Postal Service Advantages And Disadvantages

Mail had made its first official appearance in the early 1600s, where it was introduced within the American colonies. It began to revolutionize the way human beings would communication in the future, making it much more accessible to relay messages to their family and peers. The Mailing service expanded its power throughout the country, thus creating gateways for humans to connect and reach their peers. The largest mailing company, known as the United States Postal Service, took over the mailing industry and became the largest and most powerful mailing company in America. In recent years however, the United States Postal Services began to fall economically due to the fact that it was a monopoly. Being a Monopoly meant they were untouchable;

An example of this is its exemption from all taxes and laws that other companies are forced to take on. The Postal Service pays no corporate income tax, state or local property tax, business or professional licensing tax and no business franchise fees (Edwards para 6,7). The pressure of paying taxes did not apply to the USPS, causing them to have a great advantage over private companies. Another advantage of the USPS is that it is also able to borrow from the U.S. Treasury at rates below-market, and it is not required to pay any dividends to shareholders (Edwards para 5). They are able to receive huge discounts which privatized companies have no availability to, widening the gap of power between them. They are also exempted from sharing a portion of their earning to any shareholders that may be taking earnings from other companies. The USPS is exempt from customs, zoning, and tax laws which its private competitors must abide by. The USPS also maintains exclusive rights to deliver first-class mail. Also, through laws known as Private Express Statutes, no private entity is allowed to deliver a package or envelope for less than $3 or twice the cost of a first-class letter (Feulner para 5). No private company would be able to lower costs of their letters if they were trying to rival the USPS. The Postal Service is able to avoid any oversight of government eyes

Many countries who struggled due to monopolization had postal reforms and became private companies. In an article written by Roger Yu, he states, “Currently, the Postal Service can 't raises stamp prices of traditional mail and marketing mail -- packages don 't apply here -- beyond the rate of inflation. The cap is "fundamentally unsuited" to the current business environment given competitive challenges”. If the company decided to privatize, they would be able to set their own prices on stamps, but the “cap” is denying them the ability to raise their prices above inflation. The Netherlands partly privatized its national postal company in 1994. Majority control shifted to the private sector in 1995, and the company later became part of a global delivery company known as TNT. Netherlands opened postal markets to competition in 2009 (Edwards para 12). New Zealand cut costs at new Zealand Post in the 1980s, and put the company into corporate forn. The country repealed its postal monopoly in a series of laws during the 1980s and 1990s (Edwards para 13). Privatization has proven to be a very effective solution to many companies within other countries who were having a harsh time dealing with financial setbacks. Germany 's Deutsche Post, who runs the a group known as DHL, is now the world 's largest logistics group (Yang para 8). They had first privatized in 2000, and ever since then they have been flourishing. The USPS