Advertising on Post Office Delivery Vehicles

According to the United States Postal Service, it could be bringing in more than $360 million a year in extra revenue from advertising. Those advertisements would be placed on the agencies vehicles, which get a ton of exposure driving around local areas delivering mail to residents. Vehicles are seen all across the country with advertisements painted on them ranging from pizza to phones to other services.

Light Promotions Inc. is a company that has been running a pilot platform for the United States Postal Service since June of 2009. The struggling agency has been aiming for different ways to improve revenue in an effort to restore financial stability in the midst of declining mail volume in 2011. The United States House of Representatives has proposed using the massive vehicle fleet of the USPS to advertise, making millions of dollars for the agency.

The program that has already been in use since June of 2009 only publishes advertisements on trucks used by independent contractors that ferry mail between different USPS sorting plants. If advertisements were to be placed on the USPS vehicle fleet, laws would need to be changed by the government. There are 185,000 vehicles in the USPS fleet and if they are used for advertising, the agency would accrue millions of dollars. The chief executive of LPI, Daniel Goter, had the following to say:

“We think it becomes a win-win situation, because this allows you to take a step forward in dealing with those financial issues without cutting staff and without cutting service.”

The pilot program has only been operating in 11 Western and Midwestern states using 17,000 vehicles. Executives for the USPS are considering using the program all over the country in an effort to raise revenue. Goter went on to say that there are plenty of advertisers interested in using USPS vehicles to broadcast their ads and a price has been figured out as well.

“The great thing about the Postal Service fleet is it is reliable,” said Goter. “It runs on time, it runs 6 days a week, it runs on particular routes – you know exactly where this vehicle is going to be. That has been the downfall of other types of mobile advertising, but we can overcome that with the Postal Service fleet.”

Even though LPI would be selling the advertising, the USPS would have the final say as to what was posted on its vehicles in terms of ad content. This means that the USPS brand would not be damaged by inappropriate ads being placed on its vehicles.

Fred Zwonechek of the Office of Highway Safety had the following to say:

“There have been signs on buses for a long time,” he said. “Lighted Promotions is a new venture for us that, using lighted boards, allows us to target at night. They’ve arranged to use postal vehicles in the Omaha Metro area – it’s where there are the largest number of alcohol-related crashes, where the most drunk drivers are arrested.”