The U.S. Postal Service (USPS)
currently offers 12 nonpostal services (i.e., services not directly related to
mail delivery) that were grandfathered by the Postal Regulatory Commission
(PRC) after enactment of the Postal Accountability and Enhancement Act (PAEA).
These services--which include Passport Photo Services, the sale of advertising
to support change-of-address processing, and others--generated a net income of
$141 million in 2011. Since enactment of PAEA, USPS has received approval from
PRC to offer eight experimental postal products, which are products that differ
significantly from other offered products, such as the sale of gift cards
loaded with a specified sum of money. Lastly, USPS performs at least four
discretionary services (i.e., services it chooses, rather than is required, to
perform) for other federal agencies, such as accepting passport applications
for the State Department.
USPS is currently pursuing 55
new initiatives that it identified based on outreach to postal stakeholders.
USPS chose to pursue these initiatives because of their potential to increase
revenue and add value to the mail, among other reasons. USPS considered but decided not to pursue 25 other stakeholder-identified initiatives, primarily because of financial reasons. Twelve initiatives were abandoned because USPS determined they were not likely to be profitable or the initial investment was too high.
