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Postal News from July 2012:
July 31, 2012
Mmegi Online: Among other things, the Communications Regulatory Authority Bill provides for "consequential amendments" to the Botswana Postal Services Act (CAP 72:01) of 1989. To-date Botswana Post has been self-regulating. The consequential amendments will transfer the regulatory provisions of Botswana Postal Services Act to the proposed Communications Regulatory Authority (CRA).
New York Times: On the one hand, there is no doubt that part of the reason the post office is struggling is that its world has changed mightily. Everyone knows the story: the rise of e-mail, online bill paying, and so on, have cut deeply into Americans' use of first class mail, which peaked in 2006. Last year, the Postal Service reported losses of more than $5 billion even though Congress allowed it to defer its annual prefunding of retiree health benefits. With or without the prefunding, the post office was eventually headed toward a crisis. On the other hand, that prefunding requirement is an absolute killer. It has cost the post office more than $20 billion since 2007 a period during which its total losses amounted to $25.3 billion. Without that requirement, the post office would still likely be struggling, but it would have a lot more wiggle room and a lot more cash. (Its pension obligations are also overfunded by around $11 billion.) Not since the debt crisis has there been such an avoidable fiscal mess.
Effective today (July 31, 2012), the Postal Service is suspending dispatches of International Priority Airmail (IPA), International Surface Air Llft (ISAL), Priority Mail International (PMI), Express Mail International (EMI) and First-Class Mail International (FCMI) to Uruguay. It is recommended that customers refrain from tendering items for Uruguay until further notice. Items already in the system are being held.
Bethesda Patch: U.S. Rep. Christopher Van Hollen (D-MD) is once again calling on the U.S. Postal Service to relocate the new Bethesda post office, which has no parking for patrons. In a July 27 letter to USPS, he called the site selection "misguided" and said the USPS "misrepresented its procedures and stated priorities" in choosing a site with no parking. USPS recently closed the two downtown Bethesda post offices at 7001 Arlington Rd. and 7400 Wisconsin Ave. and consolidated them at the new location at 6900 Wisconsin Ave. The consolidation is part of a nationwide effort by USPS to consolidate or close post offices in the face of declining revenues.
From the Federal Register: Postal Service
RULES
Domestic Mail Manual:
Incorporation by Reference ,
45246-45247 [2012-18590] [TEXT] [PDF]
Roll Call: The Postal Service will default this week on a $5.5 billion payment, but most lawmakers appear unconcerned except for Sen. Tom Carper (D-Del.), who has been the lone voice warning about the dangers of Congressional inaction. Carper has tweeted, given speeches and issued a steady diet of news releases to get people to pay attention to the service's plight and to push the House, which has not passed an overhaul bill, into action. Carper said in an interview Monday he has talked with House leaders trying to convince them to bring a bill to the floor. Carper said he knew the Senate bill would not cure all of the Postal Service's ills but criticized the House Republicans for having the nerve to "carp" about the Senate measure without passing an alternative.
Courier, Express, and Postal Observer: In MediaPost Blogs, Steve Smith criticizes the Postal Service's 2D Bar codeP promotion as being too restrictive to fully allow advertisers to integrate mail with mobile media. He's right. The promotion does discourage "the use of the mail for the full slate of mobile marketing practices." What frustrates, Mr. Smith is that the restrictions effectively reduce the value of the Postal Service as a media platform that will complement other modes of communications. The restrictions that Mr. Smith objects to reflect the problem the Postal Service has trying to justify variable pricing within a regulatory system not designed to regulate prices that are uniform across customers or time. While Postal Service management deserves some of the blame, the real problem is requiring the Postal Service to be the only advertising media platform that has prices subject to price regulation.
U.S. News & World Report: The United States Postal Service has been unable to hide its budget woes from the public, but on Wednesday when it publicly defaults on a $5.5 billion payment, it will point its finger toward Capitol Hill.
Journal Star: Between 3,800 and 4,200 postmasters nationwide will take early retirement to help the federal agency reduce costs, the U.S. Postal Service said Monday. The Postal Services plans to fill some of the postmaster vacancies internally. Other positions will be filled by new hires, and they will be part-time, hourly, non-career jobs.
Reuters: The U.S. Congress is limping toward what some see as a not-so-deserved five-week vacation starting on Friday, dimming hopes it will complete work on many or any of the major issues confronting it, from taxes, agriculture, and trade with Russia to cyber security and postal service reform.
I often find myself in agreement with some of the editorial positions from The Washington Post and The New York Times. They're moving forward with an urgent effort to move legislation that would dramatically scale down the postal service, to cut a large number of facilities and suspend 6-day service, assuming that those are the only alternatives available for us going forward. Well, as I say, I will be the last person to argue that we should not do business differently, but it seems to me that it's past time for us to take a step back and take a hard look at this so-called postal crisis and at potential solutions and their implications.
Bloomberg Businessweek: TNT Express NV, the Dutch express- delivery company that United Parcel Service Inc. (UPS) is bidding to buy, reported second-quarter profit that was double analyst estimates as cost-saving measures took effect and sales rose.
July 30, 2012
American Postal Workers Union: The Postal Service's default on a $5.5 billion payment to the U.S. Treasury due Aug. 1 is the result of a congressionally-manufactured financial crisis and could have been avoided, APWU President Cliff Guffey has charged.
Although the default won't have immediate consequences for mail delivery or on employees' pay, the Postal Service's precarious financial situation is forcing the agency to scale back overnight mail delivery, close half of the nation's mail processing centers, and slash hours at post offices, the union president pointed out. And businesses, communities and individual customers are bracing for more severe cuts in the months ahead.
In a statement released this afternoon, the Postal Service communicated its decision not to make payments due on August 1, 2012, and September 30, 2012, to pre-fund retiree health benefits. The Postal Service will continue to deliver the mail, pay its employees and suppliers, and meet its other financial obligations.
Federal Times: Not that there was much doubt on this score, but Rep. Darrell Issa, R-Calif., this morning confirmed that Congress won't act to head off a U.S. Postal Service default on a $5.5 billion payment into a retiree health care fund that is legally due Wednesday. The default "will occur," said Issa, who chairs the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee and is the lead sponsor of a USPS overhaul bill. The payment was originally due last September, but Congress postponed it until Aug. 1. Issa's comments came in an interview after he spoke at an Association of Government Accountants conference here. Leaders of the financially struggling Postal Service have said they lack the cash to cover both this Wednesday's payment and a similar installment due Sept. 30. Asked why lawmakers didn't grant another delay on the payment due Wednesday, Issa replied: "You can only be in denial so long." After a year with "essentially no real reforms" and too little action to shrink the Postal Service's workforce, he added, the result is that lawmakers are unwilling "to kick the can down the road, at least at this time."
Naitional Association of Letter Carriers: The pending Aug. 1 "default" of the U.S. Postal Service is not primarily the result of a bad market or even bad operations, but of bad legislating by Congress. The only thing that will happen on Wednesday is that the Postal Service will not pay $5.6 billion into a fund for future retiree health benefitsa fund that already has $45 billion, enough to pay for decades of future retiree health care.
The following reports have been posted on the U.S. Postal Service Office of Inspector General website (http://www.uspsoig.gov). If you have additional questions concerning a report, please contact Wally Olihovik at 703-248-2201 or Agapi Doulaveris at 703-248-2286.
