By SteveJack
The United States Postal Service, supported by customers and taxpayers via postage charges, federal appropriations, and even postage taxes in some states to the tune of roughly $75 billion annually, offers a “USPS Shipping Assistant” which is “free” software that combines all the functions you need to create labels (domestic, international, Merchandise Return and custom forms), ship packages, compare rates, calculate estimated delivery times, verify deliveries, request free Carrier Pickup, and much more.
“Free,” meaning, of course, that you already paid for it, if you bought stamps or paid U.S. and/or state taxes.
The USPS Shipping Assistant requires Microsoft’s Windows 2000, 2003, XP Home or Professional, or Vista and Microsoft’s Internet Explorer version 6.0, or higher.
In other words, in this case, Mac users need not apply, but keep buying stamps – and paying your taxes for nothing, of course.
Why does the USPS feel it’s okay to ghettoize Mac users? U.S. postage buying and taxpaying Mac users, does this seem fair to you?
You’d think that with $75 billion annual revenue, the USPS would be able to hire a Mac developer or two or a hundred. (If they weren’t bleeding $5.327 billion annually, that is. Ah, government efficiency; a bigger oxymoron than “Microsoft innovation.”)
According to research firm Gartner, Apple’s Mac comprised 9.5% of U.S. market in Q308 with the Mac growing 29.4% year-over-year, 30 times that of PC market. That’s a lot of postage buying/taxpaying Mac users left out in the cold, USPS. Tens of millions in fact.
Contact the USPS here.
The most important action that you can take, which could actually result in some positive result — as your vote is the key to their having the job — is to identify and contact your Congressperson in the U.S. House of Representatives about equal access to USPS software here.
Additional email contact information can be found here and here.
SteveJack is a long-time Macintosh user, web designer, multimedia producer and a regular contributor to the MacDailyNews Opinion section.
[Thanks to MacDailyNews Reader “GizmoDan” for the heads up.]
Why does that sort of application need to be OS specific anyway? Couldn’t it be Java or internet based?
@passerby:
exactly!!
You would think that some clueless idiot would has asked in the beginning, are you developing it in a programing language that can be compiled or exported to all OS that exceed say 5% of our customer base.
You think that the upcoming government medical social system will be Mac accessible too.
Mac OS X is now at about 10% of the US market share. We have to have the Spanish translation on all major government paper work. Even when we vote. Do you think that more than 10% of Americans only speak Spanish now?
In 4 years, we should let these idiots know what we think of Windows only!
probably developed in .Net
And you want these people giving you health care?
The United States Postal Service, supported by taxpayers to the tune of roughly $75 billion annually
From http://www.usps.com/communications/newsroom/postalfacts.htm
We …
Do not receive tax dollars for operations. We are a self-supporting agency, using the revenue from the sale of postage and products to pay expenses.
Sorry on this one, MDN.
We need procurement reform to end the Microsoft monoculture in government purchasing. The bid specifications should be vendor-neutral.
The United States Postal Service […] offers a “USPS Shipping Assistant” which is “free” software that combines all the functions you need to create labels (domestic, international, Merchandise Return and custom forms), ship packages, compare rates, calculate estimated delivery times, verify deliveries, request free Carrier Pickup, and much more.
Other carriers (such as UPS) have offered this online for years.
And theirs is very accessible with a Mac.
I own a dozen Macs for my business, and NEVER use the US Mail system. Pay bills electronically, and use FedX/UPS to ship.
Mutual disregard.
First of all, the USPS does offer this onlne. Got to http://www.usps.com. Mac or Windows, you can buy stamps, change your address, print postage, design & order cards, photo stamps, order shipping supplies – the list goes on. Yes – the USPS does also offer a windows only CD, which does everything you can do with a Mac online.
Second, NONE of your tax money supports this. The only tax money given the USPS is ‘Revenue Forgone’, a reimbursement from voted on by Congress in 1993 to make up for reduced (and free) mailing rates forced upon the USPS by Congress at the same time. Google ‘Revenue Forgone USPS’.
MDN – I realize you only repeat what you hear, too bad Steve Jack didn’t do the slightest bit of fact checking, or even internet searching, before writing this piece of crap.
“too bad Steve Jack didn’t do the slightest bit of fact checking, or even internet searching, before writing this piece of crap.”
That’s why he writes for the Opinion Section of MDN, not the Fact section, or the Even Slightly Correct section.
Lets see if he has the balls to post a retraction.
