Amtrak, the federally-subsidized passenger rail system has been struggling for years with low productivity and quality due to underfunding and other problems. Explore Amtrak's [http://www.amtrak.com/] Web site and answer the following questions:

1. What references to quality can you locate at Amtrak's Web site? To productivity?
   
   
2. What can you infer about Amtrak's approach to and emphasis on managing quality?
   
   

Internet Exercise
The U.S. Postal Service (USPS) is the second-largest employer in the U.S., delivers 679 million pieces of mail each day, and is one of the lowest-cost postal services in the world. Visit the Web site of the National Association of Letter Carriers [http://www.nalc.org/] and examine information about productivity at the USPS. Then answer the following questions:

1. Based on the information at the Association's Web site, how would you describe productivity improvement efforts at the USPS?
   
   
2. The USPS measures quality in a variety of ways, as demonstrated on the Association's Web site. In your opinion, are these measures appropriate? Are there other measures that would be helpful in addition to those already in use?
   
   
3. The USPS was subsidized by the government up until 1982, but is now entirely self-sufficient. Read about some of the benefits of this change on the Association's Web site. Are there other federal agencies that could benefit if they were self-sufficient? Which agencies would not benefit from self-sufficiency?
   
   

Explore Further
United Parcel Service (UPS) is a private-sector competitor of the U.S. Postal Service that concentrates on the package delivery business. UPS is 90 percent owned by its employees. Visit the UPS [http://www.ups.com/] Web site and find out more about the firm. What impact does employee ownership have on productivity? On quality?