November 30, 2004 -- Information Week has reported that "United Parcel Service Inc. is closely monitoring radio-frequency identification technology. The global logistics provider has several tests under way and says its package-tracking processes will leverage RFID as soon as customers want it."

November 30, 2004 -- According to Expatica, "The Belgian post office damaged almost half the parcels it transported as part of a European wide test, it emerged on Tuesday. The European Consumer Centre (ECC), which is subsidised by the European Commission, used national post offices across the EU to send 260 parcels to 13 destinations, La Derniere Heure reported. All of the parcels weighed 2.5 kilograms and were sent on 14 September. On average 13.6 percent of the packages arrived damaged at their destinations. But those handled by the Belgian Post office had a much worse time."

November 30, 2004 -- WHO-TV has reported that "Your cards and packages may not make it by Christmas this year. That's because some local postal drivers are talking about going on strike, right before the holiday. The driver's voted in favor of a strike a few weeks ago. It can happen at anytime. This dispute isn't between drivers and the post office. It's between drivers and an outside contractor. That company is called Mail Contractors of America or M.C.A. Its a national company and the largest private one serving the post office. About 500 drivers are poised to strike in the United States and 100 of them are based here in Des Moines. The problem is a new healthcare contract. Drivers say they can't afford the higher premiums. Both sides have been talking about it for more than a year. Now, union leaders say a strike is the last resort."

November 30, 2004 -- The Scotsman (U.K.) has reported that "Gerry Sutcliffe, Minister for Postal Services, today announced the reappointment of Peter Carr as National Chair of the Postwatch Council for a further twelve months."

November 30, 2004 -- A progress report on the Postal Service's Transformation Plan has been posted on the USPS web site.

November 30, 2004 -- The Independent (U.K.) has reported that "The Post Office was taken to the Office of Fair Trading yesterday in an attempt to have the contracts it imposes upon thousands of sub-postmasters ruled anti-competitive and illegal. The Association of Convenience Stores, which represents 10,000 sub-post offices - two-thirds of the network - claimed its members were losing millions of pounds because of the restrictions imposed on them."

November 30, 2004 -- Les Echos (France) has reported that "La Poste, the French postal service operator, is planning to create a new level within the hierarchy of its public network. At present, the group's network includes five levels: the head office, eight lower authorities, 102 departmental offices, 270 local groups and around 12,000 individual establishments. As of 1 January 2005, a regional level could be added between the eight authorities below the head office and the 102 departmental offices. This would lead to the creation of 24 or 25 regional offices."

November 30, 2004 -- The Irish Independent has reported that "AN POST staff who are operating taxis as a 'nixer' are being closely monitored by one of the main taxi lobbies, which has alerted management about employees exceeding the 48-hour EU working-time directive. Last night An Post confirmed that it had been contacted by the National Taxi Drivers' Association with details of taxi licence numbers and vehicle registration details. Personnel officers are currently investigating the accusation that postal workers may be working as taxi drivers for 40 hours a week in addition to their 'day job'."

November 30, 2004 -- Forbes has reported that "Austria Post AG, the nation's postal service, will close 357 post offices around the country next spring in a cost-cutting move. Small, independent grocery stores will sell stamps and provide other postal services for customers in areas where branches will be shuttered."

November 29, 2004 -- According to Federal Computer Week, "U. S. Patent and Trademark Office officials have expanded their use of a Web-based bulk mailing system offered by the U.S. Postal Service."

November 29, 2004 -- Strategiy has reported that "DHL Global Mail has consolidated its market leading position in the Asia market with an exclusive agreement with Yamato Transport Co, Ltd, Japan's top door-to-door mail and parcel delivery business. The partnership effectively opens up access for Japanese customers to a top class international mail delivery service. Users from outside the country share the benefit in reverse since they will be able to take advantage of the integrated international service to send post to Japan."

November 29, 2004 -- The Scotsman (U.K.) has reported that "The postal watchdog tonight urged people to send Christmas cards second class because of the "dramatic" decline in the delivery of first-class letters in recent years. Postwatch said more than three out of every 10 first-class letters posted over the past two years at Christmas time had failed to arrive the next day. The group said it was clear that a first-class stamp did not mean a first-class service at this time of year and recommended that people posted cards and letters second class."

November 29, 2004 -- Ireland Online has reported that "An Post has warned the Communication Workers' Union that it will sue for any losses arising from strike action threatened by postal workers."

November 29, 2004 -- From the Business Wire: "ABX Air has been awarded a contract by the US Postal Service to manage an air network to transport mail during the busy holiday season. The network will include ABX Air aircraft as well as those of other operators. ABX Air will also provide logistics services and hub operations in support of the network."

November 29, 2004 -- Federal Times has reported that "Postmasters and postal supervisors who have dealt with fires, floods or other problems outside of their control can have those factors considered when their performance is evaluated to determine their next pay raise."

November 29, 2004 -- Expatica has reported that "The German government is to sell to institutional investors a stake in mail carrier Deutsche Post that is worth up to EUR one billion, government-owned bank KfW has said."

November 29, 2004 -- The BBC (U.K.) has reported that "Postal workers in Northampton have voted to carry out two 24-hour strikes in the run-up to Christmas. The local dispute follows a row over management imposing extra workloads on delivery staff since the second post was abolished in August. Postal services will be affected as the 400 members of staff refuse to work. The first strike day is planned for this Friday with another 24-hour walk out on Monday 6 December. Talks on the strikes were held in London last week."

November 28, 2004 -- The Irish Independent has reported that:

• Christmas postal services face a new threat after workers voted by a large majority for industrial action if management attempts to impose new work practices. The Communications Workers' Union also indicated it intended to strike if the semi-state company implements its decision to shut down the loss-making SDS parcels subsidiary, with a loss of 270 jobs.
• The postal workers have voted by over 91pc to proceed with their industrial action in what they claim is a move "to protect all existing agreements with management of An Post". Both management and the CWU have been painfully slow in addressing the restructuring which is needed to salvage the loss-making postal service.
[See also the Irish Times.]

November 28, 2004 -- As Hoovers has reported, "Delivery services throughout the country are bulking up this holiday season as never before, offering competitive pay and, in some cases, benefits for temporary work. A recovering economy, a continuing surge in the popularity of online buying, and a longer holiday shopping season have UPS, FedEx, and the US Postal Service hiring larger numbers of seasonal workers."

November 28, 2004 -- As the International Herald Tribune has noted, "Mike Eskew can't get no satisfaction - and if all goes according to plan, he never will. "Even if you are doing your job well, if you are at the top of your game, you have to be willing to reinvent yourself," Eskew, chief executive of United Parcel Service, said during a recent stopover in Paris. "I like to say that I'm constructively dissatisfied," he explained, citing the mantra of the company's founder, James Casey."

November 28, 2004 -- The Canada NewsWire has reported that "On the eve of U.S. President George Bush's visit to Ottawa, a bill has been quietly introduced in the House of Commons by a Liberal M.P. that would require the federal Minister of Health to apply U.S. law when deciding whether to issue export permits....Canada Post will also lose very significant revenues given that the national postal agency currently delivers more than two and a half million pharmaceutical packages a year to the United States."

November 27, 2004 -- EVWorld has reported that "Azure Dynamics Corporation, a developer of hybrid electric powertrains for commercial vehicles, has announced that they delivered a Hybrid Electric Delivery Vehicle to Purolator, Canada's largest overnight courier company. This vehicle is the first product delivered as a result of the supply agreement, signed by the two companies in September 2003 that could see Purolator purchase up to 2,000 hybrid electric powered delivery vans. The five year supply agreement with Purolator valued at approximately $90 million is Azure Dynamic's largest customer contract to date."

November 27, 2004 -- According to the International Labor Communications Association, "Labor has got to think more clearly about media and communications and come up with better means and a better strategy for fighting in the arena of ideas and images. TV and radio are too expensive and labor intensive, all those public access shows are ugly, nobody listens to community radio, labor print media exists for the vanity of elected officers and nothing more, nobody reads labor newspapers, nobody reads period, postal rates are going up, none of the news-like sources mobilize people directly for the next rally or vote, labor needs to control its message through targeted communication, and so on.

November 27, 2004 -- American Shipper has reported that "The World Trade Organization Monday started multilateral talks on the facilitation and simplification of international trade, following a new policy adopted as part of an international agreement made in July. The Geneva-based body has formed a "Negotiating Group on Trade Facilitation," chaired by ambassador Muhamad Noor Yacob, of Malaysia. The agenda of the new negotiating group includes identifying trade facilitation needs and priorities, concerns related to cost implications of proposed measures, and cooperation between customs or other authorities on trade facilitation and customs compliance issues."

November 27, 2004 -- Traffic World has reported that:

• For U.S. airlines, the cargo business has been a lone bright spot in an otherwise dark year. As the passenger business falls prey to cost-cutting competition and rising jet fuel prices, the airlines are posting healthy gains in belly business and the growth is coming from a seemingly unlikely area - the high-yield and high-speed express shipments that the airlines had supposedly lost to the integrated carriers. After several years of seeming stagnation, cargo traffic for the major combination airlines appears to be in full recovery in 2004, with overall traffic up 7.1 percent for the year and the core freight and express business up 8 percent.
• Shippers hoping to get more transport capacity next year for supply chains that have been frayed by space shortages are getting little comfort about 2005 from carriers. In rare unanimity across modes and services, carriers at the combined annual meeting here of shipper, intermodal and broker groups said their plans to add capacity next year will be based purely on the return on investment they can expect from new equipment. Shipper demand and even competition, the carriers said, will be secondary to the discipline truckers and railroads are applying to their operations.
• The U.S. Food and Drug Administration's decision to encourage pharmaceutical companies to test radio frequency identification tags and readers should hasten the deployment of RFID.
• Yellow Transportation's announcement that it will roll out its long-anticipated premium next-day LTL service across much of the Midwest starting Feb. 13 signals a deeper and still developing shift in traditional roles in transportation.
• The pace of the talks between UPS and the Independent Pilots Association likely will quicken next month as the sides push to meet the mediator's first quarter 2005 deadline for an agreement.

November 27, 2004 -- According to the Journal of Commerce, "The air cargo industry business model has, so far, proved resistant to change at the traditional scheduled carrier level. Scheduled carriers often operate their cargo divisions as a by-product of their passenger-focused businesses. These businesses are run using many labor-intensive handling operations and manual commercial processes, since their automation systems and operations processes are poorly integrated. They also suffer from a lack of measurable process costs and process quality."