Office of the Inspector General: This memorandum provides the U.S. Postal Service Office of Inspector General's (OIG) review of U.S. Postal Service liquidity projections as of June 2012 (Project Number 12BD016FI000). Without legislation to eliminate or defer prefunding payments into the Retiree Health Benefits Fund, the U.S. Postal Service will likely default on the $11.1 billion in payments due in fiscal year (FY) 2012 1 and the $5.6 billion payment due in FY 2013. In addition to these defaults, the Postal Service projects an estimated $100 million cash shortfall on October 15, 2012, with a slow increase in liquidity from October through December 2012. Liquidity risks and shortfalls are projected to return in spring 2013 through October 2013, with the Postal Service projecting an estimated $1.2 billion cash shortfall in mid-October 2013.
IDEAlliance: IDEAlliance and its Postal Operations and Technology Committee has published for public review a new specification for presort vendors, list processors, inkjet technicians, and all concerned mail owners who choose to support the launch of the Intelligent Mail Package Barcode (IMpb) Implementation for Commercial Parcels. The Standardized Letter-Coding Scheme for IMpc Specification Public Draft V1.0 is NOW OPEN to public review. Submit comments to David Steinhardt by August 28, 2012.
Press Release: The Mailing & Fulfillment Service Association (MFSA), the national trade association for the mailing and fulfillment industry with more than 480 members, announced during its Annual Conference held in Asheville, NC this past June, that the member companies attending this year's conference represented a quorum and voted favorably to changing the official name of the association to the Association of Marketing Service Providers.
Press Release: GrayHair Software, Inc., a constant innovator in the direct mail industry is proud to announce that it has added two more leading postal experts to its management team, Jeff Stangle and Adam Collinson. Mr. Stangle comes onboard as GrayHair's Vice President of Solutions Engagement. He comes to GrayHair from Pitney Bowes with nearly 25 years of experience including positions directing postal consulting teams and managing products and services. In addition to his many years of industry experience, Jeff brings his Six Sigma methodology experience to GrayHair's cloud-based SelectSolutions platform and its consulting division, GrayHair Advisors to provide an enhanced customer experience. Mr. Collinson, also formerly with Pitney Bowes, joins the GrayHair team as Director of Research and Development. Recently, he held the positions of Engagement Manager and Solution Design Consultant. In this new role, Adam brings new light in the areas of address quality and return mail, database management, mailpiece design, presort optimization, Intelligent Mail barcode analysis, regulatory compliance, invoice cash flow optimization, disaster recovery, mailpiece tracking analytics and other new corporate strategic industries.
Reuters: The Postal Service is set this week to default on a giant payment, the latest blow illustrating Congress' slow progress toward fixing the agency's deep financial woes and one that could damage some customers' confidence.
The U.S. Postal Service Office of Inspector General invites you to comment on this week's "Pushing the Envelope" blog topic: Unused Land Parcels Sell, Hold, or Develop? The U.S. Postal Service is one of the largest real estate owners in the U.S. and it's attempting to sell its surplus properties. The sale of properties would generate cash flow, but would not produce recurring revenues. Should the Postal Service sell its unused properties, lease them to developers to generate revenue, or keep them until the real estate market stabilizes? Share your thoughts on our blog.
A new audit project has been started on the external website. Oversight of Performance Based Contracts 12WG010CA000. The U.S. Postal Service Office of Inspector General is initiating a survey of the U.S. Postal Service's oversight of performance-based contracts. This self-initiated review addresses operational risk. Our survey objective is to assess the systems in place to oversee performance-based contracts and to compare them with the tools provided in other Federal agencies performance-based contract monitoring systems.
Institute for Research on the Economics of Taxation: IRET has just put a new Postal paper on its website: "Foreign Postal Services Sell Many Nonpostal Products; Would The U.S. Postal Service Be Financially Stronger If It Did The Same?" This paper asks whether the Postal Service would be financially healthier if it followed the lead of foreign posts and established numerous nonpostal business lines. The facts -- past failures in nonpostal markets, continued Congressional micromanagement of its business operations, and lack of cash to build or buy commercial businesses -- suggest nonpostal diversification would push USPS even farther away from financial sustainability than it is now.
CNN: The U.S. Postal Service is facing a financial crisis and is losing millions of dollars a day. The ailing organization is begging for congressional help to get back on track.
Sydney Morning Herald: The battle for the consumer dollar is about to get tougher for traditional retailers with Australia Post lining up another online partner to chip away at prices. The postal service will be the exclusive shipping partner with a new Australia-based international shopping service called Tarazz.com.au. Australia Post will use its national network and warehouses to deliver the goods at competitive rates. Tarazz, with warehouses in the US states of Delaware and New Jersey, will have a local call centre in Australia to supplement warehousing provided by Australia Post.
Hellmail: Swiss Post Solutions Limited (SPS) has announced a five year contract renewal with UK Mail, the UK's largest independent parcels, mail and logistics services company, to provide multi-channel billing for its customers and franchised partners. Under the contract SPS will continue to provide eBilling, print and online document management services to its customers and franchised offices, but SPS will also drive the uptake of electronic delivery by managing the transition of all credits, debits and claims from physical print and postal despatch to a digital delivery solution. SPS will ensure that the current email penetration of 54% is increased. 69,300 invoices and statements are digitally delivered each month by SPS, whilst a further 63,000 documents are printed, enclosed and despatched each month from SPS' Document Processing Centre. UK Mail was one of the first in its industry to recognise the potential for delivering invoices electronically as a valuable way of improving service levels to customers and franchised partners.
Washington Post: What will Congress do about the U.S. Postal Service? The nation's mail delivery service is expected to default on a $5.5 billion payment to prefund future retiree health benefits that is due on Wednesday. And next month, USPS is expected to post record-setting losses and default on a similar billions-dollar payment. The Senate passed a postal reform package in April and a House committee approved a plan last October, but it has languished ever since. House Majority Leader Eric Cantor (R-Va.) said last week that Republicans have a plan to avoid a Postal Service default, but he and the GOP lawmakers cosponsoring the plan have been notably mum on how and when they plan to pass the plan. Fixing the post office is not an easy issue to tackle in an election year, because service cutbacks are likely to upset some voters. But it's also the kind of issue that Congress could settle and hold up to voters as an example of bipartisan agreement and progress.
July 29, 2012
Postalnews Blog: Postings on 21st Century Postal Worker, an independent discussion forum devoted to APWU issues reveal that the US Postal Service intends to contract out all Motor Vehicle Service positions in California, eliminating over 700 jobs. The USPS intends to involuntarily reassign the employees who currently hold those jobs to other assignments as clerks, mail handlers, custodians, or other vacant positions.
Postalnews Blog: Former APWU President Bill Burrus has been highly critical of his successor Cliff Guffey, but that criticism reached new levels last week as Burrus accused Guffey of using union busting tactics against the APWU's own employees, including the unilateral elimination of the no-layoff clause in their recently expired contract. Burrus's blog post on the subject is entitled "A Union Busting Union", and compares Guffey to Wisconsin's union busting Governor: "Scott Walker will have to move over; there are forces within the labor movement that equal his passion to destroy labor unions."
July 28, 2012
Tipperary Star: Motor tax payments, driving license applications, rail ticket purchases and increased banking facilities could all soon be available at your local post office, according to Fine Gael T.D. and Chairman of the Transport and Communications Committee Tom Hayes. At last week's Committee meeting Deputy Hayes established a working group on the future of the Irish postal network.
