Delivery, Sales 'Pushing the Limits'

Delivery Operations Vice President Ed Phelan and Sales Vice President Cliff Rucker address attendees at the National Postal Forum this week.

USPS is taking new approaches to delivery to better serve business customers, postal executives said this week.

The organization is continuing to test new kinds of deliveries, such as groceries and bottled water. These tests have sparked significant operational changes, including adopting non-traditional delivery times and flexible carrier scheduling.

“We are evolving by pushing the limits of what we do now,” said Delivery Operations Vice President Ed Phelan. “We’re innovating in ways that seemed like a pipe dream just a few 
years ago.”

Phelan and Sales Vice President Cliff Rucker discussed the changes at the National Postal Forum, where they emphasized the Postal Service’s willingness use operational capabilities to meet the changing needs of business customers.

“We’re committed to working with our customers to become an extension of their brand,” said Rucker.

One area where USPS sees potential: Delivering products for retailers that ship merchandise from stores instead of warehouses. The Postal Service’s ship-from-store business has grown more than 30 percent during the past year.

Phelan and Rucker said USPS also wants to continue leveraging recent investments in technology, including Mobile Delivery Devices, which help provide businesses with up-to-the-minute tracking data they can pass along to their customers.