November 27, 2004 -- The Wall Street Journal has a nice piece on who wins and who loses with the falling value of the American dollar. Bottom line: Plan those international meetings in the U.S.

November 27, 2004 -- Check out PostInsight for the paper "Mail Demand Models," by Matthew C. Harding, Department of Economics, MIT. It was prepared as part of the Pitney Bowes research for the manuscript, "Electronic Substitution for Mail: Models and Results; Myth and Reality." It includes a review of literature on mail demand models and a critical evaluation of the extent to which the models succeed in explaining trends in mail demand and in addressing the impact of electronic substitution on mail volumes.

November 27, 2004 -- Interfax has reported that "Ceska posta, the state-run postal services provider, will keep its monopoly position in delivery of direct mail, according to the bill on postal services approved by the Chamber of Deputies. Currently, other companies also provide services in this lucrative segment of the market. The previous law did not specify whether direct mail is part of Ceska posta's monopoly. Firms providing direct-mail services in the country have threatened to take the issue to the European Commission."

November 27, 2004 -- The DM Bulletin (U.K.) has reported that "The DMA (U.K.) is attempting to get the UK's top 50 mailers to sign its Environmental Charter, as part of its attempts to encourage the industry to reduce its environmental impact."

November 27, 2004 -- From the Canada NewsWire: "Members of the Public Service Alliance of Canada working at Canada Post voted overwhelmingly in favour of strike action and are prepared to walk the picket line as early as December 8 if they don't get a fair collective agreement soon. The president of the PSAC component Union of Postal Communications Employees (UPCE), Luc Guevremont, indicated that 73% said yes to strike action at Canada Post after the PSAC negotiating team reported that management was asking for a series of rollbacks without addressing any of the members' priority proposals."

November 27, 2004 -- MENA-FN.com has reported that "The Dubai Declaration was released on the concluding day of the symposium which includes the procedures and mechanisms for implementation of the Declaration in the Arab region. Significantly, the declaration has laid out a policy framework for eGovernment and IP implementation in the region with the main highlights including establishing a regional Arab team of officials to ensure coordination in information exchange and knowledge sharing, cooperation in area of training to prepare specialized personnel in eBusiness, identification of work to be done in unifying specifications and certificate categories in eSignatures, coordinating eSignature terms and electronic communication systems. The Dubai Declaration also calls for more cooperation between International Postal Union and ITU to support Arab countries in delivering electronic services to remote cities and towns to ensure right of every citizen to communicate electronically." See also Dubai Interact.

November 27, 2004 -- Bloomberg has reported that "Canada Post employees representing 4 percent of the state-owned letter carrier's workforce threatened to strike by Dec. 8 without improved health benefits and job security. The 2,600 members of the Union of Postal Communications Employees voted 73 percent to strike, Luc Guevremont, the union's president, said today in Ottawa. His union, the smallest of four at Canada Post, represents mostly clerical workers such as customer service agents."

November 27, 2004 -- SwissInfo has reported that "Swiss Post and the communications union have agreed to new talks next week, following a strike on Thursday by postal workers worried about lower pay. The union says it has suspended industrial action for the time being, after Swiss Post agreed to discuss a compromise proposal put forward by workers' representatives."

November 27, 2004 -- Business World (Ireland) has reported that "Communications Workers Union (CWU) members today voted overwhelmingly for industrial action at An Post and have give seven days notice to management. The CWU said they received a mandate to proceed with industrial action to protect all existing agreements with management of An Post."

November 27, 2004 -- Les Echos (France) has reported that "DHL France, the French subsidiary of DHL, the transport and logistics division of German postal service operator Deutsche Post, has completed the first phase of its restructuring programme. As of 1 January 2005, the company will consist of only four legal structures, compared with 13 previously. These will include a holding company with the name DHL and three subsidiaries, DHL Solutions, DHL Express France and DHL Danzas Air & Ocean. The changes are to be introduced with retroactive effect from 1 January 2004."

November 27, 2004 -- Union Network International has reported that "The First Seminar on Globalization and Outsourcing of Postal Services was held on November 23, 2004 in Lima, Peru. During the first part of the seminar, Gilles Chapadeau, Postal Sector Regional Director, gave a clear description of the situation of postal services at a global level and the negative effects of globalization on post offices around the world."

November 27, 2004 -- The agenda for the December 7 meeting of the U.S. Postal Service Board of Governors has been posted on this site.

November 27, 2004 -- Traffic World has reported that "With their 2005 rates increases, integrated carriers are seeking to boost their express products and fine-tune the pricing of their more demanding delivery services. FedEx and UPS recently announced in quick succession that they are hiking their rates an average of 2.6 percent and 2.9 percent, respectively, beginning Jan. 3. The carriers will bolster their high-yield express operations, extract more earnings from the growing ground services and target pricing more precisely to individual shipments."

November 26, 2004 -- Transport Intelligence has reported that:

• The acquisition of Blue Dart, India's largest domestic express company, by DHL, Deutsche Post World Net's express parcels subsidiary, may be in jeopardy according to reports in the Indian media. It seems that government approval for the deal may not be forthcoming due to legislation concerning the ownership of Blue Dart's fleet of cargo aircraft. As in many countries, regulations prohibit the ownership of domestic airlines by foreign companies. At present Blue Dart's air cargo operation is the only one licensed by Indian civil aviation authorities, and it seems that, unless the law is changed, DHL will have to find a way round this potential deal-blocker if it is to acquire the rest of Blue Dart's ground network. DHL faced similar problems in its acquisition of Airborne in the US. It overcame opposition to this deal by spinning off the airline into the control of US nationals. However this did not stop its key rivals, UPS and FedEx, from claiming that DHL continued to exercise de facto control as most of the airline's contracts remained with the now German owned parcels operation.
• Despite interest from a number of parties, struggling German retailer KarstadtQuelle is looking for further bidders for its logistics divisions. At present the only company which has expressed an interest in its complete logistics business has been Deutsche Post World Net. The retailer believes that it will be able to get a better price by selling off its two logistics subsidiaries, Optimus and Service-Logiq, as a whole rather than by breaking them up. However this approach is being frustrated by a lack of competition for the business.
• TNT` has entered into a partnership with the Shanghai Jiaotong University's Antai School of Management with the purpose of providing training in the logistics, express, and mail industries.

November 26, 2004 -- The Wall Street Journal has reported that "Express delivery companies that gambled years ago on the potential demand for their services in China are finally cashing in on growth in a burgeoning industry. But DHL, FedEx Corp. and United Parcel Service Inc. are already looking beyond expediting components and finished goods into Chinese factories and on to overseas buyers, to what they see as an even greater opportunity: Helping manufacturers in China save time and money by managing their increasingly complex supply chains."

November 26, 2004 -- The Irish Times has reported that "Senior Government officials have delivered a fresh warning that An Post is facing a range of long-term financial and competitive threats. In a briefing document prepared for the Minister for Communications, Mr Dempsey, senior officials warn that An Post's problems are not just confined to its current financial difficulties. While the company aims to return to profitability in 2005, the document warns that other pressures will soon start to exert themselves."

November 26, 2004 -- As CNN Money has noted, "The Wall Street Journal reported earlier that the USPS is expected to ask for a rise in postage stamp prices early next year of at least 10 percent -- possibly increasing the price of a first-class stamp to at least 41 cents from 37 cents. The possible rate increase stems partly from the failure of proposed legislation that would have allowed the post office to take advantage of pension-fund savings, the paper said. [USPS spokesman Jerry] McKiernan said the company has not ruled out a possible price increase, but the process to request such an increase and have it approved can take as many as 18 months. The government-sponsored postal services company has not yet started the process, he added."

November 26, 2004 -- NBC30 (CT) has reported that "Robert and Gail O'Connor thought posting signs and cartoons about mail carriers and angry dogs were funny. But the U.S. Postal Service isn't laughing. For two weeks, the O'Connors -- who own a 4-year-old Rottweiler -- have driven into town to get their mail because their carrier refuses to deliver the mail. Officials from the Enfield post office said they will resume delivery after the family removes two signs from their front door and a cartoon tacked above the mailbox that poke fun of mail carriers' fear of dogs. One sign has a picture of a Rottweiler and reads, "I can make the gate in 4 seconds, can you?" The other reads, "Never mind the dog, beware of owner." The cartoon depicts an aspiring mail carrier facing two rows of Rottweilers.

November 26, 2004 -- Traffic World has reported that "Spurred on by DHL's plans to trim its airlift needs, ABX Air said it would reduce its fleet by 26 aircraft next year. However, ABX and industry observers expect the airline to make up for those losses with the addition of new, more modern aircraft and revenue gains from its new ground service offerings."

November 26, 2004 -- The Financial Times has reported that "In a recent interview with the Financial Times, Mr Takenaka compared the privatisation to no less an event than the arrival in Japan of Commodore Matthew Perry. 'Like Perry's Black Ships, they came in and brought enormous change,' says Mr Takenaka, referring to the well-worn tale of the 19th century US warships that convinced Japan it needed to embark on sweeping modernisation. 'I think the post office will be the same.' At issue is not the post office's mail delivery service, a slick - if generously staffed - operation that delivers letters four times a day almost unerringly. The real fight, which some claim is more of a political scrap over money than a genuine reform, is over the post office's Y350,000bn ($3,386bn, €2,589bn, £1,814bn) in savings and insurance premiums."

November 26, 2004 -- Agenzia Giornalistica Italia has reported that "The figures of the "Canalgrande" operation carried out by the Postal Police of Veneto give an idea of the vast field of investigation explored by investigators. The inquiry, coordinated by the Venice Prosecutor's Office, involved 400 agents from 19 Polizia Postale italiana offices (one per region, except for Valle d'Aosta). 5 were arrested, over 100 investigated and as many searches carried out seizing 157 personal computers, 7420 floppy disks, 4450 cd roms, 740 dvds, 1670 videocassettes, 326 memory cards, over 5000 other kinds of devices for the vision of illicit material." See also the accompanying story from AGI.

November 26, 2004 -- According to Online.ie (Ireland), "Almost 300 jobs are to be axed with the closure of An Post's parcel delivery service, management confirmed today. The board said 270 workers would be laid off when the company's SDS operation shuts next February. The Communications Workers Union had called on management to reverse its decision but postal chiefs said losses were running at too high a rate to save the service."

