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. |