Postmaster,
Besides the fact that the stamp (postage) itself could be deemed a “tax,” SteveJack also explains and provides links for “federal appropriations, and even postage taxes in some states.”
SteveJack seems to have done plenty of fact-checking and the USPS software should be made available for free to Mac users, too.
Hey,
“The One” is a Mac user – maybe he can get this fixed…
@Historian
Did you at any of those links? They provide figures for USPS revenue and expenses, they also list how Congress is payign the Postal Service LESS than it owes the Postal Service for services it REQUIRES the USPS to provide. The link for postage taxes on the other hand tells the tale of STATES charging sales tax on postage. NONE of that sales tax money goes to the Postal Service, it goes to the states. Read a little would you.
As far as he price of a stamp being considered a tax, that’s like saying the cost of electricity is a tax. No, it’s a service – if you don’t want the service, don’t pay for it. Feel free to drive your check across town, or across country yourself.
If you use a Mac, and want this software, go to http://www.usps.com. All of the services available on the CD are available there – for free – not paid for by tax money.
they also list how Congress is payign the Postal Service LESS than it owes the Postal Service for services it REQUIRES the USPS to provide.
IOW, the same Congress that’s already outspent their revenues by several trillion $$$, can’t pay the USPS for required services?
Priceless.
Postmaster,
Good points. We can agree to disagree on whether a stamp is a tax or not. Regardless, the USPS is an independent agency of the United States government and should therefore not be excluding a significant installed base of computer users because they lack the foresight to include those who could have been easily included.
From http://www.usps.com/communications/newsroom/2008/pr08_118.htm
The U.S. Postal Service concluded the 2008 fiscal year (Oct. 1, 2007-Sept. 30, 2008) with a net loss of $2.8 billion as the national economic slowdown lowered mail volume and as the Postal Service bore additional costs mandated by the Postal Act of 2006
Hey Congress!! Time to bail out the Postal Service as well!!
We’ve already covered Wall Street, and are about to “rescue” Detroit. Might as well socialize the mail service too.
a form letter to forward to the representative would be helpful.
@not quite
Dig a little deeper into those ‘additional costs mandated bythe Postal Act of 2006’.
Those costs require the Postal Service to pre-fund retiree health care costs. Does Congress require that of Wall Street? No. Of Detroit? No. Too bad the USPS doesn’t have an even playing field like Wall Street – oh wait – I guess it didn’t help them.
The Canadian postal system offers electronic shipping tools for business users. That is Windows business users. They also shut out us Mac users.
Just wait the communisation of the US is underway. Everything is in the process of being taken over by the government.
For what it’s worth, I sent a note to the USPS using their online feedback form. I’ll be contacting my Congressional reps next. Here’s the message I sent:
Will the USPS Shipping Assistant be available for other browsers and operating systems? Currently, the Shipping Assistant requires Microsoft’s Windows 2000, 2003, XP Home or Professional, or Vista and Microsoft’s Internet Explorer version 6.0, or higher.
This not only excludes users of other browsers (which are arguably better and more secure than Internet Explorer), but other common operating systems, Mac OS X in particular.
For example: today, Apple’s Mac OS X comprises about 10% of the U.S. market, with a growth rate almost 30 times that of the PC/Windows market. However, the user- and taxpayer-funded USPS is requiring the purchase of products by a single software vendor: Microsoft. This is unfair and anticompetitive, and ignores both the needs of customers and the realities of the computer marketplace.
It is not an uncommon or difficult thing to develop cross-browser or cross-platform solutions. The software industry successfully deals with these issues daily. Companies with only a couple developers do it every day. There is simply no excuse why an organization the size of the USPS would be unable to offer this service in a complete and professional way.
I found the real reason… the technology uses the Microsoft .NET framework and (to a lesser extent) ActiveX. Great… they USPS is using technologies that everyone else has either abandoned or is trying to abandon. Couldn’t they have used something that would work with anything, like Java, Flash, or AJAX? I smell M$ payola…
Oh, and UPS has a similar “No Macs Allowed” product in Europe called the UPS Widget. However, UPS contracted that out to a third party, and they are promising Mac support in the near future (hopefully by the time it gets to the States).
MDN MW: “designed”, as in this product was designed with M$ influence
“Besides the fact that the stamp (postage) itself could be deemed a “tax,””
umm, you are buying a service. when you ship fed ex is that a tax?
my god the dumb asses are multiplying.