For Immediate Release
WASHINGTON, D. C. (February 11, 2000) - Continuing its efforts to improve customer convenience, the U. S. Postal Service later this month will expand a pilot program with Mail Boxes Etc. (MBE) that increases customer access to Postal Service products and services.
For more than a year, 250 MBE franchises in and around Boston, Chicago, Denver, Detroit, Honolulu, Houston, Los Angeles, New York, Orlando, San Francisco and Washington, DC, have offered a variety of postal products and services such as stamps, certified mail, insurance, Priority Mail and Express Mail.
Soon, some 700 additional MBE locations -- primarily in the Southeast and Southwest regions of the United States -- will begin to join the network of franchises already offering Postal Service products and services. This expansion will extend to major metropolitan area MBE franchises within the states of Georgia, Tennessee, Florida, Alabama, Mississippi, Oklahoma, Texas, and Arkansas.
"In terms of customer convenience and product access, the first phase of this program achieved its goal," according to John Kelly, president, Expedited/Package Services (E/PS), "but it has also helped us focus on areas of improvement and opportunity which we think can be realized through this expansion."
In particular, Kelly pointed to technological improvements which can be integrated into the deposit and payment aspects of the program, and one which would improve the stamp-distribution process. The USPS/MBE pilot program, initially launched in the fall of 1998, is expected to continue for up to three years. |