Kentucky New Era: The U.S. Postal Service's Office of Inspector General released a report last week that suggests many rural post offices could be saved if they are allowed to become business hubs that offer new services such as public Internet access. The report on the 21st Century Post Office: Non-Postal Products and Services suggests ways post offices could increase revenue.
The Jersey Journal: A postal facility on Harrison Avenue was evacuated for more than five hours yesterday after postal officials found a bomb threat scrawled on a wall inside the facility. Postal officials noticed the threat at about 9:30 a.m. and immediately evacuated the roughly 240 workers inside the 1200 Harrison Ave. building, which handles priority mail. Investigators, who are still trying to determine who wrote the message, allowed the employees back inside at about 3 p.m.
This Day: The Chairman, Senate Committee on Communications, Senator Gilbert Nnaji, has said that his Committee is determined to see that the Nigeria Postal Service (NIPOST) is revitalised to take its pride of place in the nation's economy.
Indiana Public Media: The Bloomington postal service facility has processed its last batch of mail. As a part of a plan to cut its budget by $1.2 billion the U.S. Postal Service is consolidating many of its mail processing facilities across the nation, including those in Bloomington, Columbus, Kokomo and Terre Haute. Friday was the last night mail was processed in Bloomington. It will be processed in Indianapolis from now on.
Bloomberg Businessweek: European Union regulators extended their review of United Parcel Service Inc. (UPS) (UPS)'s bid for TNT Express NV by 10 working days until Dec. 12. The European Commission didn't specify the reason for the delay that was signaled in a filing on its website today. The time limit for the regulatory review of deals can be prolonged at the request of the companies or officials.
Law360: Two private United States Postal Service operators filed a class action Thursday accusing the postal system of violating antitrust laws by forcing them to buy labels only from government contractor Innovations Group Inc. According to TOG Inc. and Wild Harvest LLC, so-called contract postal units that provide USPS services from private locations, the postal service buys all of the hardware that CPUs use for weighing and printing called a contract access retail system through a contract with Innovations Group.
Post & Parcel: US House Republicans insisted last night they are continuing to work on postal reform proposals, but did not given any assurances that the postal bill would be debated next week, ahead of the summer recess. The Minority Whip in the House of Representatives, Steny Hoyer, pressed Majority Leader Eric Cantor to say whether the Senate Bill passed in April might be debated on the House floor, having already passed out of committee nine months ago. Hoyer, the Democrat from Maryland, said the US Postal Service was facing "real stress" and noted that it could default on its payments to the federal government very soon. But Cantor said firmly that the Senate Bill the 21st Century Postal Service Act, which was passed by the Senate on a bipartisan vote did not enjoy majority support in the Republican-controlled House.
CBC: Canada Post workers rallied outside their office in St. John's Friday, saying they are worried about their jobs. Canada Post plans to open a new private retail outlet down the road from the main public postal centre. Postal workers say they are concerned their jobs will be cut to create new ones for private industries. Canada Post employee Mike MacDonald says the impact of privatizing parts of the postal service will be dramatic
DMM Advisory: IMb Services Update
"If the House has a plan to prevent the Postal Service from defaulting for the first time in its history in only 5 days, I think they should bring it to the floor and pass it. We shouldn't be waiting around until the 11th hour to do the right thing and fix the serious, but solvable, financial challenges plaguing this American institution. It's been 9 months since the House committee responsible for the Postal Service passed its postal reform bill, yet the House still hasn't brought that bill or any postal reform bill for that matter to the floor for a vote. My colleagues in the Senate and I came together to debate and pass a bipartisan reform bill in April. It wasn't easy and our bill isn't perfect, but we recognized that we had to act to save a $1 trillion mailing industry and the over 8 million jobs that depend on a healthy Postal Service. While the House has delayed acting to save the Postal Service, its losses have continued to mount at the rate of $25 million a day. Every day Congress delays fixing this problem, the financial challenge grows more difficult and the potential solutions become more expensive. Simply put, continuing to delay addressing the Postal Service's woes is fiscally irresponsible. Should the House fail to pass a rescue plan before August 1, the Postal Service will be forced to default further eroding confidence in its future and in Congress' ability to provide it with the reforms it needs to save itself. That shouldn't happen, and it doesn't need to happen. If House Leaders will stop punting on postal reform and start voting, we can preserve the Postal Service for future generations."
July 27, 2012
Common Dreams: If chutzpah is killing your parents then throwing yourself on the mercy of the court because you're an orphan then Peter Orszag is the poster child for chutzpah. In his recent article in Bloomberg News he insists the best fix for the post office is to take it private. Where does the chutzpah come from? Orszag was Director of the Office of Management Budget (OMB), an agency that played a key role in crippling the USPS with a manufactured financial crisis.
TMCNet: Royal Mail can now easily set and offer detailed reports as well as analytics to customers via the "iris" - mobile campaign management platform from Incentivated. Customers of Royal Mail will be provided with secure access to their own campaigns via the "iris" platform.
The latest issue of the PostCom Bulletin is available online. In this issue:
Tech Crunch: A milestone reached as the world of old media continues its push in a digital direction: the storied, pink-sheeted daily newspaper the Financial Times, read by 2.1 million readers daily, today said digital subscribers now outnumber those in print, and that digital revenues now account for half of all sales in the FT Group. And what's more, sales actually grew rather than declined. The FT says that digital subscriptions grew by 31%, and now number over 300,000, while print subscriptions are now at 299,000. The digital portion is outpacing overall growth by quite some way: the FT's total paid subscriber base (both print and online) is now at 599,000, and grew by only 2% on last year. [EdNote: Sign of the times.]
Courier, Express, and Postal Observer: The post, Growing USPS, UPS and FedEx Volume Is Not Just from E-commerce, used an exponential trend-line to illustrate the rapid growth in the share of deliverable retail sales that are delivered. However, reports from retailers about the relatively recent growth of their e-commerce business raised questions about the possibility that the shift toward delivered retail sales may be accelerating.
QRCodePress: Proves that there is still a place for snail mail in advertising. The U.S. Postal Service has shown that its QR code mailers were a positive choice for the promotions that it intends to distribute beginning in early November. These are designed to encourage smartphone users to pay closer attention to the ads. Some mobile marketers are willing to go so far as to say that with this QR code campaign, the USPS is even a little ahead of the curve in its implementation of smartphone friendly barcodes. The QR code mailers currently come with a discount of 2 percent. This reduced price is for any of the standard or first class letters, catalogs (known as flats) and mailer cards that have a QR code printed on them. They will be distributed beginning on November 7 and running through until November 21. An additional 1 percent discount is added if priority mail is used for the remainder of the year. When marketers choose to fill a small percentage of their orders using priority mail for the rest of 2012, they will also receive an additional discount of 1 percent from the cost of their QR code mail advertising cost.
Los Angeles Business Journal: Stamps.com shares sank 15 percent on Thursday after the online postal service reported a better-than-expected second quarter but warned that economic headwinds may push down growth. The economy remains challenging and "continues to affect our small business customer acquisition," said Chief Executive Ken McBride in a conference call with analysts. He did note longer-term trends were promising.