November 26, 2004 -- Maine Today has reported that "The number of catalogs shipped to homes and businesses has held steady despite online competition, and the number of catalogs actually grew last year."

November 26, 2004 -- According to Vanuatu Online, "Vanuatu Post Limited is now achieving much improved service standards in the speed, reliability and access of postal services, which has lead to a solid financial performance for the 2003 year."

November 25, 2004 -- Die Welt (Germany) Deutsche Post, the German postal service operator, is reported to be planning to sell its stake of just under 25 per cent in Transoflex, the German delivery company. A dispute regarding the company's stake in Transoflex has continued for the last seven years, after the cartel office prohibited the acquisition of the stake after the transaction had been completed, due to fears that it would give Deutsche Post a dominant position on the market. The company is now thought to be planning to sell its stake in order to avoid a defeat at the federal supreme court in Karlsruhe on December 21, when the court is to reach a decision regarding the company's stake. If Deutsche Post loses the case, it will be forced to sell its stake in Transoflex and to transfer it to a trustee."

November 25, 2004 -- Reuters has reported that "FedEx Corp. Chief Economist Gene Huang on Tuesday said retail activity has "firmed up" since the U.S. presidential election and ahead of the holiday season."

November 25, 2004 -- NZZ Online has reported that "The Swiss Post Office has made an official complaint following a strike by workers that blocked four sorting offices on Thursday morning. It accused unions of breaking the terms of a collective labour agreement by their industrial action."

November 25, 2004 -- According to the Northwest Indiana Times, "New houses slow rural mail delivery. With tremendous residential growth comes pressure on governmental agencies to accommodate new residents."

November 25, 2004 -- Czech Happenings has reported that "The rivals of postal services operator Ceska posta should have easier access to the market in line with an amendment to the law on postal services passed by the Chamber of Deputies today. The amendment aligns Czech legislation with EU directives. To get a licence for the provision of postal services, one will no longer have to prove expert skills. The amendment will now have to be seen by the Senate. On the other hand, according to the amendment, Ceska posta should have a clearer monopoly on the delivery of direct-mail, a very lucrative segment of the market."

November 25, 2004 -- TPG, the largest private sector employer in the Netherlands, and the negotiators for the trade unions ABVAKABO FNV, BVPP, CNV Publieke Zaak and VPP have reached an agreement on a new collective labour agreement.

November 25, 2004 -- From the PR Newswire: "The United States Postal Service (USPS) will once again join revelers in the Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade. This year, the Postal Service celebrates the spirit of the nation as USPS's "Spirit of America" float makes its way down the streets of New York City."

November 25, 2004 -- As the Fort Worth Star-Telegram has noted, "The FedEx workers at Alliance Airport load and sort cargo with the urgency of a crew working a pit stop during a NASCAR Nextel Cup race. But the cargo that prompts this frenetic pace on a Thursday night and Friday morning is nothing compared with the cargo that will start flowing through the hub this week with the start of the holiday shipping season. Each company that handles millions of packages knows the date when they will hit their peak. For FedEx, it's Dec. 13. For UPS, it's Dec. 21. For DHL, it's Dec. 20. The U.S. Postal Service expects peaks on Dec. 13 and Dec. 20."

November 25, 2004 -- SwissInfo has reported that "Union leaders are threatening further industrial action after around 200 postal workers blocked four of Switzerland's main sorting offices."

November 25, 2004 -- According to the Asahi Shimbun, "In striking contrast to the privatization of the Japanese National Railways in 1987, the ongoing project to turn postal services into private businesses is apparently not driven by any clear prospect of benefits that would offset foreseeable risks. There are two main benefits for privatizing a public entity: The revitalization of the entity due to competition in a free market and deregulation, and higher efficiency from newly gained independence of its management."

November 25, 2004 -- According to Dow Jones, "FedEx Corp. (FDX) said Wednesday that its Federal Express Corp. unit amended its transportation agreement with the U.S. Postal Service Monday. In a regulatory filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission, the Memphis transportation company said the amendment allows its unit to continue carrying incremental pounds of mail through May 31, 2006, at higher committed volumes than required under the original agreement. The filing didn't provide specific details on the mail volume change. FedEx, via its units, provides air delivery, freight, parcel and logistics services."

November 25, 2004 -- American Shipper has reported that "UPS said it has resumed full service in Canada after reaching tentative agreement with Teamster workers there on a new six-year contract, ending a one-day strike." See also Today's Trucking.

November 25, 2004 -- From the Canada NewsWire: "To thank customers for their understanding during its service interruption earlier this week, UPS Canada announced today that UPS daily pickup customer accounts will receive free ground shipping within Canada for shipments picked up on Thursday, November 25 and Friday, November 26.

November 25, 2004 -- As CNews has noted, "In today's hi-tech world, redundancy is not only good but the more of it you have, the better your systems are. And the most redundant corporate system of them all just might belong to UPS and its' World Technology Headquarters here in Ramapo Ridge in upstate New Jersey."

November 25, 2004 -- According to GovExec.com, "There was a point in the spring of 2004 when it looked like years of work by lawmakers and lobbyists might actually pay off in legislation to modernize the Postal Service by simplifying the rate-setting process, allowing the closure of unneeded post offices and granting management flexibilities that would help the organization compete with private-sector delivery companies."

November 25, 2004 -- The Kyodo news service has reported that:

• Japanese banking industry leader Yoshifumi Nishikawa urged the Financial Services Agency on Wednesday to regulate a post office network management company as well as a postal savings firm after the planned breakup and privatization of Japan Post.
• The state-backed Japan Post said Wednesday it has agreed with Chinese and South Korean postal authorities to seek tie-ups in operations such as international remittance and the use of automated teller machines. The accord calls for Japan Post, the State Postal Bureau of China and Korea Post to study ways of realizing emergency international remittance, acceptance of international credit cards for use in their ATMs and exchange of information on new postal products and services.

November 25, 2004 -- AGIPNews has reported that "The Department of Commerce's United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) has recently added 10 new forms to TPostal, the agency's electronic bulk mailing system for trademark related notices. According to a press release by the USPTO, TPostal uses the US Postal Service's Web-based NetPost Mailing Online system to print, stamp, and mail post card notices to trademark filers within 24 hours. Using postcards rather than windowed letters not only saves time, but also reduces labor, materials and postage costs, resulting in considerable savings to the USPTO."

November 24, 2004 -- Here's an interesting item from PC World: "Next time you make a printout from your color laser printer, shine an LED flashlight beam on it and examine it closely with a magnifying glass. You might be able to see the small, scattered yellow dots printed there that could be used to trace the document back to you. According to experts, several printer companies quietly encode the serial number and the manufacturing code of their color laser printers and color copiers on every document those machines produce. Governments, including the United States, already use the hidden markings to track counterfeiters."

November 24, 2004 -- According to WIRED News, "Publishers of newspapers and magazines like to corral readers when they're young. If you can shape kids' info-seeking habits when they're in their teens or twenties, so the thinking goes, you'll nab them for life. From the perspective of publishers, the 18- to 34-year-old demographic is highly prized by advertisers -- the people who make writing, editing and working at a newspaper or magazine a vocation, not just an avocation (like it is for most bloggers.) But there is trouble afoot. Young people just aren't interested in reading newspapers and print magazines. The Online Publishers Association found that 18- to 34-year-olds are far more apt to log on to the internet (46 percent) than watch TV (35 percent), read a book (7 percent), turn on a radio (3 percent), read a newspaper (also 3 percent) or flip through a magazine (less than 1 percent)." And advertisers know it.

November 24, 2004 -- CEP News (Courier-Express-Postal) has reported that:

• According to Germany's regulatory authority RegTP, `integrated logistics services' represent a clear exemption from Deutsche Post's monopoly. This clarification came from Johannes Offermann, head of RegTP's department for Market Impenetration and Domination on Postal Markets. Mr Offermann said the wide scope of services represented by an integrated service made comparison to the universal service impossible. The individual processing stages included data collection, data processing, printing, enveloping, consignment delivery, tracking and tracing, following-up of data and entering the processed information into the senders' systems. The actual physical distribution represented only a part step within the entire service. Therefore, such mail services do not come under the post's exclusive licence, according to RegTP.
• The Austrian government is putting pressure on Osterreichische Post in the matter of post office closures.
• The Polish post is likely to be transformed into a plc next summer.
• Schweizerische Post intends to take over the Document Services division of the Telekurs Group before the end of the year. Both companies have signed a corresponding agreement. Document Services (approx. 100 employees) is in a leading position in Switzerland in the field of editing, printing and dispatch, scanning/document handling, electronic document management and archiving. Schweizerische Post already offers similar services under the name of HybridPost. The two firms will be joined together as a new affiliated company in the mail segment.
• The German consumer pressure group PostKundenForum demanded that the regulatory authority RegTP continue its ongoing independent monitoring of mail transmission times. For reasons of cost, RegTP is due to discontinue regular monitoring at the end of the year and will have to rely on the post's own checks. [My heavens. Then why have a regulator?]
• Deutsche Post has announced that postage rates for certain mail types will go down next year. However, rates for the main mail categories - standard letters and postcards - remain unchanged. The most marked reduction involves the postage for so-called compact letters dropping from 1 euro to 95 euro cent. According to Deutsche Post, the new rates will cause the post to lose up to 50m euros in proceeds.
• In Italy, a number of `high-ranking figures' as well as some FedEx employees are suspected of belonging to a ring of illegal art dealers.
• The December issue of Germany's consumer magazine `Test' scrutinises German parcel services and arrives at a very mixed conclusion: None of the service providers gets top marks. Hermes and Der Courier only just achieve a `good', while at the same time being the least expensive of the competitors. For 6.90 euros Der Courier will collect a parcel from the customer's door, while Hermes charges 11.90 euros for the same service. On average, DHL asks 49 euros for house collection and in three cases charged customers 58 euros. In a recent test carried out by the European consumer associations, the post's express service was at the bottom of the table. Half the express parcels dispatched from Germany did not arrive at their European destinations any sooner than standard parcels sent simultaneously.
• German parcel services could lose their leading role with follow-up orders for textiles to specialised carrier firms. A study carried out by Hamburg-based business consultants MRU GmbH - who specialise in the CEP market - points in this direction. The study, which is based on interviews with around 1,000 companies, was presented at last week's textile logistics congress in Frankfurt, Germany.

