Solomon Lo

Mrs. Hillesland

AP English Language

21 February 2018

The Need To Adapt To Technology

According to an online article published by the Washington Post Company, “The Postal

Service experienced a 13 percent drop in mail volume last fiscal year, more than double any

previous decline, and lost $3.8 billion. The projections anticipate steeper drops in mail volume

and revenue over the next 10 years.” (O’Keefe) These staggering losses are caused by the advent

of Internet communication, where services such as Google’s Gmail and Microsoft’s Outlook

have provided Americans with the ability to instantly communicate to anyone in the world for

free. Despite the fact that we now live in the Information Age, the USPS has refused to adapt to

today’s technology, instead relying on its archaic business model of slowly delivering

hand-written letters that cost up to $0.50 and take two days to arrive, causing them to lose

money. While the rest of the world has advanced, the USPS has remained the same, causing its

usability and profitability to dwindle. Thus, the USPS needs to revolutionize its services by

leveraging today’s technology as a strength instead of fighting it in order to provide a wider

range of services in order to make sure it remains relevant and profitable in today’s society.

One way in which the USPS can incorporate technology into itself is to offer broadband

as a service in addition to its current postal delivery service. By venturing into Internet services,

the USPS can enter a market which previously took away revenue from them, increasing their

own profitability. According to an online article published by Newsweek, this would allow the
USPS to enhance its reputation as a communications-delivery service, allowing them to tap into

the demand that’s created by the huge role the Internet plays in everyone’s lives(Stone). In doing

so, the USPS can also expand on its mission to provide freedom and equality in terms of

communications for all Americans. Because the USPS was originally founded in order to

guarantee that all Americans could communicate by mail, even if they lived in a remote area. By

providing broadband internet to everyone, the USPS could expand on their original mission by

giving these same people access to online communication, even if they lived in an area that only

had slow and expensive dial-up internet.

Additionally, the USPS could also use automation in order to reduce costs and increase

efficiency. Currently, an online article published by Newsweek, “ Paying high wages with

inflated job security isn’t a competitive strategy.”(Stone) The company’s current expensive

strategy for employment is simply impractical, especially with the reduced demand for the postal

service as caused by the advent of e-mail. Instead, by using machines to process mail instead of

humans, the USPS could reduce the cost it takes to deliver mail, which would reduce costs and

increase profitability since machines eliminate the need to pay high wages. Additionally,

computers that are used in automation are also much faster at processing mail, which could

reduce delivery times for USPS and make its service more desirable.

The USPS needs to implement technology into its services in order to stay profitable and

relevant in today’s society and technology. By providing broadband access to all Americans and

using automation in its postal service, the USPS can continue to stand as an icon of freedom and

equality in the United States by continuing to guarantee access to mailed communications as well

as maintaining its profitability.