Minneapolis Star-Tribune: Your mail carrier feels threatened, and with good reason. As the U.S. Postal Service searches for a sustainable business model, more than 9,000 mail carriers descended on Minneapolis this week for the biennial convention of the National Letter Carriers Association. As a group, they are worried. They feel misunderstood. They're riled up. They donned red T-shirts, voted on a raft of resolutions, listened to speeches from politicians and union leaders, and called for the head of Patrick Donahoe, the postmaster general. "Dump Donahoe! Dump Donahoe! Dump Donahoe!" the crowd in the cavernous Minneapolis Convention Center chanted for 30 seconds before the association's president, Fredric Rolando said, "OK, I think we get it." But Donahoe is not the real problem, if you ask Scott Dulas, a mail carrier in east Duluth who had a street on his route washed away by the June flood. He places the blame for his employer's financial problems squarely at the feet of Congress.
Finchannel: UPS has named Tim Davis president of The UPS Store franchise network. Davis has served as vice president of operations for The UPS Store network since 2009 after joining the company in 2002 as vice president of technology. As the United Parcel Service of America reported, during this time, he also held the position of vice president/general manager of iShip, Inc., a UPS subsidiary. He has been responsible for the development and implementation of a variety of new technologies to better meet the needs of customers; the introduction of a new strategy to help grow print services for franchisees, and programs designed to drive operational excellence within The UPS Store network.
American Postal Workers Union: The failure of House Republican leaders to take action to resolve the congressionally-manufactured USPS financial crisis has brought the Postal Service to the brink of default, APWU President Cliff Guffey is warning union members. A $5.5 billion payment is due to the U.S. Treasury on Aug. 1, but the Postal Service cannot make the payment. The default will have no immediate impact on mail delivery or employees' pay, Guffey noted. But the missed payment will focus attention on the Postal Service and many of the pronouncements will be misleading or downright inaccurate, he warned. "Already there have been editorials calling for drastic cutbacks and privatization," he pointed out. "Most of these misguided editorials fail to recognize the cause of the Postal Service's financial difficulties, so they can't possibly advocate a reasonable solution." Although the default won't have immediate consequences for mail delivery or pay, the Postal Service's precarious financial situation has forced the USPS to begin the process of closing half of the nation's mail processing centers, scaling back overnight mail delivery, and slashing hours at post offices, the union president pointed out.
July 26, 2012
CBSNews: Shares of Valassis Communications Inc. jumped 10 percent Thursday after the advertising services company reported net income fell 28 percent because of restructuring costs, but offered an annual earnings projection above expectations. CEO Rob Mason said that during the quarter the company invested in its digital media arm by buying Brand.net and exited its solo direct mail and newspaper sampling business to focus on its core businesses. Valassis is shifting its traditional business of coupons distributed as newspaper inserts toward an increasing focus on digital coupons and other marketing as more people turn online for coupons.
Mid-North Monitor: Effective immediately the Town of Spanish will lose its Saturday postal service. The Canadian Postmasters and Assistants Association (CPAA), who work in rural post offices such as Spanish, was recently notified by the Canada Post Corporation (CPC) were proposing to eliminate Saturday service in the Spanish post office.
PRNewswire: The U.S. Postal Service recently presented its Sustainability and Energy Scorecard to the Office of Management and Budget (OMB). The OMB Sustainability and Energy Scorecard is a reporting tool that federal government agencies use to publicly report progress against their sustainability goals.
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In case you missed the PostCom CRIDs MIDs webinar, you can still check it out online (https://www1.gotomeeting.com/register/696797104) The accompanying slides are available online as well.
At the Postal Regulatory Commission: Be sure to check out the new section of the Postal Regulatory Commission web site that describes and explains the responsibilities and role of the Public Representatives assigned to each docket http://www.prc.gov/prc-pages/about/PR.aspx?section=publicreprole including a current list of the individuals assigned as Public Representatives. http://www.prc.gov/PRC-DOCS/home/info_for_mail_comm/Public%20Representatives.pdf
Federal Business Opportunities: The United States Postal Service (USPS) is seeking new and/or updated product information regarding small footprint flat mail sequencing systems. This is a continuation of market research efforts initiated by the USPS in April 2011 to identify potential sources for a Phase II of our Flat Sequencing System (FSS) Program. This second notice is provided to ensure that any other interested suppliers are given the opportunity to communicate their interest and available technology, including any changes to information previously provided.
New York Daily News: A former US mail carrier is raking in thousands of dollars a year with his self-designed postal apparel to former colleagues - even though federal officials have threatened to sue him. Marty Grace, who quit his 22-year job as a mail carrier in 2007 at a Bedford-Stuyvesant post office, now designs T-shirts, hoodies and polos worn by over 30,000 postal workers around the country who rock "Designs by Marty Grace" on the job as opposed to the drab United States Postal Service uniforms. Grace, who was booted out of Brooklyn post offices in 2008 for peddling his wares inside, now sells his duds out of his minivan directly outside post offices across the five boroughs to workers on break.
New York Times: Even as the United States Postal Service sinks toward bankruptcy, House Republicans are abandoning their promise to debate postal reform before the August recess. Preoccupied with re-election, Republican members recently found time to cast their 33rd obsessive vote to repeal or defund the new health care law. Yet no floor time has been made available to address ways to help the Postal Service as it faces default Aug. 1 on a $5.5 billion obligation in retirement financing. Don't worry, is their cavalier advice, the mail will still be delivered. This is true in the short run, but it is a blow to the service's business prospects and a blot on the House in failing to meet a basic civic responsibility to constituents. Congress supplies no taxpayer support to the service, but lawmakers do not hesitate to interfere with proposed reforms like the shutting of little-used post offices.
From the Federal Register:
July 25, 2012
Post & Parcel: Russia's deputy communications minister said on Monday that postal reform legislation will be prepared for introduction to the State Duma this autumn. Following on from last week's promise by ministers to unveil a national modernisation strategy for Russian Post, Denis Sverlov said this week that a new law dubbed "On Postal Communication" was set to improve the postal network in Russia. He said the quality of services at Russian Post was currently "unsatisfactory", and suggested that reforms will only prove successful if 80% of Russians are satisfied with the work of the Post.
Reuters: Google Inc, Amazon.com Inc, eBay Inc, Facebook Inc and other big Internet companies are starting a trade association to handle political and regulatory issues in Washington, a person close to the group said on Wednesday. The Internet Association, which will open its doors in September, will act as a unified voice for major Internet companies, said President Michael Beckerman, a former advisor to the chairman of the U.S. House of Representatives' Energy and Commerce Committee. Beckerman would not identify the association's members or discuss which issues the group will focus on. But the source confirmed that leading members were Google, Amazon, eBay and Facebook. Internet companies have been lobbying recently on issues as disparate as easing visa restrictions to hire overseas engineers, revenue repatriation, privacy, cybersecurity and sales taxes for Internet companies.
The Consumerist: Jane's order from the Gap shipped using FedEx Smartpost. That's a service that uses FedEx's network to get items from the vendor to the local post office, then turns packages over to the USPS, which is stoping by your house anyway, for final delivery. This seems like a really great idea in theory, but leaves a pretty big crack for packages to slip through. Both systems say that her package has been delivered. It hasn't. Well, it sort of had--it was delivered to the local post office, which normally isn't what "delivered" means using SmartPost.
PRNewswire: The Board of Governors of the U.S. Postal Service will meet Aug. 9 in open session at Postal Service headquarters, 475 L'Enfant Plaza, SW, Washington, DC. The public is welcome to observe the meeting beginning at 8:30 a.m. in the Ben Franklin Room on the 11th floor. The Board is expected to discuss the following items: (1) Minutes of the previous meetings (2) Remarks of the Chairman of the Board (3) Remarks of the Postmaster General and CEO (4) Committee reports (5) Quarterly report on financial performance (6) Quarterly report on service performance.