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November 24, 2004 -- Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung (Germany) has reported that "Deutsche Post, the German postal service operator, has asked the German cartel office for an extension on the deadline by which it must respond to a warning it has received from the competition authorities. The company had asked for an extension until mid-December; as is usual in cases such as this, the extension has been granted. The dispute relates to restrictions on competition on the market for services for the preparation of mail. The cartel office has threatened the company with a prohibition decree in order to ensure free competition among companies that collect and carry out provisional sorting of mail for customers."

November 24, 2004 -- DM News has reported that "Royal Mail debuted an information center on its Web site giving practical information on how small businesses can save time and money on their postage needs. The Small Business Centre aims to help small companies quickly and easily access information on everything from how to manage mail costs better to finding new customers and building lasting business relationships, the United Kingdom postal company said. Small businesses also are encouraged to register to get a quarterly electronic newsletter that launches in December to provide product information and tips from Royal Mail and small businesses from around the UK. The Small Business Centre can be accessed at www.royalmail.com/smallbusiness."

November 24, 2004 -- According to ADTMag.com, "Warnings abound about spaghetti code, especially in legacy COBOL programs, but Michael Herr, senior director of IT at Germany's Deutsche Post, says watch out for "spaghetti infrastructure." Spaghetti infrastructure, as Herr describes it, consists of things like a proliferation of point-to-point interfaces developed for one-off projects that are the antithesis of service-oriented architecture (SOA). The problem with spaghetti infrastructure is while one application may speak to second, it takes a whole lot of coding and testing to extend the conversation to a third application. After completing a study of the IT systems supporting Deutsche Post, the German-based postal and banking company best known in the U.S. for its DHL unit, Herr decided the cure for spaghetti infrastructure was SOA."

November 24, 2004 -- The Boston Globe has reported that "Delivery services throughout the country are bulking up this holiday season as never before, offering competitive pay and, in some cases, benefits for temporary work. A recovering economy, a continuing surge in the popularity of online buying, and a longer holiday shopping season have UPS, FedEx, and the US Postal Service hiring larger numbers of seasonal workers."

November 24, 2004 -- The Amarillo Globe News has reported that "An ordinance to prohibit blocking access to curbside mailboxes is official. Specifically, the ordinance prohibits parking 'in any manner or location that prevents access to a mailbox, postal drop box or similar receptacle used by the United States Postal Service.'"

November 24, 2004 -- Investors Business Daily has reported that "The U.S. Postal Service will seek approval for a 10 percent increase in postage rates early next year, according to a report published Wednesday. First-class stamps, which have risen 12 percent since 2001, would increase to at least 41 cents, the Wall Street Journal reported in a story on its Web site. The last price increase was in 2002. According to the report, the unusually large size of the expected rate increase stems partly from the demise of proposed legislation that would have allowed the postal service to take advantage of about $3 billion a year in pension-fund savings resulting from a change in how it contributes to a federal retirement fund. The legislation also would have freed the service from future pension payments to employees who previously served in the military." In actuality, the size of the increase will prove to many to be considerably more than 10 percent.

November 24, 2004 -- As USA Today has noted, "Neither snow, nor rain, nor heat… yeah, yeah, you know. But are you aware of how many perils have been faced and sacrifices made by America's postal carriers? The National Postal Museum has a great online exhibit detailing the dangers inherent in U.S. mail service over the years. You'll never take the contents of your snail-mailbox for granted again."

November 24, 2004 -- From the PR Newswire: "Sure Money(R), the Postal Service's international wire transfer service, also called Dinero Seguro(R), has expanded its reach to Latin America and the Caribbean. Available to Mexico since 1996, Sure Money now provides customers with the ability to transfer money to nine additional countries. They are the Caribbean country of the Dominican Republic; and the Latin American countries of Argentina, Colombia, Ecuador, El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras, Nicaragua and Peru. Sure Money offers customers an affordable, quick, easy, convenient -- and safe -- method of transferring money internationally. Customers can send up to $2,000 per transaction by submitting and presenting the appropriate form, available at 2,800 participating Post Offices. Identification is required for transfers exceeding $1,000."

November 24, 2004 -- DefenseLink has reported that "With so many military families scrambling to ship holiday care packages to their loved ones deployed around the world, the U.S. Postal Service is stepping in to make things a bit easier. It's offering a package of free packing materials, including 10 boxes, 10 customs forms with envelopes, 10 "Mili-Pac" shipping envelopes, which are specially printed to reflect the complexities of military mailing addresses, and a roll of Priority Mail tape."

November 24, 2004 -- SwissInfo has reported that "A last-ditch effort to avert industrial action by Switzerland's postal workers has apparently failed. A meeting between the communications minister, Moritz Leuenberger, and the two conflict parties ended without agreement. The trade union, Communication, said it was planning a first series of protests later this week to press its demands following inconclusive talks with Leuenberger in Bern on Tuesday. It said the meeting ended without agreement after Post Office managers insisted on outsourcing and salary reductions." See also NZZ Online.

November 23, 2004 -- Dow Jones has reported that "The German telecommunications and postal services regulator RegTP Tuesday said it approved a 0.7% overall cut in 2005 stamp prices proposed by German mail delivery company Deutsche Post World Net AG. The new prices for letter delivery will take effect Jan. 1, 2005, and will be valid until Dec. 31, 2005, RegTP said."

November 23, 2004 --The U.S. Postal Service has filed with the Postal Rate Commission (Docket No. MC2004-5) a request for approval of an "experiment [that] would establish a new classification and fee for the provision of Premium Forwarding Service (PFS), under which the Postal Service will reship all the mail of a customer who has temporarily relocated; such PFS shipments will be sent via Priority Mail® once a week to the customer's temporary address."

November 23, 2004 -- According to DM News postal commentator Cary Baer, "The recent Mailers Technical Advisory Committee meeting offered much to be impressed with but also much to be depressed about....The problem the USPS faces is painfully obvious: a First-Class cost structure and an increasingly Third-Class revenue stream."

November 23, 2004 -- ThisIsMoney (U.K.) has reported that "crime and incompetence at Royal Mail over the delivery of credit cards costs more than £200m a year. And guess who pays? Yes, the customer. Most of this shocking bill, about £12m a month, is spent by banks on safer contractors because they no longer trust the crumbling postal service to deliver credit cards. • Spending it message board: Tips on everything from budget flights to cheap Cds to auction websites Instead, banks rely increasingly on private courier services at up to £20 a time."

November 23, 2004 -- The DM Bulletin (U.K.) has reported that "Royal Mail chief executive Adam Crozier has announced an agreement between Royal Mail and the PPA on size-based pricing."

November 23, 2004 -- The Louisville Business Journal has reported that "About 3,800 Canadian workers with United Parcel Service Inc. went on strike Monday, refusing UPS' new collective agreement offers, according to the Web site of Teamsters Canada. While the strike in Canada does not directly affect workers or packages in the United States, the Independent Pilots Association -- the Louisville-based bargaining unit for about 2,500 pilots who fly for UPS -- issued a statement that the union's members "will honor Teamster Canada's primary picket lines" during the strike against UPS."

November 23, 2004 -- The Kyodo news service has reported that "Japan Post President Masaharu Ikuta submitted Monday a written opinion to the government saying its business forecast on the privatization of the state-backed body into four new entities is problematic."

November 22, 2004 -- According to Government Technology, "Congress wrapped up its work this weekend by making sure that states don't slap a new tax on the monthly charge that computer users pay to log on and surf the World Wide Web. Before adjourning, the 108th Congress passed a bill (S 150) that renews a ban against taxing Internet access through 2007. However, nine states that already impose an Internet access tax can continue to do so through 2007. Twenty-seven states that collect taxes on high-speed DSL lines can do so until November 2005. President Bush is expected to sign the bill." Great. So does this mean the President will sign a bill making sure states don't tax postage?

November 22, 2004 -- The National Association of Postmasters (NAPUS) has told its members that "The House and Senate approved an "Omnibus Appropriations" bill, which included funds to help the Postal Service defray the costs associated with biohazard detection technology and reimburse the agency for revenue forgone. NAPUS actively supported funding these postal priorities."

November 22, 2004 -- UPS has announced changes in its top management, including the upcoming retirement of the executive responsible for all package operations in the United States. Cal Darden, for the past seven years the senior vice president of U.S. operations and a member of the UPS Board of Directors since 2001, will retire in early 2005 after a 33-year career with UPS.

November 22, 2004 -- The U.S. Senate has confirmed James Miller III as a member of the U.S. Postal Service Board of Governors and Dawn Tisdale as a member of the Postal Rate Commission. Word has it that this deal was a two-fer.

November 22, 2004 -- The Financial Times (U.K.) has reported that "Postal businesses are labour intensive, with a high degree of operational gearing. That means profits or losses tend to be small numbers in relation to turnover. It follows that the last thing a postal business should do is to add to the gearing by taking on big risks in the pension fund. Yet this is precisely what Royal Mail Holdings, which runs the British Post Office, has done, with 80 per cent of the pension fund invested in equities. By turning itself into a hedge fund the Royal Mail has made itself technically insolvent if last year's off-balance sheet net pension deficit of £4.3bn on an FRS17 accounting standard basis is taken into account. This dwarfs shareholders' funds of £2.2bn. Future prospects are clouded by the threat that current annual pension contributions of £310m will have to rise to £800m to deal with the deficit."

November 22, 2004 -- As the New York Times has noted, "eBay has long been among the Web's most popular destinations. So why is it now making house calls? Last week, millions of people in the United States opened their mailboxes to find a catalog from eBay, a 32-page glossy publication that, fortunately for postal carriers, included just a handful of the 29 million items currently for sale on the site."

November 22, 2004 -- The Detroit News has noted, "First the good news: Some kids today actually are sending old-fashioned letters as opposed to e-mail. The bad news: Hundreds of those kids in Metro Detroit are getting duped by a chain letter scam, according to the U.S. Postal Service."

November 22, 2004 -- The Canadian Broadcasting Corporation has reported that "United Parcel Service's Canadian employees were on strike Monday, threatening disruptions to the Christmas season."

