Mail boxes, mail slots, mail fraud, change of address forms, return receipt signature cards, hold mail requests, postal inspectors, these aren't about paper, they are about ensuring the integrity of private communication and commerce among geographically dispersed entities. Identity assurance is and has always been the crux of making it all work.
The country that saw this most clearly and has best internalized this concept of the post office is Australia and results show that though challenges lie ahead, Australia Post business has stabilized. Letter volumes fell for the fourth year in a row declining by three percent in FY 2011, but the organization as a whole showed a pre-tax profit of $332.3 million. It appears identity assurance services were part of the reason why.
Britain's post office seems to have taken notice. Part of a proposed £1.34bn post office revamp is to be devoted to digital identity assurance services.
The Post Office knows it's in trouble; only 20m of us will visit a branch at least once a week, compared to 28m doing so at the turn of the Millennium. Key to remaining relevant is a plan to become more digitally enabled: thus the strategy announcement is big on the roll-out of biometric data capture equipment to nearly 800 branches nationwide, something it says will allow it to "compete for tenders to deliver assisted application and identity verification services". [PublicTechnology.net]The post offices in the United States also provide more explicit identity assurance services in their role in issuing passports.
It's not the entire solution to modernizing the post office so that it may be preserved, but recognizing that postal services are more than mere paper deliverers and stamp stores is a first step. Their assets are measurable in far greater terms than delivery trucks, airplanes, and real estate holdings, though the real estate holdings are important, massive and will enable post offices to deliver the services upon which their future depends. The real value of postal services in the developed world has been their role as the venerable, reliable identity verification mechanism indispensable to the development and smooth function of the modern economy.
They can continue to be that. There is still a great and growing need.
UPDATE:
I forgot about this post from late last year... UK: Post Office wins biometric collection contract