Open session meetings of the Board of Governors are available on live audio webcasts at http://about.usps.com/news/electronic-press-kits/bog/welcome.htm. Three hours after the conclusion of the open session meeting, a recorded audio file will be available for listening. In compliance with Section 508 of the Rehabilitation Act, the audio webcast will be open-captioned.
Following the Board's open meeting on Aug. 9, Acting Chief Financial Officer Stephen Masse will host a telephone/web conference call to discuss the financial results in more detail. The call will begin at 11:30 a.m. ET and is open to the news media and all other interested parties. To attend by phone with audio only: dial 866-966-6305 (Meeting ID: 9511792). To attend the web conference and join with audio: (1) Browse to: http://meetingplace4.usps.gov/join.asp?9511792. (2) After the MeetingPlace window is open, click the Phone icon (under the Participant List or in the upper right-hand corner). (3) Click Connect Me, validate or update your phone number and click Connect Me again. (4) When the system calls you, press 1 to join. The briefing will also be available on live audio webcast (listen only) at: http://about.usps.com/news/electronic-press-kits/cfo/welcome.htm.
National Association of Letter Carriers: Running through the second day of the NALC's 68th biennial convention was the theme that while things look unquestionably bleak for the U.S. Postal Service, there is still time to help the agency innovate and grow its business. Reaching that goal, however, likely will require shared sacrifices from Congress, consumers, postal management and postal employees. However, seeds of hope can be seen in the growing package delivery business and in carriers who participate in Customer Connect to bring more business to USPS.
Postalnews Blog: Citibank's Peter Orszag thinks the US Postal Service needs to be privatized. In an article for Bloomberg, he doesn't exactly explain why this is necessary, but simply insists that it is. Here's an example, where he talks about the Universal Service Obligation: For the hard-to-reach, unprofitable routes, a subsidy could be provided. This would be more economical than the vast and opaque cross-subsidies now used to ensure universal service. Peter never bothers to specify what those "vast and opaque cross-subsidies" are, (probably because they exist only in his mind). If you're pushing privatization, it's a bit awkward to admit that you'd need subsidies to maintain service, so why not just pretend that there are already "vast" subsidies in place, and go on to your next point! But never mind that- Peter Orszag is uniquely qualified to pontificate on issues involving government and private enterprise, because he's operated quite skillfully on both sides. In 2008 President Obama put him in charge of the Office of Management and Budget, where he worked on health care reform, and the continuation of the Bush Wall Street bailout. But after just two years at OMB, Orszag moved on to greener pastures- as Will Wilkinson wrote for the Economist in December 2010: Last week, Mr Orszag accepted a senior position at the investment-banking arm of Citigroup, an institution that exists in its present form thanks to massive infusions of taxpayer cash. Exactly how much Citigroup pay Mr Orszag is not public knowledge, but swapping tweed for sharkskin should leave him sitting pretty. Bankers who spoke to the New York Times ballparked his yearly salary at $2-3m. So I think it's safe to say that Peter Orszag knows what he's talking about when he tells us to ignore the facts and privatize the USPS. He's talking about money, and lots of it!
Postalnews Blog: You can tell that it's (still) silly season in Washington when a US Senator issues a press release to announce that a postal clerk has been transferred from Juneau to Skagway. The Senator points out, however, that this is not just any clerk- this is a clerk who "understands Alaska". We don't know what that means, exactly, but we wish the unnamed clerk good luck in turning around the "intolerable" conditions at the Skagway PO! No pressure!
Election Mail and Political Mail. Many states across the country are preparing for this year's election including the Presidential Election Nov. 6, 2012. The Postal Service is responsible for providing information to assist in the preparation and deposit of both Political Mailings and Election Mail; as well as for the proper acceptance, processing, delivery, and recording of all these mailings. We also have information to help you understand the difference between these two types of election-related mail. The U.S. Postal Service (USPS) makes it easy to add the value of mail to your next election. We provide training, tools, and resources to help you and your staff get started. We'll even help you plan your program, improve the quality and accuracy of your address file, and design smart, cost-effective mail pieces. You can find information on how to create Election Mail at https://www.usps.com/gov-services/gov-services.htm Mail is an increasingly important part of U.S. elections, and we keep our country strong by ensuring that messages from candidates and political committees are brought as quickly as possible to American voters. We are confident that any planned consolidations of USPS facilities will have no impact on the delivery of election-related or political mail for the November elections.
CEP News (Courier-Express-Postal), published by the MRU Consultancy, has reported that:
Has Austrian Post to look out for a new CEO soon? According to continued rumours on the market CEO Georg Pzl has been named as a candidate for the top-position at Telekom Austria.
Itella will co-operate with a Google specialist in the future to offer custom tailored digital services to Finnish SMEs.
Preparations for the privatisation of Portuguese CTT Correios apparently are at full blast.
The MRU, founded in 1992, is the only consultancy in Europe, which has specialised in the market of courier-, express- and parcel services. For large-scale shippers and CEP-services in particular, the MRU provides interdisciplinary advice for all major questions of the market, as there are for example market entry, product design, organisation, and EDP.To learn more about the stories reported above, contact CEP News. (We appreciate the courtesy extended by CEP News to help whet your appetite for more of what CEP offers.)
CNET: The majority of Americans are very much against the practice of tailored political ads, a specific market that is seeing tremendous growth as we get closer and closer to the 2012 election. In fact, most Americans dislike tailored political advertising so much they claim it decreases their chance of voting for a candidate they already support. [EdNote: Hint. Move it to the mail.]
PRLog: UK Mail, the Midlands based parcels and logistics company, is set to enhance the way businesses shape their direct marketing campaigns with a new, effective initiative. The service, imail data' was launched in July by the firm's hybrid mailing brand imail.' It will enable businesses to buy consumer data, creating a vital link between customers and targeted direct marketing campaigns. The service emphasises how important it is for relevant data reaching relevant contacts, therefore increasing its economical impact.
SourceWire: Fax - the 80's office staple, could soon experience a revival as a survey conducted by Esker UK Ltd, one of the UK's leading providers of end-to-end document automation solutions, has revealed that many UK companies are considering going Back to Fax' in a bid to beat the recent Royal Mail price hikes. Despite the advent of the Internet, fax persists as one of the most common business communication methods, particularly when it comes to critical production documents such as invoices, sales orders and purchase orders. Indeed, fax presents benefits where other communication means cannot compete: it provides immediate results, the delivery is reliable and secure, the content is neutral, it's user-friendly and it's universal.
YLE: Corporation turnover rose by just under one percent to stand at 473 billion euros. Losses dropped year-on-year from 4.7 million euros to 3.1 million euros. Itella cut a total of 460 jobs last year. According to President and CEO Jukka Alho, the restructuring measures were essential in a tough competitive climate. "Electronic communications have cut the delivery necessity of letters and papers," he notes. Itella currently employs 27,660 people. A year ago, its payroll strength stood at 29,200.
From the Federal Register: Postal Service PROPOSED RULES Eligibility Criteria for Bound Printed Matter Parcels , 43561-43562 [2012-18085][TEXT] [PDF]
Bloomberg: Those who believe in the usefulness of government must be vigilant about making sure all its activities are vital ones, since the unnecessary ones undermine public confidence. With this in mind, Congress should now privatize the U.S. Postal Service. Further evidence for why this should happen came last week, when the Postal Service announced that it would be unable to meet billions of dollars in payments that are coming due in August and September for future retiree health benefits. Privatization is not always the best way to improve efficiency, but the problems facing the Postal Service will be difficult to address if it remains within the government, and there is no longer any sound reason for it not to go private.
