The Postal Service: A Monopoly

I think that The Postal Service is not considerate a monopoly because you still have to pay for shipping even though The Postal Service. However, some companies have to take the shipping handling to the next level by offering a free of charge shipping service. As customers, we all like to have a free shipping offer because we already spent our money buying their products. The difference from USPS from Fed Ex and UPS is that the USPS fees are generally lower than Fed Ex and UPS. However, the competitive advantage for Fed Ex and UPS from USPS is that their shipment process is quicker than the USPS and consumers want to have their products as soon as they made the purchases. USPS has come with a strategy to have a standard shipping price that

consists in whatever fit in a particular box, the charge will be the same, but that only applies in the U.S. (Thomas, & Maurice, 2010).

In regards to technology, I believe that use of the E-Mail had an adverse impact for The Postal Service because most of the letters that The Postal Service delivers are now sent through e-mail which reduces the number of employees needed to deliver mail. There have been cases in which the USPS had to reduce their man hours per unit because was not getting enough mails to deliver. Therefore, as the technology improves, the demand curve shifts to the left because the need for regular mail is reduced by the use of technology such as Smartphone, laptops, and tablets. The equilibrium price would be determined by the number of days options in which consumers would receive their product. For instance, if the fee for delivering merchandise in 2 business days is $6 for Fed Ex and UPS, then the consumers would be willing to pay The Postal Service $6 if they can deliver their merchandise in two business days (Thomas, & Maurice, 2010). The Postal Services has suffered recently because their revenues are not the same although their cost of operations remains the same and part of that has to do with the electronic devices (Carbaugh, & Tenerelli, 2011).