The U.S. Postal Service announced several changes to its “Priority Mail” service, offering free insurance and tracking, and day-specific delivery of packages.
Postmaster General Patrick Donahoe said he expects the new features to make the Postal Service more competitive with private package-delivery services and generate more than $500 million in new revenue over the next year.
He said “Priority Mail” generated $5.9 billion in revenue in the fiscal year ended Sept. 30, an increase of 8.9% since 2010.
That increase help to defray its receding revenue of 2.7% over the past two years. During that time sales fell to $65.2 billion.
Online commerce has helped increase package volume by more than 14% since 2010. Postal officials expect that trend to continue as e-commerce sales are poised to reach $370 billion annually by 2017.