Sacramento Bee: U.S. Sen. Lisa Murkowski sees the hire of another worker in the Skagway post office as a step toward getting residents "the kind of postal service they can count on." Murkowski raised concerns about staffing and mail delays following a visit to Skagway in May. Since then, a spokesman for the U.S. Postal Service says things have changed.
Atlanta Journal Constitution: UPS expects the global economy to get worse before it gets better. Again. The world's largest package delivery company is more pessimistic about U.S. growth than many economists. It predicts global trade will grow even slower than the world's economies a trend not seen since the recession. It's making cuts in its business and reducing its earnings projections.
July 24, 2012
PRNewswire: Royal Mail has appointed leading mobile marketing and technology firm, Incentivated, to be their mobile partner, in order to help their business customers improve response rates from direct mail promotions as part of the new MarketReach initiative, launched this week. In these days of email inbox overload and budget cutting, there is an emerging willingness to revisit the entire marketing toolbox. This includes printed mail where, due to the rush to email, there is now a better opportunity to achieve stand-out on the doormat. Royal Mail's MarketReach business is helping brands to improve visibility and ROI (currently measured at an average of 3 for every 1 spent according to Royal Mail) with the combination of a range of creative and digital response mechanisms. Royal Mail has launched MarketReach to provide companies and their agencies with a full suite of mail solutions to grow their businesses. MarketReach will provide the expertise and skills needed to add a real element to marketing campaigns which are becoming increasingly digital-led.
Knoxville News: It was all perfectly legal and convenient for Colorado shooting suspect James Holmes to turn to e-commerce to allegedly stock his arsenal for a movie theater shooting spree. Holmes had reportedly amassed more than 6,000 rounds of small arms ammunition from online arms merchants and had the bullets delivered by private carriers that may have included FedEx and United Parcel Service. Memphis-based FedEx and Atlanta-based UPS said Monday they were cooperating with investigators and took a relatively low profile about possible involvement in the alleged shooter's supply chain. While the U.S. Postal Service does not carry live ammunition, FedEx and UPS routinely do so under special conditions imposed on hazardous cargo. Asked about reports of a surveillance video showing Holmes picking up 150 pounds of ammunition at a FedEx outlet in Colorado.
PRNewswire: The best deal in shipping just added a bit more cushion as the U.S. Postal Service has introduced the first Express Mail Padded Flat Rate Envelope. The new envelope measures 9 1/2-by-12 1/2 inches and can be ordered exclusively online and free of charge at usps.com beginning Aug. 2. It is ideal for sending merchandise that requires a little extra padding to almost anywhere in the country overnight $17.75 for commercial or online customers.
Manila Bulletin: The International Air Cargo Association (TIACA) has urged countries to follow the lead of the US, the EU, Switzerland and Canada in pursuing mutual recognition agreements for air cargo security. TIACA has called the agreements as "welcomed and sensible progress" towards the shared goals of maintaining the highest levels of air cargo security without impeding international air cargo supply chains. TIACA says the progress made by governments to recognize each other's national air cargo security regimes will eliminate duplication of security controls and the costs and time delays associated with this whilst ensuring strict air cargo safety and security requirements continue to be met consistently.
Associated Press: Two postal officials from Kenya and Uruguay have emerged as leading candidates to run the U.N. agency that sets the rules for international mail among 192 nations. The election for director general of the Universal Postal Union, a U.N. agency based in the Swiss capital Bern, is scheduled for October 10 in Doha, Qatar. UPU spokesman Rheal LeBlanc says Bishar Hussein, a Kenyan diplomat and former chief executive officer of the Kenyan Post, is competing for the post against Serrana Bassini Casco, secretary general of Postal Union of the Americas, Spain and Portugal. Edouard Dayan of France has been UPU's head since January 2005. LeBlanc told reporters Tuesday in Geneva that two postal officials from Switzerland and the United States are vying to serve as deputy head of the agency.
The Motley Fool: Ali vs. Frazier. Roger Moore vs. Sean Connery. Ginger vs. Mary Ann. Although these are some of the greatest rivalries in history, there is one contest between two giants of the logistics sector that dwarfs all others: UPS vs. FedEx. That conflict has heated up recently with new acquisitions and deals from both companies. Let's examine some of these transactions and the potential impact they could have for UPS, the leader in logistics. Brown never looked so good On July 13, UPS announced that it will have completed its acquisition of TNT Express by the end of 2012. TNT Express is a leading international logistics company, serving more than 200 countries with a fleet of more than 30,000 trucks and planes. Right now 26% of UPS' profits come from outside the U.S. The company expects TNT Express to bump that share up to 36%. Thus, TNT will dramatically increase UPS' global reach, and will help Big Brown compete on a larger scale with FedEx.
On Alternative Postal Business Models | Or, if you prefer a video . . . . Just click play. |
| Alternative Postal Business Models. |
Multichannel Merchant: Four prominent trade groups, including the American Catalog Mailers Organization and the Direct Marketing Association, today announced the formation of a coalition titled TruST (True Simplification of Taxation) to fight pending Internet sales tax legislation. TruST was also co-founded by NetChoice and the Electronic Retailing Association. TruST will be an ongoing resource for anyone mobilizing against new remote sales and use taxes, "which will slow and harm the growth of catalog and online retail," according to the new coalition.
Courier, Express, and Postal Observer: The Courier Express and Postal Observer has calculated that the share of retail sales that are delivered direct to consumers in May hit 21.3% of all deliverable retail sales. This figure is based on the latest release of the Census Bureau's monthly retail sales report released on July 16th. Over the first five months sales requiring delivery grew by 16.3% over year ago levels. Current trends indicate that the share of deliverable retail sales that the Postal Service, FedEx, United Parcel Service and regional carriers deliver will hit at least 24% by January of next year by the end of the decade one-third or more of retail spending of consumers that could be delivered will be delivered.
Flathead Beacon: With the U.S. House of Representatives unlikely to vote on a postal reform bill before August recess, it's unclear whether comprehensive legislation to address the U.S. Postal Service's deep financial woes will make it out of Congress this year. Last week, Montana Sen. Max Baucus expressed concern that lack of congressional action could harm rural post offices and mail processing centers, including a facility slated for closure in Kalispell. Baucus also wondered about the impact on November's elections in states like Montana that rely heavily on mail ballots, though a Postal Service spokesperson said mail-processing centers won't be consolidated until the beginning of 2013.
The Fiscal Times: Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner and scores of Treasury officials resorted to a number of financial tricks last year to prevent the government from bumping up against the government's legal borrowing limit known as the debt ceiling. The delay last year in raising that limit while President Obama and congressional Republicans fought over spending and tax issues boosted the Treasury's borrowing costs by about $1.3 billion in fiscal 2011 and could eventually add more to the government's costs, according to a study issued Monday by the Government Accountability Office. "Delays in raising the debt limit can create uncertainty in the Treasury market and lead to higher Treasury borrowing costs," according to the GAO, a non partisan government watchdog organization. "However, this does not account for the multi-year effects on increased costs for Treasury securities that will remain outstanding after fiscal year 2011." Moreover, the report found that Treasury officials were so obsessed with dealing with the mushrooming political and financial crisis before a deal was finally struck over the last weekend in July that it "diverted Treasury's staff away from other important cash and debt management responsibilities." Some of the delaying tactics included suspending investments of the Civil Service Retirement and Disability Fund and the Postal Service Retiree Health benefits Funds. As it turned out, these and other actions carried hidden costs that are just now being revealed.