November 22, 2004 -- The DM Bulletin (U.K.) has reported that "Acxiom is embarking on a tour of the UK to explain the role of data in business and direct marketing, between November 23 and December 8."

November 22, 2004 -- According to Federal Computer Week, "Some people think the U.S. Postal Service is broken. The agency has been losing money with no replacement in sight for those lost dollars as more people send e-mail and pay their bills online. But just as new technology is hurting USPS, officials are also pinning their hopes on technology to revitalize the 225-year-old institution in the 21st century. Information technology has a critical role to play not only as a cost-cutting tool but also as the basis for a variety of new fee-based services that officials hope can offset the steep and continuing drop-off in the use of first-class mail, the agency's principal revenue source."

November 22, 2004 -- According to di-ve.com, "Following the recent installation of a Hermes point-of-sale system in all 31 Maltapost branches in Malta and Gozo, Maltapost plc and Ascent Software Ltd, a leading software supplier in Malta and joint developer of the Hermes retail system, have signed a joint marketing agreement. The agreement was signed at Maltapost head office in Marsa between Maltapost CEO Stephen Sultana and Ascent Software Managing Director Joseph Sultana. This new system will enable Maltapost to increase efficiency and diversify its services over the counters, besides helping to greatly reduce the amount of back office work which was part of the previous manual system."

November 22, 2004 -- The Manchester Evening News (U.K.) has reported that "THE postal watchdog is to be quizzed by government ministers over the way local post offices are being shut down in Manchester. Angry Labour Mps protested in the Commons about the lack of consultation over closures which have hit residents in the north and the south of the city. They claiming the whole process was a sham."

November 22, 2004 -- The Warsaw Business Journal has reported that "Polish Post is aiming to develop into a joint-stock company by the first half of next year."

November 22, 2004 -- SwissInfo has reported that "The Swiss communications minister, Mortiz Leuenberger, is to intervene in a labour dispute at Swiss Post that is threatening to develop into a strike. The move, revealed on Sunday, comes on the same day a newspaper reported that salaries of postal workers were up to 20 per cent higher than those of similar jobs in private industry."

November 21, 2004 -- From the AScribe Newswire: "More than two years after Consumer Action and the Office of the Consumer Advocate asked the U.S. Postal Rate Commission (PRC) to regulate the Postal Service's unauthorized commercial ventures, the Commission on Nov. 12 issued an emphatic condemnation of the Service's provision of "nonpostal" commercial products and services, but declined to subject nonpostal activities to PRC rate and classification authority. The Commission instead proposed a definition of "postal services" that it hopes will clarify activities in which the Postal Service may legitimately funnel revenues for research and development of new product lines."

November 21, 2004 -- As MSN Money has noted, "Some banks and brokerages still gouge customers for online bill-paying, but savvier competitors have finally dropped the fees. Bottom line: You don't need to pay. Free online bill payment may finally be taking off. It's about darned time."

November 21, 2004 -- As ABC News has noted, "Near San Francisco, the Blue Star Moms collect things like snack bars, Chap Stick, socks and underwear. In Santa Cruz, there's a similar effort to collect batteries, baby wipes, Christmas decorations and potato chips, then pack it all in boxes addressed "to any soldier serving in Iraq." But across the country, most of these goodwill packages will never get there because the military says they just can't handle it all."

November 21, 2004 -- The Scotsman (U.K.) has reported that "The threat of disruption to Christmas mail deliveries has been lifted following an agreement with postal workers on dealing with an expected bumper festive postbag. The Communication Workers Union had warned of possible industrial action in London but this has now been averted. The Royal Mail expects to deliver 2.1 billion cards, letters and packets in the four weeks to Christmas, similar to last year's total. The postal group will lay on an extra eight flights and 3,700 extra vehicles every day to deal with the huge volume of mail."

November 20, 2004 -- According to Business Week, DHL "needs to be a bigger player in the U.S. -- and can afford a long campaign."

November 20, 2004 -- The Washington Post has reported that "A federal judge ruled yesterday that U.S. Postal Service officials had no special responsibility to alert workers at the Brentwood postal facility to deadly anthrax contamination in the building and cannot be sued by the employees."

November 20, 2004 -- The Canadian NewsWire has reported that "Teamsters Canada announced that 3800 employees of UPS across Canada will be on strike Monday, November 22 at 12:00 a.m., Eastern Time. Subsequent to a postal vote ordered by the Teamsters Union, the 3800 employees of the parcel delivery company, United Parcel Service (UPS), have refused the offers made by the employer in the negotiation of a new collective agreement."

November 20, 2004 -- According to Outlook India, "If youth is signalled by energy, motivation and a drive to reinvent itself for new needs, you could say that India's Department of Posts is 150 years young in its sesquicentennial year. That's why Raghav Lal, chief general manager, Business Development Directorate, Department of Posts, challenges the popular perception that post offices and postmen have become irrelevant in this digital age. 'The opportunities are huge.'"

November 20, 2004 -- The Journal of Commerce has reported that "FedEx Corp. and other U.S. companies are pleading with President Bush to start discussions on a Pacific Rim free-trade bloc as he heads to this weekend's regional economic summit. Bush is scheduled to meet with leaders from China, Japan, the Philippines and 17 other nations at the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation forum in Santiago tomorrow and Sunday. The companies say the U.S. needs to counter China's growing commercial ties with countries in the region such as Thailand and Indonesia."

November 20, 2004 -- Japan Today has reported that "Two ministers in Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi's cabinet have admitted that they are members of an intraparty group of the ruling Liberal Democratic Party opposed to postal privatization."

November 20, 2004 -- Ireland Online has reported that "Postal chaos in the run-up to Christmas has been averted following agreement on staffing and overtime at the Labour Relations Commission."

November 20, 2004 -- According to the Greenville News, "Chemical scares, both real and imagined, due to suspicious postal packages have shut down numerous facilities since the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorism attacks. The U.S. Postal Service handles more than 202 billion packages a year with hundreds of thousands in South Carolina alone, said Harry Spratlin, spokesman for the Greater South Carolina District."

November 20, 2004 -- Le Figaro has reported that "The French post office, La Poste, yesterday responded to accusations from the French consumer protection association UFC-Que Choisir that its banking charges are excessive by saying that it is the least expensive of all the major banks in France, particularly for those on modest incomes."

November 19, 2004 -- In his latest communication with the National Association of Postmasters of the U.S., NAPUS director of government affairs Bob Levi said that "It appears likely that the House and Senate Republican Leadership will begin to resurrect party discipline as the crucial criteria for earning plum committee assignments and garnering committee chairmanships. This phenomenon was evidenced by the furor of a vocal group of Senators who opposed Sen. Arlen Specter (R-PA) inheriting the leadership of the Senate Judiciary Committee. In addition, this week the Senate Republican Conference changed its rules to grant Majority Leader Bill Frist (R-TN) new powers to encourage Senators to tow the party line. Party discipline may have significant implications for Postmasters and allies of the Postal Service. Many of our strongest Republican advocates hail from the moderate wing of the party. For example. Chairmen Collins (R-ME) and Davis (R-VA), Senators Voinovich (R-OH) and Specter, and Representatives McHugh (R-NY) and Emerson (R-MO) are unrepentant moderates."

November 19, 2004 -- Traffic World has reported that "UPS, along with other integrators, is testing RFID, but doesn't see a compelling reason to adopt it."

November 19, 2004 -- From the USPS Executive's Conference: Retiring effective January 1, 2005 will be: John Rapp, Sr. VP Operations, John Wargo, Vice President, Service and Market Development; Francia Smith, Consumer Advocate; Donna Peake, V.P. Finance (Controller) and , Murry Weatherall, V.P. Diversity Development.

November 19, 2004 -- According to Sam Ryan at the Lexington Institute, "As the NASCAR season closes with this weekend's race, it's hard not to notice that the U.S. Postal Service has traded in its bicycle for a race car. For us poor stamp-buyers, that means the USPS is wasting our money at greater speeds than ever before."

November 19, 2004 -- Business Mailers Review has reported that:

• Two-and-a-half years since the Postal Service first floated its plan for phasing in future rate increases and industry is still guessing about whether phased rates will happen in the next case. While two years may seem like an instant in postal time, mailers are now saying itÆs time to get past the concept stage. In short, they want to know if phased rates are going to happen or not in the next rate case. Mailers say the mixed message they are getting from postal headquarters is frustrating. The pricing department is briefing mailers and association groups on the phasedrate approach for the next rate case. Yet, the finance departmentÆs reaction to phased rates has been lukewarm, saying phased rates are problematic if the escrow account is not eliminated.
• The new terminal dues system set to take effect in January 2006 should represent only a moderate rate increase for international mailers, postal officials said recently.
• Canada Post quietly released new non-denominated stamps earlier this fall, something the philatelic community noted but the larger commercial mailing industry is not as familiar with.
• The Postal Service recently demonstrated its redesigned Cost and Revenue Analysis/Cost Rollforward Model in a presentation at the Postal Rate Commission. In its request for new rates, the Postal Service establishes a ôbase yearö and uses the cost data from the base year. To determine costs in the ôtest yearö of the rate case, the Postal Service must ôroll forwardö the costing data in the base year to the test year. The new Windows-based rollfoward model is easy to use and can be used by any interested party. It is similar to the one developed by the PRC staff earlier this year but it includes more bells and whistles. The redesigned model is available for download at www.prc.gov, under ôcontents.ö

November 19, 2004 -- The Financial Times (U.K.) has reported that:

• Royal Mail was unlikely to meet postal delivery targets for the year, said Adam Crozier, chief executive, and could incur a hefty customer compensation bill as a result. Royal Mail said that 92.1 per cent of first class letters arrived the next day between July and September, missing regulator Postcomm's target of 92.5 per cent. This was an improvement on the previous quarter's figure of 88.3 per cent. Mr Crozier admitted, however, that the poor performance at the start of the 2004-05 financial year would drag down the annual figures even if quality of service continued to get better.
• Royal Mail faces the prospect of having to pay ú800m a year to fill the hole in its pension fund that was revealed last year, the group announced yesterday.

November 19, 2004 -- From eMediaWire: "The ePost service, a simple concept new to Australia, was launched to the internet community today. An airmail that normally takes weeks to arrive in Australia can arrive at the designated address overnight. ePost enables any individual or business from anywhere in the world to send an ePost to an address in Australia for AUD 80 cents. The service, which currently allows users to send a text message or a file, guarantees that an ePost will be processed for delivery through the Australia Post network the same day it is submitted. It incorporates the functionality of the old telegram with todayÆs technology to produce a sophisticated hard copy letter."

