Airborne Freight Heads for Home In Delivery Deal with the Post Office

Airborne Freight, known for its corporate delivery service, will start sending packages to residential addresses via the post office. The company is taking advantage of a U.S. Postal Service offer of rate discounts to private shipping companies.

Under the arrangement, Airborne will pick up packages from businesses and ship them through its network to local post offices and other USPS facilities. The postal service will then deliver packages to residents.

USPS is discounting its postage rates as much as 60% to attract package carriers. Airborne said it is taking advantage of the opportunity to enter the residential market.

"We're focused on the business customer, said Tom Branigan, Airborne's manager of public relations. "Business-to-residential service is either an operational imperative for our customers or a service they want to add."

A spokesman for United Parcel Service, which has complained about post office ventures with private companies, said the postal service is abusing the competitive advantage granted by its congressional mandate.

"The postal service gets $60 billion in revenue a year because they have a monopoly on delivering mail. They don't have to pay taxes, they don't have to pay parking tickets and they don't have to pay to register their vehicles," said Tad Segal. "They use the revenue to subsidize initiatives with the private sector, and we think that's inherently unfair."

Airborne's decision to add residential service is partly in response to demand generated by growing e-commerce, Branigan said. Companies are increasingly taking orders over the Internet that need to be shipped directly to residents. Because of e-commerce, business-to-residential shipping will become an increasingly competitive field, he said.