The U.S. Postal Service takes control of its financial supply chain and is recognized for outstanding financial management
Washington — October 29, 2004 — The U.S. Postal Service announced today that it has received the Alexander Hamilton Bronze Award for excellence in cash management from Treasury & Risk Management magazine.
"We are honored to be recognized with such a prestigious award for our people's accomplishments," said Richard Strasser, chief financial officer and executive vice president. "We are very proud of the innovations for which they are being recognized. These programs illustrate our commitment to implementing the best practices in financial management."
The Postal Service received the honor for re-engineering its lockbox process and introducing PostageNow. PostageNow is a of suite of electronic payment options that allow customers to initiate and authorize secure funds transfers for postage meter resetting from their personal or corporate bank accounts directly to the Postal Service bank account. Historically, the Postal Service relied mostly on the lockbox process through which the Postal Service lockbox bank collected and processed payments from postal meter customers.
The Postal Service created PostageNow and re-engineered the lockbox process to eliminate paper, decrease manual exception processing and reduce costs involving the use of postage meters provided by Pitney Bowes Inc., Neopost Inc., Francotyp-Postalia & Co., and Hasler Inc. Through this critical payment channel, the Postal Service receives $19 billion in payments from 1.6 million customers annually. These initiatives have reduced lockbox expenses on a per dollar basis by more than 50 percent, which has made the lockbox one of the Postal Service's most efficient payment channels. The initiatives have also increased ease of use for customers, according to Robert Pedersen, vice president, treasurer.
"This is one of the activities we have undertaken as part of the Postal Service's Transformation Plan to ensure that it is as easy as possible for our customers to do business with us," Pedersen said. "PostageNow provides our customers with a fast, easy and efficient way to pay the Postal Service for meter postage."
The Alexander Hamilton Awards are presented each year by Treasury & Risk Management magazine for excellence in treasury management. Submissions are judged by a panel of financial experts who evaluate the entries on both quantitative and qualitative measurements.
The U.S. Postal Service, created in 1775, is an independent federal agency that visits 142 million homes and businesses every day and is the only service provider delivering to every address in the nation.
The Postal Service receives no taxpayer dollars for routine operations, but derives its operating revenues solely from the sale of postage, products and services. With annual revenues of more than $68.9 billion, it is the world's leading provider of mailing and delivery services. The U.S. Postal Service delivers more than 46 percent of the world's mail volume — some 202 billion letters, advertisements, periodicals and packages a year — and serves seven million customers each day at its 40,000 retail locations nationwide.
