces and 160 million packages annually, was among the companies providing written testimony to the commission. Donnelley recommended the following:

• Review upstream processing networks. The bulk mail centers, sectional center facilities, and destination delivery units or local post offices represent the source of many problems that plague the postal system, argued the printing company. It contended that, while the entire network should be reviewed, savings of from $6 billion to $8 billion might be realized just by realigning the upstream process.
• Eliminate work sharing inequities. Work-sharing discounts do not adequately reflect all of the variable costs these activities actually help the USPS avoid, said Donnelley officials.
• Maintain universal service. This is an obligation imposed on the USPS for economic and social reasons, noted the company.
• Redesign the rate-making process. Establish rates that are more predictable and market driven, and eliminate the "politics" of rate making, suggested the company.
• Enhance the technology infrastructure. The USPS, said the printer, should outsource its information systems and information technology to quickly achieve parity with private-sector competitors.
• Change the governing board. The role and makeup of this group should resemble that of the boards of publicly traded companies, advised the printing company.