Postal Service can learn from the waste Industry

Agency should embrace technology to reduce footprint, create jobs

By: Tony Nocito, ABCOV® Conversion Systems, LLC

My friend, John Crudele, who writes three plus columns a week for the New York Post on economic issues and one on personal financial advice, has written several articles concerning the Post Office’s financial debacle.

In John’s last article he addresses the massive $5.2 billion loss the Postal Service has suffered in the last three months.  In previous articles and in the last article as well, he addresses the fact that stamp forgery is one of the issues that have caused this loss.

I like John. He’s got a unique sense of humor (read his column), we play golf, have dinner and have lunch several times a year. But as much as I agree with John, over 99% of what he writes and predicts is true, my personal opinion is that stamp forgery may be an issue, but only a small issue compared to the explosion in electronic technology.

John says that if a real businessperson took over the Post Office they won’t allow their stamps to be forged.

A real businessperson wouldn’t walk into a business that is colossal, out of control and losing $20 billion plus a year. They would let the taxpayer continue to pay. But if a businessperson did run the Postal Service, there would be immediate and drastic cut backs in every sector. Then they would look for or have developed new technologies that eliminate all physical mail, except packages, and maybe, Certified Mail.

Now think about the positive effect this mail technology would have on our environment: no junk mail; a lot less motor vehicles on the road; a lot less garbage to dispose; a lot less paper to recycle; a lot less carbon emissions; and a lot less traffic. GREEN AS HELL--- RIGHT!

Well you say, what about the people who work at the Postal Service?  They will be unemployed and our unemployment rate is too high now!

The answer: retrain the people who work for the Postal Service to use the new technology.

Just as the waste industry is retraining everyone who has garbage (that’s everyone) by restricting weekly pick-up to one garbage bag, and requiring recycling or, in some cases, if you don’t recycle, no garbage pick-up. The aforementioned is starting to become law in many states.

The waste industry is consistently reinventing and developing itself with new technologies to deal with the colossal ever growing problems of waste disposal and landfill space shortage.

Instead of technology eliminating jobs in the waste industry, it has created jobs.

Think about it Postal Service!