I was forced to make a trip to the Post Office today to send a package. I’ve found that my trips there provide for a number of interesting observations.

The first strange things about the American postal system is that for a relatively decentralized structure, it can be a really pain finding a Post Office when you need one. I headed to the facility for my ZIP code, which I’ve frequented often in the last year. They have been pretty reliable for all my mailing needs in the past. Today, they were quite a bit lacking.

I needed to mail something for which I had no package. I was relying on my ability to use one of the USPS’s priority mail envelopes. Here’s something else that strikes me as strange. The USPS gives away for free a large amount of packing material. Things like envelopes and mailers for Priority and Express shipping are free for the taking. You can even get labels for free too. But at the same time, they are SELLING similar packing materials. Boxes and packing material that you could get at a major discount at Walmart or OfficeMax is being sold by the USPS right next to their free stuff. This makes no sense to me. So I arrive planning on packing my materials into a Priority Mail envelop and sending it right off. However, this location was conveniently OUT of the specific size of mailer that I needed. I asked the less-than-helpful clerk if they had any more. She said they did not.

I suppose I could have bought one of their mailers, but why pay for something that I should easily be able to get for free? I figure that it’s no big deal. I’ll just head over to a USPS facility in a neighboring community and partake in their free packing materials. The problem is that finding a Post Office when you need one is next to impossible. You’d think that a government service like the U.S. Mail would do a better job advertising its locations. I finally found another post office that was well-stocked with shipping materials.

One thing I noticed a while back that continues to boggle my mind was the prescence of those free AOL CDs in the Post Office. Why, in the name of all that is right and good in the world, would the USPS give its competition free shelf space in its stores? Do they not realize that e-mail and the Internet have taken away a large portion of their business? In fact, many e-commerce sites have partnerships with UPS and FedEX, even further driving away business from the Post Office. If anything, the USPS should be partnering only with those online businesses that promote the use of the USPS. I’d even go so far as to install kiosks in Post Offices with access to select websites that ONLY allow you to ship via U.S. Mail. But more on that later …

As I was standing in line to ship my package, I was again reminded of how foolish the entire shipping process is with the USPS. I stood in line with about 30 other people for about 20 minutes waiting to speak to a clerk. The problem is that each of us had a different need — some people were sending things, others were picking up mail, some were purchasing postage, etc. But we all had to wait in the same line. Not only is this inefficient, but it’s a waste of human resources. The USPS should take a lesson from banks, who have significantly reduced the need for tellers by installing ATMs. The consequence is that fewer tellers are able to help those customers with very specific needs more efficiently.

The USPS should do the same thing. Imagine being able to walk into the Post Office with your package and use a self-serve machine to ship it. You could walk up, place your package on a scale, use a touch-screen kiosk to select the rate at which you wish ship your pakcage, and pay with a credit card. It would take a fraction of the time, reduce the length of the lines, and make the whole experience much more pleasant.

The problem seems to be the Post Office’s aversion to technology and the general disdane it has for consumers. Rather than making the system easier to use, like UPS and FedEx try to do, the USPS makes it harder. You MUST talk to a clerk, face-to-face, to get just about anything accomplished. That means you have to wait in line, and that also means more people have to hired to meet the needs of consumers. This could all be achieved much efficiently.