Roll Call: Senate Republicans are charging Democrats with embracing the "nuclear option" in their move to alter the filibuster. Reid has vowed to do away with filibusters on procedural votes if Democrats hold the majority in the November elections. Senate Republicans oppose the idea, and in particular they take issue with Reid's threat to change the rule through a majority vote of just 51 Senators. Changes to the Senate rules typically occur on a two-thirds, or 67-vote, threshold, but the chamber's rules allow for changes to be made with the consent of 51 Members if those changes are voted on at the beginning of the Congressional session. Overcoming a filibuster requires 60 votes, and Reid contends that Republicans have abused the tactic.
PolicyMic: Privatizing the post office would allow the private sector to break the unions that have worked so hard to make the USPS what it is today. Destroying unions, reducing pay and benefits on the alter of profits will not improve service. It will not increase employment. It will not decrease hard-working Americans' increasing dependence on food stamps and other welfare programs. It will make someone somewhere millions of dollars, and in all likelihood end Saturday mail service, and maybe even the post office as we know it.
PRNewswire: The National Association of Letter Carriers is holding its 68th biennial convention all week in Minneapolis, with a major goal of the 9,100 delegates being to help forge a path to financial success for the United States Postal Service. Given the lack of political and postal leadership in Washington, it is up to letter carriers to help point the way forward, NALC President Fredric Rolando said. With first-class mail declining in volume, the Postal Service faces financial challenges, but at the same time a rapid increase in parcels and packages offers ways to serve residents and businesses while boosting postal revenue, President Rolando said.
Post & Parcel: Poste Italiane has signed a new agreement with Russian Post to work to modernise postal logistics in Russia, and help introduce "next generation" services.
The following report recently was posted on the U.S. Postal Service Office of Inspector General website (http://www.uspsoig.gov). If you have additional questions concerning a report, please contact Wally Olihovik at 703-248-2201 or Agapi Doulaveris at 703-248-2286.
21st Century Post Office: Non-Postal Products and Services (Report Number DA-MA-12-005). Our report determined the U.S. Postal Service could increase the value of Post Office retail facilities and address community needs by evaluating and offering non-postal products and services. The Postal Service should consider offering non-postal products and services at strategically placed retail locations with sufficient foot traffic to help ensure success. Examples of non-postal products and services include expanded government services, Internet access, and notary services. Finally, the Postal Service needs to address barriers to offering non-postal products.
July 23, 2012
Philadelphia Inquirer: The U.S. Postal Service expects a slight delay in the overhaul needed to stave off collapse of the nation's mail system perhaps six months or more. As a supporter of a credible Senate aid plan, Sen. Tom Carper (D., Del.) rightly calls it "irresponsible" for the House to kick the can down the road. He says the agency has lost more than $2 billion just since the Senate approved its reform package in April. Carper said a threatened Aug. 1 default on a $5.5 billion Postal Service payment to its health fund would "further weaken business and consumer confidence in the future of this American institution."
Save the Post Office: "The year of wishful thinking: The market research on Network Rationalization"
Lexology: Yet another U.S. Postal Service manager has pled guilty to fraud and corruption charges relating to USPS transportation contracts. In March 2012, the former USPS Manager of Postal Vehicle Service Operations for the Bay Valley District in Oakland, CA was indicted in a $4.4 million fraudulent billing scheme. Last year, five Postal Service officials at the Detroit, MI Vehicle Maintenance Facility were charged with similar crimes. One might well wonder how many more such episodes need to be uncovered before the Postal Service issues binding procurement regulations and institutes effective protest procedures. Here's what happened in the most recent case.
KCRG: Sen. Chuck Grassley, R-Iowa, and Rep. Bruce Braley, D-Iowa, each grew up in small Iowa towns Grassley in New Hartford, Braley in Brooklyn where the post office was central to the community. Today Grassley and Braley don't agree on much at the Capitol. But they and other members of Iowa's congressional delegation are allied in an ongoing struggle to keep the state's rural post offices alive.
The U.S. Postal Service Office of Inspector General invites you to comment on the following: This week's "Pushing the Envelope" blog topic: Hitting the Goal Targeting the Results of AMP Consolidations. After implementing an area mail processing (AMP) consolidation, the U.S. Postal Service completes a post-implementation review (PIR). This two-step process compares pre- and post-consolidation data and tells management whether an AMP achieved the anticipated results. Do you think the PIR adequately measures AMP consolidations? What other ways can the Postal Service effectively measure AMP consolidations? Share your thoughts on our blog.
Warsaw Business Journal: Poczta Polska (the Polish Post) is planning widespread investments totaling z .800 million by 2015, Parkiet reported. Poland's national postal service is investing in a major overhaul of its IT, logistics and transport systems, as well as the look of its branches. This year alone, the company plans to spend z .272 million on changes, about z .170 million more than in 2011.
July 22, 2012
Associated Press: Senate-passed bills to cut farm subsidies and food stamps and overhaul the financially teetering Postal Service have been put on hold by House Republican leaders wary of igniting internal party fights or risking voters' ire three months before the election. The House is scheduled this week to take up a bill to replace the Obama administration's offshore drilling plan, and the Senate will ignore it, and some measures to reduce government red tape. What's not on the schedule are a farm bill important to farmers coping with a drought and a Postal Service bill dealing with politically unpopular but inevitable post office closings and a scaling back of mail delivery.
Pakistan Observer: Federal Secretary Postal Services Ikram Ul Haq said that government is not keen to improve postal services in Pakistan as even not a single penny has been allocated in (PSDP) for current financial year. Talking to Intime News Agency federal secretary said that however they have plan computerized the post offices all over the country but ministry have not enough to execute the plan. Despite difficulties we are going to launch a pilot project to upgrade the General Post Offices (GPO)s on self help base. Under the project we will computerize 38 GPO from all over the country that would be functional soon. After getting success in pilot project we will extend it to all GPOs of the country. Talking about the functions of Pakistan Post the largest postal services as over 13000 post offices are exist in the country where in over 48000 employees are attached with the department. When he was asked that government is going to privatize the Pakistan Post Office, Federal Secretary said that during my tenure privatization is not possible; he will not allow playing with the future of more than 48000 employees of postal services.
July 21, 2012
Desig nNews: United Parcel Service (UPS) is redesigning its familiar brown delivery trucks with plastics to save up to 40 percent in fuel costs compared to the standard aluminum-body vehicle. The company expects to achieve this goal by replacing metal truck bodies with composites and other plastics, which will lighten their weight by 900 pounds. It plans to buy 150 new trucks with the plastic bodies, with delivery slated for the fourth quarter of this year.
From the Federal Register: Postal Service NOTICES Meetings; Sunshine Act , 43129 [201218065] [TEXT ] [PDF]
Reuters: EU antitrust regulators stepped up their investigation into United Parcel Service's 5.2 billion euro ($6.4 billion) bid for Dutch peer TNT Express on Friday, saying they were concerned about the combined company's large market share.
