essick@uiuccsb.UUCP (11/11/83)
#N:uiuccsb:9600004:000:1506 uiuccsb!essick Nov 10 11:16:00 1983 The local "Newscope" program (WCIA-3, Champaign, IL) had a segment on ECOM yesterday (9-nov). They talked about the $0.26 charge for ECOM letters, the $1.00+ cost the post office actually spends to deliver it, and the expected rate change on normal letters from $0.20 to $0.23. A few phrases and impressions that I remember from the segment: "... the bulk of normal mail is subsidizing ECOM ... The only users are the big companies who can get bulk rates ... bulk rates are 9 cents cheaper to the sender and are in line with USPS costs ... bulk rate mail is only 1-2 days slower than ECOM ... A number of congressman [didn't say who] are working on stopping ECOM ..." I turned on the tube in the middle of the presentation and obviously missed some parts. As I saw it, they showed ECOM in the light of being a service used only by bigger companies, not breaking even for the USPS and a sort of "do you want your postal rates to jump to support this". They also talked with someone from USPS. She talked about how ECOM allows users (no specification of size) to use available technology to streamline their mail operations. They (the reporters) also went on to talk about how eventually the machine-machine mail that we are accustomed to might come about, eliminating the paper. I didn't know that ECOM costs the USPS that much. Did they hide some costs to the user? Did they include some extra costs in the USPS costs (like equipment amortization)? -- Ray Essick, University of Illinois