Shipping Services, which includes premium products such as Priority Mail and Express Mail, represents less than 1% of volume but approximately 13% of revenue. Shipping Services revenue increased $427 million, or 5.2%, in 2010 to $8,681 million on a volume increase of 39 million, or 2.8%. The increase in revenue was driven by improvements in the economy, the highly successful Priority Mail advertising campaign, and the price increases implemented in January 2009 and 2010.
In 2009, Shipping Services revenue of $8,254 million decreased $128 million, or 1.5%, compared with 2008 revenue of $8,382 million, on a volume decline of 194 million pieces, or 12.3%. Price increases in May 2008 partially offset the lower volume. Overall, the poor 2009 revenue performance reflected the severe effect of the economic recession.
Additional discussion on volume and revenue projections can be found in the “Outlook” discussion below. Detailed data on Mailing Services product volume and revenue may be found in the Quarterly Revenue, Pieces, and Weight reports on www.usps.com/financials/rpw.
