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May 29, 2002 |
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Data Reveal 'Priority Mail' By RICK BROOKS
Add this to your list of government oxymorons: Priority Mail. Priority Mail has long billed itself as the low-cost, no-frills alternative to UPS and FedEx. But new data show that the millions of Americans who pay extra to send last-minute bills and summer-camp cookies aren't getting their money's worth. The latest post office statistics show that the typical Priority Mail shipment now takes more than half a day longer to reach its destination than first-class deliveries that cost as little as 34 cents. That compares to $3.50 for the cheapest Priority Mail shipment. And on June 30, the post office is set to raise prices for the delivery service by an average of 13.5%, depending on weight and distance. That comes on top of a double-digit increase last year. The delivery performance lags in part because a greater portion of first-class mail is local, and thus delivered more quickly. But Priority Mail is also less reliable. One-third of Priority Mail items intended for delivery within three days didn't hit that target in the fiscal year ended Sept. 30, compared with a 19% miss rate for first-class mail. And it's getting worse. Priority Mail has slowed dramatically since last summer, with the average piece taking about 13 hours longer between drop-off and delivery. The average piece now takes 2.7 days to arrive, according to figures filed this month with the Postal Rate Commission. The U.S. Postal Service says the rate increases are necessary to offset the recession's toll and the cost of responding to the anthrax attacks. (The post office expects a deficit of about $1.5 billion in the current fiscal year.) Postal officials blame the service slowdown largely on new security restrictions that require most cargo carried on passenger planes to be screened for explosives. That has forced some Priority Mail shipments off of planes and onto slower-moving trucks. Jim Cochrane, the Postal Service's manager of package services, says service quality has rebounded in the past several weeks to its highest level in about two years, but he wouldn't disclose any delivery statistics. Still, Mr. Cochrane concedes that it "might not make sense" to spend extra on Priority Mail for shipments going less than about 600 miles. That's because shorter-distance Priority Mail shipments often move only by truck, just like first-class mail. To sift through the options, Shelley Dreifuss, director of a federal office charged with representing the public in postage-rate proceedings, suggests comparing prices and estimated delivery times for Priority Mail and first-class mail using the calculator at http://postcalc.usps.gov/1. It shows it should take two days for both Priority Mail and first-class mail to go from Chicago to Washington. Unfortunately, you can't tell if the specific ZIP Code you're mailing to lags in on-time performance because the Postal Service doesn't disclose such statistics. The pennies you pinch can add up. After next month's Priority Mail rate increase and a three-cent jump in the price of a 34-cent stamp, the potential savings from choosing first-class mail over Priority Mail will climb to $3.48 from the current $3.16. Priority Mail does have some appealing features. It doesn't charge extra for Saturday delivery, wrong addresses or delivery to residential or rural addresses, as its private-sector rivals often do. And it's often still much cheaper than delivery services offered by post-office rivals. Still, a recent test by The Wall Street Journal shows Priority Mail has a long way to go to live up to its billing as the best choice "if getting your package there quickly at a great value is your top priority." In a head-to-head race, about half the first-class letters mailed from Atlanta to seven cities across the country arrived sooner than or on the same day as Priority Mail packages mailed at the same time. First-class postage cost between 34 cents and $1.95 an item, compared with $3.50 for Priority Mail. Priority Mail is big business. The post office handled 1.12 billion pieces of Priority Mail in the fiscal year ended Sept. 30, generating nearly $5 billion in revenue, about 7% of the post office's total. But it has started to lose packages as steady rate increases chip away at its bargain-basement status. Some consumers are beginning to skip Priority Mail altogether. Greg Hurwitt mails four or five packages of compact disks a week to other collectors of recordings made at concerts by bands like the Grateful Dead and Phish. Instead of spending $3.50 to ship a bubble-wrapped package of three CDs using Priority Mail, he sends it by first-class mail for only 80 cents. "Priority Mail is a waste," says the 42-year-old chemical engineer. "First-class makes a lot more sense." Write to Rick Brooks at rick.brooks@wsj.com2
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![[Running Late]](http://www.wsj.com/public/resources/images/pjpriority05282002224135.gif)