NumBytes 57: PO'd

Rain, sleet, and snow may not stop the US mail, but electron storms might. The US Post Office lost $3 billion in the fiscal third quarter as mail volume continued to drop -- off about 25% since 2006 -- and costs continue to rise. Give management credit, it floated a number of money-saving schemes, including laying off 100,000 workers, closing 2500 post offices, and eliminating Saturday delivery. If nothing changes, the US Post Office could lose up to a quarter trillion dollars by 2020...assuming it doesn't go belly up in the process.

Sure Fed Ex and UPS grabbed package delivery market share, but blame the move to e-mail as chief revenue squasher. The Post Office delivers about 48 billion bills, statements, offers, and other such paper mail each year and most of them are continuing the migration to electronic form. In 2010, for the first time, more households reported paying bills online than by check.

The bills still come in the mail, but companies are starting up digital mail services to grab a piece of that electronic bill sending to secure e-mail boxes. Pitney Bowes' Volly, Zumbox's Zumbox, Hearst's Manilla, and Bezos Expeditions' Doxo are all circling while the USPS asserts it is not dead yet and wants to go for a walk. A typical bill costs a company anywhere from 70¢ to $1 to deliver, while Zumbox claims to charge as little as 20 cents per bill. Bill recipients are not charged, just the companies sending the bill.

Of course, the more companies put things online, the greater the chance for a spamfest or hacker intrusion. In fact, given past performance of electronic mail, you can bet on both despite promises of security and opt-out clicks.

The e-storm seems unstoppable. The era of paper correspondence seems all too stoppable.