November 19, 2004 -- As The Herald (U.K.) has noted, "PROFITS running into millions and improvements in most services since the summer failed to deflect criticism of the Royal Mail from postal watchdogs yesterday."

November 19, 2004 - UTV (Ireland) has reported that "An Post and the Communications Workers Union have so far failed to agree on staffing and overtime over the festive season. Both sides are attending the Labour Relations Commission this morning in an attempt to broker a deal."

November 19, 2004 -- As The Scotsman (U.K.) has noted, "ANY normal commercial business going from losing ú1 million a day to making ú1m a day within three years could reasonably expect to find laurel leaves floating down on its head. But the Royal Mail is not any commercial business. Due to its place in the national social fabric and its intimate interface with its customers at letterbox and post office counter, its commercial success is not looked on as an unalloyed pleasure. Complaints about poor postal deliveries and post office closures continue to dog Royal Mail and so the strong profit figures yesterday - ú217m, nearly four times the amount it made last year - provoke howls in some quarters about big profits, poor delivery. Sustainable businesses serve the customer. And until Royal Mail can show that it is meeting all, not just some, of its performance targets on a regular basis, those howls will continue."

November 19, 2004 -- The Independent has reported that:

• ROYAL MAIL warned yesterday that its pension fund contributions will have to double to almost pounds 800m a year to plug the huge deficit in the scheme. This will wipe out most of the net profits the organisation hopes to start making once its three-year rationalisation programme is complete next March, meaning that it is unlikely to resume dividend payments to the Government for years to come.
• MOST COMPANIES with big final-salary pension schemes are being forced to dig deep into profits to keep their pension funds properly funded, but few face the catastrophic liability Royal Mail is having to come to terms with.

November 19, 2004 -- Information Week has reported that "UPS is testing RFID to learn how it can use the technology for its operations and offer RFID services for its business customers."

November 19, 2004 -- The BBC has reported that "Royal Mail workers will not be striking in London over Christmas after an agreement was reached with a union."

November 19, 2004 -- GovExec.com has reported that "The U.S. Postal Service will get an extra $507 million in an omnibus spending bill to combat bioterror attacks, which the administration did not request."

November 19, 2004 -- The Board of Directors of UPS has declared a regular quarterly dividend of 28-cents per share on all outstanding Class A and Class B shares.

November 18, 2004 -- PostCom Members: The minutes from today's Postal Policy Committee teleconference are available for your review.

November 18, 2004 -- Sooooo, if you want to know what the White House told the House and Senate postal leaders what it expected to see in a postal reform bill....check what's listed here.

November 18, 2004 -- More on the news from Royal Mail from The Scotsman..

November 18, 2004 -- The Kyodo news service has reported that "The government projected Wednesday that all four spin-offs of Japan Post will be in the black in fiscal 2008 but, without new business, profits at three units will decline by the time the postal privatization process is completed in fiscal 2016."

November 18, 2004 -- The Stamford Advocate has reported that "Mail and document management company Pitney Bowes Inc. said Thursday it has signed a $112 million mailing services contract with banking giant Bank of America Corp. Under the contract, Pitney Bowes will provide software and technology."

November 18, 2004 -- Heard it thru the grapevine....Word has it that the Senate Democrats and Republicans have agreed to a deal to move the nominations of several persons to the Senate floor for confirmation. Among them, Dawn Tisdale for the Postal Rate Commission.

November 18, 2004 -- Federal Times has reported that "Francia Smith, the U.S. Postal Service vice president and consumer advocate who is the subject of an inspector general investigation, will retire in February, the agency said Nov. 17."

November 18, 2004 -- The Hill has reported that "Tony Hammond will be nominated to another term as a commissioner on the Postal Rate Commission, President Bush has announced."

November 18, 2004 -- Reuters has reported that "FedEx Corp., the world's top air express shipper, is posting explosive growth in China and now plans to expand its Kinko's copy-chain across Asia, a senior executive said on Wednesday. FedEx, which vies with Deutsche Post's DHL Express and United Parcel Service Inc. in the global courier arena, is trying to muscle in on an insular sector that it says could one day be the world's top cargo market. Analysts estimate it could be worth $1.5 billion annually."

November 18, 2004 -- Knight-Ridder has reported that "UPS and FedEx, two companies on the front lines, say they see early signs of a more even balance of goods moving east and west."

November 18, 2004 -- The Associated Press has reported that "A federal judge on Monday stayed his own ruling that United Parcel Service Inc. (UPS) must give hearing impaired workers the same employment opportunities as others to become truck drivers."

November 18, 2004 -- Nikkei has reported that "Japan Post's postal savings, postal insurance, mail delivery and post office network management arms would all be able to make profits quickly after privatization, according to estimates announced Wednesday by the government office tasked with postal privatization preparations. But Japan Post is opposed to spinning off these arms when the privatization process begins in 2007, so the details are still far from being solidified."

November 18, 2004 -- The Japan Times has reported that "The government projected Wednesday that the four entities taking over Japan Post's services will be in the black in fiscal 2008, but, without new business, profits at three of the units will have declined by the time the privatization process is completed in fiscal 2016."

November 18, 2004 -- DM News has reported that "The U.S. Postal Service targets every household in the United States this week with the delivery of The Shipping & Mailing Holiday Guide. The Holiday Guide describes products and services available from the USPS. Letter carriers began delivering the guide to 141 million addresses Nov. 15 and will continue through Nov. 23. It also is available at www.usps.com." According to AdWeek, the piece was developed by Draft Worldwide.

November 18, 2004 -- The St. Louis Post-Dispatch has reported that "If only a lawyer had used the U.S. Postal Service instead of Federal Express, his client in Perryville, Mo., might have saved $17,310. That's because all mail is not created equal under Missouri law. Papers appealing a worker's compensation ruling could have been accepted even if they had arrived a year late, as long as the envelope bore the proper U.S. mail postmark. But papers arriving by FedEx - or for that matter, UPS or DHL or other carriers - have to be in hand by the official deadline or they're out of luck, the Missouri Court of Appeals at St. Louis ruled this week."

November 18, 2004 -- From the Federal Register: "This document [from the Postal Rate Commission] addresses a proposal to add a definition of the term ``postal service'' to the rules of practice. This proposal is prompted by the Postal Service's action with respect to nonpostal initiatives. There is often controversy and uncertainty regarding the postal character of the services provided under those initiatives. The proposed definition is intended to provide guidance to the Postal Service and the general public concerning services that are subject to sections 3622 and 3623 of the Postal Reorganization Act. DATES: 1. Deadline for filing initial comments: December 15, 2004. 2. Deadline for filing reply comments: January 12, 2004. ADDRESSES: File all documents referred to in this order electronically via the Commission's Filing Online system at http://www.prc.gov."

November 18, 2004 -- According to The Guardian (U.K.), "The Royal Mail today said it was on course for recovery, revealing it was making ú1m a day after having lost ú1m a day two years ago." See also The Telegraph and The Times.

November 18, 2004 -- The Independent (U.K.) has reported that "Chief executive Adam Crozier said the group was being "transformed" under a massive modernisation programme which had delivered profits of ú217 million in the first half of the current financial year. The company was now on course to make profits of ú400 million in the full year, which will trigger payments of at least ú800 to every postal worker in the UK. The number of first class letters delivered a day after posting was 92.1 per cent in the three months to September, almost 4 per cent better than the quarter to June and one of the best performances of the past decade, although still below the target of 92.5 per cent. Second class deliveries were 98.6 per cent, above the target of 98.5 per cent. The Royal Mail said it was on course to complete its turnaround from 2002, when it was losing ú1 million a day."

November 18, 2004 -- BBC News has reported that "More letters are arriving on time in Scotland than in many other parts of the country, according to a new report."

November 18, 2004 -- While at the same time, Bloomberg has reported that "Royal Mail Group Plc, the U.K's state-owned postal operator, failed to achieve 14 of 15 performance targets in the fiscal first half of the year and service has deteriorated, the government regulator said."

November 18, 2004 -- And...according to the Evening Standard (U.K.), "Royal Mail came under fire today for making huge profits at a time when it is closing post offices and struggling to improve its delivery service."

November 18, 2004 -- The DM Bulletin (U.K.) has reported that "Spending on direct mail in the UK could rise by as much as 54% over the next 10 years, according to research by the Advertising Association."

November 18, 2004 -- CEP News (Courier-Express-Postal) has reported that:

• Osterreichische Post indicated that 20 to 25% of today's 1,640 post offices were seriously deficient due to lack of customer demand. Therefore, up to 410 post offices could be facing closure.
• According to the German public sector workers' trade union ver.di, mail delivery operations at Deutsche Post are in a state of chaos. [It was reported that] employees at management level had carried out deliveries in order to avoid complete chaos. Apparently, yellow post vans were occasionally driven through residential areas in order to give residents the impression that mail was being delivered, although no delivery was scheduled in the area on that particular day. In an interview with the CEP News, a Deutsche Post representative contradicted the union's statement.
• Relations between the Swiss post and its trade unions have become seriously strained. An official statement issued by Schweizerische Post regretted that the unions were no longer prepared to look for an amicable solution in co-operation with the post.
• The parliamentary group of the German Liberal Party has brought a motion for `the quickest possible opening of the postal market'. Rainer Funke, postal services spokesman for the Liberals, declared that his party wanted to pressurise the government into coming clean over the issue of competition on the postal market and state whether it intended to maintain the monopoly at the customers' expense.
• Schweizerische Post intends to launch its digital stamp WebStamp in February. This week, the company announced that a readable and forge-proof data matrix code would be used to substitute stamps.
• DHL and CTT Expresso, the express subsidiary of the Portuguese post Correios de Portugal are entering into a co-operation. This week, the two companies signed an agreement in Lisbon, which makes them each other's subcontractors. CTT Expresso will collect and deliver consignments in areas of Portugal which are not sufficiently covered by DHL. In return, DHL will handle international consignments.
• Swiss Post International (SPI) has taken over company group Societe d'Affretement et de Transit (Sat) based in Huningue (Alsace). The small group (25 employees) specialises in EU clearance, clearance of imports and exports as well as international transport and goods storage.
• According to information gleaned by the CEP News, more DHL top managers will have to go in the wake of the recent replacement of the company's top management in the USA. Sources close to the integrator revealed that DHL was looking to replace a large number of managers in order to bring the loss-stricken DHL Americas back on course.
• The Irish Communication Workers' Union (CWU) accuses An Post of deliberately painting a negative picture of the future of its express subsidiary SDS in order to justify its wind-up.
  

