A review of the performance of universal postal service providers by the Oxford Strategic Consulting (OSC) firm has named USPS the best postal service within the world’s top 20 largest economies for access to services, resource efficiency and public trust.

OSC conducts advanced research and helps private and government organizations achieve key strategic objectives. The review ranks USPS, Japan Post, Australia Post, Korea Post and Deutsche Post in its top five. USPS earned the premier ranking due to its high operating efficiency and public trust in its performance.

The ranking considered factors including the average number of citizens served by the postal system in a country, the number of letters and parcels delivered by each postal employee and data on service reliability and public trust measured over three years.

Professor William Scott-Jackson, director, OSC said, “If you could live anywhere in the world, and were sending a present to someone this Christmas, you’d want to be in the U.S., Japan or Australia.”

The report found that USPS delivers nearly double the number of letters per employee as its closest competitor and more than five times more letters per employee than fifth-place Deutsche Post.

Despite increasing competition from digital communications, postal services retain a key role in societies across the globe. The expansion of e-commerce means there’s
an even greater need for fast, efficient and reliable postal services.

“People tend to think the Internet has made the postman redundant,” said Scott-Jackson. “But postal services provide the backbone for e-commerce deliveries.”

source: USPS News Link

Here is the press release from Oxford Strategic Consulting

OXFORD, England, December 15, 2011

• USPS delivers over five times more letters per delivery employee than Germany’s Deutsche Post
• Emerging market providers improve performance: Turkey’s PTT leads, Russia Post shows strongest improvement among BRIC nations

A review of the performance of universal postal service providers (USPs) in the G20 group of world’s wealthiest nations, published today by Oxford Strategic Consulting (OSC), has found that the United States Postal Service (USPS) achieved the best overall ranking among operators.

The benchmark examines performance over three years against three key metrics – access to vital services, resource efficiency, and performance and public trust. Universal providers are seeing strong competition from private companies and a continual slide in mail volumes, with the move towards digital communications. Volumes have fallen in many countries – as much as 17% in the US since 2006.

The United States Postal Service (USPS) came top due to its high operating efficiency and public faith in its performance. The government agency handles over five times more letters per full-time delivery employee than Germany’s privatized provider, Deutsche Post (5^th).

Report author William Scott-Jackson, director of Oxford Strategic Consulting, and Associate Research Fellow, SKOPE, University of Oxford, said: “People tend to think the internet has made the postman redundant but postal services still provide the backbone for e-commerce deliveries. If you could live anywhere in the world, and were sending a present to someone this Christmas, you’d want to be in the US, Japan or Australia.”

Japan Post (2^nd) and Korea Post (4^th) performed well on all counts, while Australia Post (3^rd) was strong on both efficiency and access. The UK’s cost-cutting Royal Mail (6^th) edged out France’s La Poste (7^th) with double the efficiency in letter delivery.

Italy’s Poste Italiane (11^th) saw declines in performance and efficiency, causing it to fall behind Russia Post (10^th) – which improved its performance faster than any developed country operator. Correios Brazil (9^th) posted mid-table in all categories.

The full ranking and preview copies of the report are available from: http://oxfordstrategicconsulting.com/g20postalreport2011.htm