Interesting USPS stats

Last month, Bloomberg Businessweek published an article about the plight of the US Postal Service that's received a significant amount of attention. It's an interesting piece that deserves a few minutes of your time, but I was dumbstruck by some of the statistics that the article cited, which helped me to appreciate the massive scope of what the USPS does. Consider these items:

• If it was a private entity, the USPS would be the 29th-largest company in the Fortune 500
• Average daily mail volume is 563 million pieces, 40% of total worldwide volume
• With 571,566 full-time employees, it is the nation's second-largest employer behind Wal-Mart
• Its 31,871 total post offices are greater than the number of domestic McDonald's, Starbucks, and Wal-Mart stores, combined

With total mail volume decreasing more than 20 percent between 2006 and 2010--and the service hemorrhaging money as a result--the USPS is of course approaching a significant crossroads. It may no longer be realistic to expect a flat-rate system to work, or to expect similar levels of service regardless of geography.

It may be tempting to blame some of USPS's problems on ever-soaring oil prices, but in reality the problems in the mail business are remarkably similar to the problems of many other bureaucratic organizations--80% of total USPS operating expenses go toward salaries and benefits, a staggering figure for just about any business. Like teachers' unions and other publicly-funded (or semi-publicly funded) institutions, it's likely that the USPS will be forced to take a hard look at their compensation strategies if they are going to remain competitive going forward.