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Apparently, the USPS is feeling some heat, as competitors like UPS, DHL, and FedEx cut into their government-funded business. Part of the solution: better technology. And so AT&T has delivered 5,400 BlackBerrys to the post office. They’re of the 8800 and 8820 models, and will be distributed to IT staff, execs, and high-level managers.

“This is the largest centralized federal government BlackBerry deployment we’ve ever done,” said Chris Hill, VP of the government solutions group at AT&T’s wireless unit. AT&T has also supplied the U.S. Army with tens of thousands of BlackBerrys, but those are scattered in batches at various bases across the country.

The 8800 models are being delivered now and the Wi-Fi enabled 8820s will go out in a second-phase deployment later this year, said George Wright, VP and acting CTO at the USPS.

“Over the last few years we’ve been breaking even in our core business,” said Wright, “but now we’re in this new competitive position with private shippers, and we’re there to make money. It’s an interesting new world, and the BlackBerrys are one way we hope to improve our productivity and compete.”

The main usage for these devices, for now, lie in two software applications. First is BCM software, which is utilized by IT staff to quickly respond to troubleshooting matters. The other is a custom program which allows managers to deal with purchase orders when they’re not in the office.

So it appears that they have limited use for the time being beyond mobile e-mail. But we figure that after a few weeks on the job, the users can figure out plenty of ways to make the USPS more efficient.

[Information Week]

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