The Wall Street Journal reports that the US Postal Service is reporting the first drop in package volume in nine years as competitors deliver more packages themselves, rather than handing them off to the USPS for the “last mile”.
The Postal Service said it delivered 3.2% fewer packages for the quarter ended June 30. Revenue from packages rose 4.8%, however, from a combination of higher prices and growth among package options like Priority Mail and First-Class Packages. Those options typically provide more revenue than the service that the delivery companies are pulling out, because they traverse the entire postal network instead of just the final stretch of a package’s trip to your doorstep.
The Postal Service will likely lose more packages in coming months. FedEx has said it intends to shift all of the 2 million daily packages it passes on to the Postal Service for “last-mile delivery” into its Ground network next year.
Source: Postal Service Reports First Drop in Packages in Nearly a Decade – WSJ