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November 18, 2004 -- TheEdgeDaily says it's still bullish on POS Malaysia.

November 18, 2004 -- Transport Intelligence has reported that "Royal Mail has announced today that it has made a ú217 million profit on its operations and delivered a significant improvement in customer service in the first half of 2004-05 financial year. Royal MailÆs parcels division Parcelforce WorldwideÆs income is up, whilst its losses have been halved and, according to management, it continues to benefit from its focus on express services for businesses. Royal MailÆs European parcels business, GLS, has moved into profit with increased volumes, incomes and margins."

November 17, 2004 -- The Jakarta Post (Indonesia) has reported that "As part of the major restructuring of all state-owned enterprises (SOEs), the new government plans to sell or close those considered to be in bad shape and with no business prospects. SOEs with public-service obligations have also been a victim of mismanagement. Most of the companies have been forced to provide public services without sufficient facilities and subsidies from the government. The companies have been forced to make a profit, causing the public to bear expensive costs to use their services. Among these companies are electricity firm PT Perusahaan Listrik Negara, oil and gas company PT Pertamina, postal and courier firm PT Pos Indonesia, railway firm PT Kereta Api Indonesia, bus companies PT PPD and Perum Damri, and a number of hospital and seaport operators."

November 17, 2004 -- The Financial Times has reported that:

• Unions have called on the government to give financial support to the UK's high street post offices in a bid to avoid closures. The 555 flagship post offices directly owned and managed by Post Office Ltd are thought to be losing about ú70m a year, and parent Royal Mail is reviewing their future. 
• Postal groups are taking advantage of the liberalisation of the UK market, which has allowed competition in the business-toconsumer market for bulk mailings. TMT, the Dutch postal operator, has launched a UK mail service, and Deutsche Post of Germany has also reached a deal with Royal Mail.

November 17, 2004 -- The India Times has reported that "The Indian Post Office Act, 1898 would have to be replaced with a forward-looking legislation that could take care of competition, convergence and other developments in the business to make the worldÆs largest postal network more competitive and financially viable, the Planning Commission has said. It noted that in order to achieve the objectives of the 10th Plan and the CMP, the Department needs to initiate a host of measures and ensure their implementation in a time-bound manner. The Department of Post needs to work out modalities to become financially self-sustaining before Æ09 and undertake massive computerisation to provide quality services."

November 17, 2004 -- Dow Jones has reported that "The government of Japan projects that the four entities that will take over mail delivery, postal savings, postal insurance and post office network management from Japan Post after its privatization starting in fiscal 2007 will all be in the black in fiscal 2008, Kyodo News reported, citing government sources. The government's preparatory office for postal privatization projects that only the postal insurance company will be in the red in fiscal 2007, when the 10-year privatization process begins, they said. See also the Dow Jones report carried by Morningstar.

November 17, 2004 -- Federal Times has reported that "The U.S. Postal Service will save billions of dollars over the next several years by streamlining mail operations, trimming redundant facilities and upgrading processing equipment, Postmaster General John Potter said Nov. 16. In an exclusive interview with Federal Times, Potter said he wants to correct a long-standing problem with the agencyÆs mail-moving process: Different types of mail are processed in different facilities. The Postal Service will plan the reforms, called Evolutionary Network Development, over the next three years and does not yet have estimates on savings, costs or closings. But Potter said areas that could be trimmed are the Postal ServiceÆs 25 warehouses that transfer priority and first-class mail between trucks. Some mail-processing equipment is out of date and must be replaced, Potter said. For example, he said, some sorters only organize packages and operate eight to 16 hours each day. Potter wants machines that will sort all classes of mail and run on a 24-hour cycle ù 20 hours for sorting and four hours for maintenance."

November 17, 2004 -- The Associated Press has reported that "Thousands of keys are missing from former employees at one postal site, and gates are unlocked at others, the government said Tuesday in a report detailing security gaps at major mail centers. A report by the Government Accountability Office said efforts have been made to make postal facilities more secure, but security still lags at many of the nation's 373 core mail centers. The U.S. Postal Service agreed with the report and promised to refocus its efforts." The GAO report has been posted on the agency's web site.

November 17, 2004 -- From Market Wire: "eFunds Corporation (NYSE: EFD), a leading provider of risk management, electronic payments and global outsourcing solutions, today announced that the United States Postal Service (USPS) has selected eFunds' open systems electronic payments software for use at more than 33,000 locations and 70,000 point-of-sale (POS) devices nationwide."

November 17, 2004 -- The American Postal Workers Union has informed its members that "Level 4 Clerks who work in Computerized Forwarding System positions were upgraded to PS-5 on Nov. 13."

November 17, 2004 -- The Journal of Commerce has reported that "FedEx Corp. plans to contest a U.S. Department of Transportation order that demands repayment of $29 million."

November 17, 2004 -- The Memphis Commercial-Appeal has reported that "FedEx Corp. is in for its biggest holiday ever as analysts predict it will overnight 4.5 million packages the night of Dec. 23, up 50 percent from last year. When Ground deliveries are added, the number jumps to 8.3 million packages -- sweaters, ties, toys and gadgets -- destined for every Zip Code in the nation."

November 17, 2004 -- According to Business World (Ireland), "An Post has denied that it manipulated turnover figures for its parcels operation SDS in order to justify its closure. The company said it stood by its decision to close the firm and integrate its operations into the general postal service. It said this course of action would put an end to SDS's losses and create sustainable employment for 180 staff."

November 17, 2004 -- Media Bulletin (U.K.) has reported that "Vizeum and Mediaedge:cia have retained the Ç150m (ú105m) Deutsche Post World Net international media account following a five-way-pitch. The two won the business after a shootout against Initiative, Mediaplus and Starcom MediaVest. The Aegis-owned Vizeum, sister agency to Carat, will look after media planning and buying for the German postal operator in Europe, including the ú7m UK business. The WPP Group-owned Mediaedge:cia will handle the rest of the world, giving another filip to Sir Martin Sorrell, who today also saw his agencies win the $700m Samsung advertising and media account. Deutsche Post kicked off the review in August in an attempt to drive down costs. The business is currently coordinated through Carat's operation in Wiesbaden."

November 17, 2004 -- Transport Intelligence has reported that "According to reports in the French press, TNT Logistics has not ruled out leaving France due to the continuing poor performance of its business unit in the country. The previous country manager, Reynald Huck, has been replaced by Georges Ruiz from TNT Express in another attempt to turn around the struggling division. The decision to sack the manager had been made due to continuing problems at the unit. Management has stated that many of the problems for TNT in France have stemmed from difficulties in integrating the three acquisitions it had made in the country, one of the biggest being Transport Nicolas."

November 16, 2004 -- The Associated Press has reported that "A federal judge on Monday stayed his own ruling that United Parcel Service Inc. (UPS) must give hearing impaired workers the same employment opportunities as others to become truck drivers. U.S. District Judge Thelton Henderson last month ruled UPS Inc. violates anti-discrimination laws by barring the deaf and hearing-impaired from driving parcel delivery trucks."

November 16, 2004 -- Hoovers has reported that "The world's largest package delivery company UPS said it has begun the first of 12 new flights to China with MD-11 service to Shanghai. The new flights, recently awarded to UPS by the US Department of Transportation, will triple UPS's current service from six to 18 flights a week and comes on the heels of UPS's impressive 129-per-cent growth in China export volume in the third quarter. These additional flights to Shanghai and Guangzhou will help UPS become a top-tier player in China, said Ken Torok, president of UPS Asia Pacific."

November 16, 2004 -- According to the Wall Street Journal, "Tech giant Hewlett-Packard Co. stunned investors in August by missing financial forecasts and firing three top executives. A few days later, Bob Otto jolted H-P. Mr. Otto, chief technology officer for the U.S. Postal Service, told an H-P saleswoman that he was considering replacing some of the agency's 3,000 H-P server computers. Mr. Otto, who estimates that he's spent more than $1 billion on H-P products over the past five years, complained that the computers didn't work properly, and said H-P's poor results made him concerned for the company's financial stability. "I laid down the gauntlet," he says. The company reacted swiftly. Within days, Chief Executive Carly Fiorina called Mr. Otto to reassure him that H-P was financially sound. Executive Vice President Michael Winkler flew to Washington D.C. to see Mr. Otto; Ms. Fiorina followed up with a visit of her own. H-P also dispatched specialists to fix the Postal Service's servers. In late October, Ms. Fiorina and Mr. Winkler called on Mr. Otto once again. The blitz worked. Mr. Otto kept the H-P servers and says his relationship with the company is now "very healthy." H-P's rush to satisfy the Postal Service illustrates how the Palo Alto, Calif., computer and printer maker has scrambled to solidify its business and retain customers since its latest financial disappointment."

November 16, 2004 -- The Guernsey Press and Star (U.K.) has reported that "AN INTERNET mailing company claims that it is losing thousands of pounds because of postal service inefficiencies."

November 16, 2004 -- The Scotsman (U.K.) has reported that "A rival business to Royal Mail was today on course to move into profit less than a year after leading the break-up of the UK postal monopoly. The service was set up by Slough-based parcels group Business Post after regulator Postcomm gave companies the right to enter the UK market in 2003."

Novmeber 16, 2004 -- According to postal commentator Gene Del Polito, "The Postal Service's future, however, now hinges less on its letter-mail automation capabilities. Indeed, trends seem to indicate more that the Postal Service will increasingly lose that nice letter-size, First-Class, "white" mail to one of many electronic communication alternatives, and that larger than letter-size (flat) mail will become a more predominant proportion of the mail stream. In other words, the Postal Service's bread-and-butter will depend increasingly on its ability to cost-efficiently process and deliver larger than letter-size periodicals, catalogs, and distributed retail advertising. Now, you might think that knowing this would mean the USPS is doing everything it can to replicate its previously successful customer-centered letter-mail automation experience. But you'd be wrong."

