The cash-strapped United States Postal Service has been pushing to limit Saturday mail to parcels, which would eliminate the jobs of many rural carriers and arguably hurt rural areas. And today it is asking its Board of Governors to approve an emergency rate increase. But at the same time, USPS is paying futurist Faith Popcorn $1.6 million to see what the future holds for the business, Sean Reilly reports for the Federal Times.
The service is paying Popcorn's BrainReserve $566,000 "to devise strategies both to slow the 'predictable decline' in stamp use and to 'reinvent and re-imagine' stamp
relevance to promote growth," Reilly reports. "While sales of the adhesive-backed paper
squares and rectangles have been steadily waning as Americans turn to
the Internet to pay bills and stay in touch, they still garner $8
billion annually for the Postal Service, the company says."
USPS spokeswoman Toni DeLancey told Reilly that the stamp project is one of five "task orders" that BrainReserve has so far received. Another project "is an almost $1.1 million endeavor to explore the possibility of using letter carriers to provide paid home visitation services to the elderly and ill," Reilly writes. "Those services could include a daily personal visit and regular checks to make sure that customers are using medical devices or taking prescribed medications, according to the company statement of work for that task order." Popcorn is billing the Postal Service at an hourly rate of $836. Labor fees for other staff involved in the project range from $91 to $334 per hour. (Read more) To view the task orders click here.
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| Faith Popcorn |
USPS spokeswoman Toni DeLancey told Reilly that the stamp project is one of five "task orders" that BrainReserve has so far received. Another project "is an almost $1.1 million endeavor to explore the possibility of using letter carriers to provide paid home visitation services to the elderly and ill," Reilly writes. "Those services could include a daily personal visit and regular checks to make sure that customers are using medical devices or taking prescribed medications, according to the company statement of work for that task order." Popcorn is billing the Postal Service at an hourly rate of $836. Labor fees for other staff involved in the project range from $91 to $334 per hour. (Read more) To view the task orders click here.
Talk about a waste of money.No wonder the Postal Service is sinking faster than a rock.
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