November 16, 2004 -- The Guardian (U.K.) has reported that "Further post office closures are inevitable unless the government protects the service, union leaders will warn today. Andy Furey, of the Communication Workers Union, will tell MPs that the payment of benefits and pensions into bank accounts rather than over post office counters is to blame for recent losses."

November 16, 2004 -- The Honolulu Advertiser has reported that "Frank Santos, the new Honolulu postmaster, has spent most of his working life as a civil service postal employee, but his heart beats with the rhythm of a businessman and entrepreneur....Santos, like postmasters all over, worries about the loss of business to competitors such as UPS and Federal Express, and to the Internet, fax machines and automatic banking withdrawals to pay bills. But he also always worries about the people who rely on good mail service in the Honolulu delivery area. "Our challenge is to make things more convenient and easier for our customers," Santos said. "These are the values we live by."

November 16, 2004 -- Kiplinger has reported that "The largest postal rate increases in decades are looming on the horizon. By late fall 2005 or early 2006, look for the U.S. Postal Service (USPS) to raise the price of first-class stamps from 37ó to about 41ó. Rates charged for the entire spectrum of business mailingsùbills, invoices, magazines, catalogs and overnight mailùare likely to go up by 18% to 22%, depending on the volume of pieces shipped and the amount of presorting handled by senders."

November 16, 2004 -- From the Business Wire: "DHL, the world's leading global express delivery and logistics company, and Newgistics, Inc., the leader in returns management solutions for direct retailers, today announced a partnership to offer Newgistics' retail merchandise return solution, SmartLabel(R), for DHL customers. Newgistics' SmartLabel, addresses the reverse logistics needs of multi-channel retailers, the fastest growing industry segment for logistics providers."

November 16, 2004 -- From the PR Newswire:

• Harte-Hanks, Inc., a worldwide, direct marketing and targeted media company, today announced that Harte-Hanks Advanced Data Quality (ADQ) has been certified and licensed by the United States Postal Service (USPS(R)) to be a full-service provider of NCOALink, a USPS product that enables accurate, up-to-date postal addressing in compliance with all mail deliverability and federal privacy requirements. With Harte-Hanks ADQ -- a solution for verifying, correcting and enhancing consumer and business contact information across multiple channels including direct mail, telephone and e-mail -- companies can improve data accuracy for targeted communications, cutting marketing costs and increasing brand loyalty through enabling accurately addressed mail and messaging.
• WALZ Postal Solutions, Inc., the nation's leading private provider of USPS Certified Mail forms and software technologies, today announced the release of WALZ Certified Mailer-Plus (WCM-Plus) v6.0, a revised utility designed to process the best-selling WALZ Certified Mailer forms."

November 16, 2004 -- Transport Intelligence has reported that "FedEx has announced that the United States Department of Transportation (D.O.T.) has issued a final order in its administrative review of the FedEx Express claim for compensation under the Air Transportation Safety and System Stabilization Act."

November 16, 2004 -- The DM Bulletin (U.K.) has reported that "The postal regulator Postcomm has successfully prosecuted a company, and its managing director, for collecting and delivering mail without a licence, resulting in a ú17,000 fine, in the first action of its type. The company, Deltec International Courier, was also ordered to pay ú60,000 costs. Deltec was convicted at Bow Street Magistrates Court last week on all 11 counts on which it was charged, under section six of the Postal Services Act 2000, for conveying letters without a licence."

November 16, 2004 -- The Associated Press has reported that "The Internal Revenue Service said Monday that it hopes to return more than $741,000 to Oklahoma taxpayers. According to the IRS, federal income tax returns for more than 950 Oklahomans were returned to the agency as undeliverable by the U.S. Postal Service. Nationwide, more than 87,000 undeliverable refund checks totaling more than $73 million are waiting to be claimed. The refund checks are mostly from 2003 individual income tax returns."

November 16, 2004 -- The Armed Forces Press Service has reported that "The commander of U.S. Central command is asking Congress for help in eliminating unsolicited mail to servicemembers. Unsolicited mail is no longer accepted because of the stress it creates on the military mail system and because of the possible threat it can pose to servicemembers. Programs like "Operation Dear Abby" and the "Any Servicemember" mail program were suspended on Oct. 30, 2002. The U.S. Postal Service no longer delivers items not addressed to a specific servicemember. If packages are left at a collection site and the sender can be determined, they will be returned. If no return address is listed, any care- package items will go to a local charity, a customer-service agent said."

November 16, 2004 -- From the Business Wire: "TaxBrain(R) Online Tax Center, the largest independent online tax service in the United States, forecasts that for the first time more income tax returns will be prepared and filed electronically rather than sent in via the mail."

November 16, 2004 -- The Louisville Business Journal has reported that "A subsidiary of United Parcel Service Inc. has bought the first building of a developing industrial park at the old Louisville Motor Speedway site and plans to use the facility to receive, store and distribute pharmaceuticals and medical devices."

November 16, 2004 -- CNN Money has noted that "Teamster union-controlled pension funds are in worse shape today than in the era of union corruption when money from the funds were used by mobsters to buy casinos in Las Vegas, according to a published report Monday." Ooooo! That hurt.

November 16, 2004 -- According to Hoovers, "UPS likes to do things big way. Last year, the company garnered a place in the InfoWorld 100 with a wireless project that will ultimately replace 55,000 scanning devices. This year, the company takes the coveted top slot, thanks to a nine-year, $600 million package flow initiative that as of October 2004 has successfully transformed 250 of the companyÆs 1,500 package centers. Beginning in 2007, when the new system will be fully deployed, increases in operational efficiency are expected to save UPS that $600 million each year, says project leader Cathy Callagee, operations portfolio manager at UPS."

November 16, 2004 -- Dow Jones has reported that "The chairman of France's state-owned postal service La Poste said Monday its 17,000 agency network will to be run as an individual division. Chairman Jean-Paul Bailly said the move is part of a far-reaching plan to reorganize the network and increase the number of products and services sold by La Poste to individuals. From January 2005 the branch network will stand alongside La Poste's three existing divisions: mail, parcels and financial services."

November 16, 2004 -- According to GovExec.com, "Negotiations on a $388.4 billion fiscal 2005 omnibus spending package picked up Monday in hopes of striking a deal that would avoid extending the lame duck session into next week. Aides were struggling against an ambitious timetable to put together a package of spending additions and offsets to remain within an overall fiscal 2005 discretionary spending cap of $821.9 billion....The remaining funds would be parceled out among several accounts, such as U.S. Postal Service biohazard defenses and the Bush administration's Millennium Challenge account foreign-aid initiative." The crumbs from the master's table.

November 16, 2004 -- As the Triad Business Journal has noted, "The U.S. Postal Service will bring 450 jobs to Greensboro as part of a restructuring that's trimming the organization's 1,240-employee personnel department across the country."

November 16, 2004 -- According to USA Today, "Online auctioneer eBay (EBAY), in a major push to capture holiday sales, is getting into the catalog business."

November 15, 2004 -- From the PR Newswire: "Pitney Bowes Inc. has announced that it will participate in the 2004 World Mail & Express Asia Conference in Hong Kong, November 16-17. Richard Kok, General Manager, Business Development and Asia Distributor Operations, Pitney Bowes Hong Kong will present, "Future Customer Requirements -- Strategies For Success in Asia" on Tuesday, November 16th."

November 15, 2004 -- The Financial Times has reported that "Royal Mail will this week announce that it is on course to reach its profit target of ú400m for the current financial year, having generated profits of about ú200m in the six months ending September 30. Last year, Royal Mail made an operating profit of ú220m, compared with a ú197m loss in the 2002-03 financial year. The turnround has been achieved through cost-cutting, including 30,000 redundancies, as well as a rise in the price of stamps. If the ú400m profit figure is reached for the 12 months ending March 31 2005, the state-owned company has promised to pay out ú200m in bonuses to its employees."

November 15, 2004 -- According to Dow Jones, "Departing Finance Minister Nicolas Sarkozy will "leave the ministry with the regret "of not having had enough time, for example, to pursue reform of (national postal company) La Poste."

November 15, 2004 -- As the Washington Post has noted, in addition to her new security responsibilities, "Sen. Susan Collins (R-ME) also has been at the heart of a lower-profile but important debate over how to reorganize the financially troubled U.S. Postal Service, a $67 billion-a-year entity. Her bill would grant the Postal Service more flexibility in the services it offers and the prices it charges. The bill is all but dead for this Congress, although supporters hope to revive it early next year."

November 15, 2004 -- Federal Computer Week has reported that "By 2007, U.S. Postal Service officials plan to close 80 personnel offices nationwide, a decision they say is necessary to improve efficiency and reduce administrative expenses. USPS employs 1,240 people in personnel positions. USPS officials said they will open a consolidated office with about 450 employees in Greensboro, N.C., to function as a shared services center for personnel functions."

November 15, 2004 -- Ireland Online has reported that "The Irish PostmastersÆ Union is meeting the Minister for Communications Noel Dempsey today to discuss the future of post offices. The IPU is to inform the Minister about the likelihood of further post office closures if Government action is not forthcoming. John Kane, general secretary of the union, said many postal workers are likely to leave the service as they find it impossible to make a sustainable living."

November 15, 2004 -- According to DM News:

• When Congress returns for a lame-duck session tomorrow the size of a U.S. Postal Service rate increase in 2006 could grow if postal funding is not included in appropriations legislation that could be passed in this session. Congress likely will pass appropriations bills, including S. 2806, the Senate Transportation, Treasury, and General Government Appropriations Act, 2005, and HR 5025, the House Transportation, Treasury, and Independent Agencies Appropriations Act, 2005. Postal funding, if appropriated, would be in these two bills. The session is scheduled to adjourn Nov. 20. The USPS has urged the House Appropriations Committee to include funding that does not currently appear in its appropriations bill or in the White House budget. The Senate appropriations bill includes funding. The USPS this year sought money in three areas as part of the federal government's fiscal year 2005 budget. The largest request totaled $779 million for emergency preparedness.
• Some members of the teleservices industry are complaining about an ad -- part of an anti-fraud campaign sponsored by the U.S. Postal Inspection Service -- that urges consumers to register for the national no-call list. The ad ran in newspapers and magazines including USA Today, Reader's Digest, the AARP member magazine and the premiere re-issue of Life magazine. The ad warns consumers that telemarketing fraud costs people millions of dollars yearly and that older peo