DMM Advisory:
Modern Service Standards Maps Service Standards maps and data files containing originating, destinating, and destination entry data files have been added to the Modern Service Standards page on RIBBS at https://ribbs.usps. gov/index.cfm?page=modernservice. The maps reflect service standards for market dominant (Mailing Services) products that are effective as of July 1, 2012. A Service Standard represents the level of service that the USPS strives to provide to customers. These standards are one of the primary operational goals and provide benchmarks against which we measure service performance success.
IMb Services Update
- PostalOne! Outage An Oracle database upgrade for PostalOne! Production and the Test Environment for Mailers (TEM) will be completed during an extended maintenance window from 6 p.m. Saturday, August 4, 2012, through noon CDT Sunday, August 5, 2012. During this outage, PostalOne!, Mail.dat and Mail.XML will be unavailable, including FAST and eDOC Web Services.
- Reminder: PostalOne! Database Maintenance Maintenance on PostalOne! servers is scheduled between 4 a.m. CDT and 8 a.m. CDT on Sunday, July 22, 2012. This will be done in a rolling fashion with no expected outage. Users may experience brief connectivity interruptions but should be able to immediately log back into the system.
- Reminder: FAST Deployment FAST Oracle 11 upgrade will be deployed to the Production environment effective Sunday, August 5, 2012. The FAST Online Application and Web Services messaging will not be available during the 2 a.m. to 8 a.m. CDT deployment window on Sunday, August 5, 2012. All FAST Web Services messages received during this time will be queued and processed after deployment is completed. For questions or requests for additional information, contact the FAST Help Desk (FAST@usps.gov or 1-877-569-6614).
At the Postal Regulatory Commission: Docket No. MC2012-13 Order Conditionally Granting Request to Transfer Parcel Post to the Competitive Product List
July 20, 2012
Courier, Express, and Postal Observer: In a a filing with the SEC this week Harte-Hanks, provided an indication that the slowdown in Standard Mail volume and revenue that the Postal Service has recently has hit a major provider of direct mail services particularly hard. The filing included three significant announcements. First, Harte-Hanks lowered its earnings guidance. Second, it announced that smply that declines in direct mail marketing has hit its business hard. Harte Hanks announced that Gary Skidmore, Executive Vice President and President, Direct Marketing would be leaving the firm. Third, Harte-Hanks announce that it will write off all or nearly all of the goodwill associated with its shoppers business that is on its books. The decision by Harte-Hanks management to write down all or nearly all of the goodwill value of its shoppers business suggests that management no longer believes that the business has much value as a profit generator going forward. Part of the problem is that Shoppers publications both serve smaller businesses that have been hit hard by on-line retailing and the anemic recovery. Another problem is that Craiglist.org and deal websites such as Group-On and Living Social, and other web-based advertising are poaching advertising dollars that may have been spent on ads in Shopper publications that Harte-Hanks publishes.
Post & Parcel: Poste Italiane's parcel and express subsidiary SDA Express Courier S.p.A. has become an official shareholder of the Eurodis transcontinental distribution network. The company has taken a 12.4% share of the holding company Eurodis GmbH from the main shareholders Austrian Post and its international subsidiary trans-o-flex.
BusinessWire: Today, in response to the United States Postal Service's (USPS) announcement that it will default on its future retiree health benefit payment due August 1, the Council for Citizens Against Government Waste (CCAGW) again slammed Congress for failing to enact a meaningful set of structural reforms that would improve USPS's fiscal health. The Postal Service, which lost $8.5 billion in fiscal year (FY) 2010, $5.1 billion in FY 2011, and $3.3 billion in the first quarter of FY 2012, is literally on the brink of financial ruin and, as with all of the nation's fiscal problems, Congress is ignoring the problem as it grows increasingly critical.
Reuters: The Post Office is broken, in large part thanks to unhelpful meddling by Congress. And it won't get fixed unless and until Congress gets out of the way and stops forcing it into the corporate equivalent of ketosis, essentially consuming its own flesh in order to survive.
Post & Parcel: Dozens of private sector operators of retail mailing and shipping stores in the US have complained to regulators about US Postal Service plans to offer enhanced PO Box services in post offices. At least 40 operators, including a number of The UPS Store franchisees, filed with the Postal Regulatory Commission today as part of a complaints process regarding new USPS PO Box services introduced since 22nd January this year. The "enhanced" services that have attracted the operators' anger include the acceptance of parcels from private carriers like UPS, FedEx and DHL on behalf of USPS PO Box customers, "a practice that has been prohibited for years", and the ability of PO Box customers to use the street address of the post office in which their PO Box is housed rather than a formal PO Box address. The notification of PO Box customers by email or text regarding items received in their PO Box is also among the "enhanced" services that the rival mailing store operators claimed was introduced by USPS without gaining the required regulatory approval. Many of the operators have noted the large volumes of mail they handle for the US Postal Service, and note the fact that they are regulated by USPS, facing restrictions on their own business activities like forwarding mail, as part of the regulation by their competitor. The new enhanced services for PO Boxes in post offices would mean USPS competing against existing small mailing branches across the US, the operators claim.
Courier, Express, and Postal Observer: Amazon has now introduced parcel lockers to a third metropolitan area in the United States by installing seven parcel lockers in seven 7-Eleven's in Northern Virginia. By installing parcel lockers in the same general geographic area as the Postal Service, Amazon clearly indicates that its parcel locker delivery system is a direct competitor with delivery by the U.S. Postal Service, United Parcel Service and FedEx.
Times Ledger: The Romans had a postal service in the second century that might be called "letter perfect." Nothing, or almost nothing, could keep their postal carriers from completing their rounds. Known for the well-engineered roads that covered the empire, it was an easy task for their horse-drawn mail carts to travel in the second century at least 50 miles a day. Relay teams, which could travel 50 miles a day and beyond, could easily deliver messages of urgency and were able to cover 170 miles a day. The emperor Augustus, who reigned from 27 B.C. to A.D. 14, established Rome's first official postal service to communicate reliably as well as rapidly with the help of his numerous governors and military officials. Augustus and his successors used the so-called "cursus publicus" (fast course) mail course, which were reserved for government officials though private letters were usually carried by merchants and/or servants. [EdNote: Of course, if you messed up mail service....you ended up in the arena. Augustus was not known for tolerating failure.]
Press Rlease: Bell and Howell, a leading provider of solutions and services for paper-based and digital messaging, today announced Mixed-Class Comail support for its BCC Mail Manager Full Service software. This feature is ideal for large commercial printers, co-minglers and logistics providers to the mailing industry, allowing them to combine volumes from periodical flats and standard flats into a single mailing to maximize postage discounts.
The latest issue of the PostCom Bulletin is available online. In this issue:
Consumer Focus: A new report from Consumer Focus Sense and Sustainability explores how 21st century consumers are likely to use the postal service in the future given the range of communication options available to them. The report is intended to encourage debate on how the postal service should change to meet the needs of consumers in the digital age, as use of mobile phones and the internet replaces letter writing. In particular it explores the possible implications for the universal postal service obligation. The research revealed that consumers' habits when communicating for personal and business reasons have changed over recent years and are continuing to change, and that in the future they will use the postal service in a different way. Consumers are placing a different emphasis on the service, with a shift from sending letters to receiving parcels, which means a greater interest in making deliveries more convenient. E-retail is a significant growth sector and the postal service has a key role to play for businesses, especially small and medium enterprises (SMEs).
Key findings from the research also showed that: (1) residential consumers may be willing to accept a reduced number of postal deliveries during the week, although SME consumers would only be willing to accept losing the Saturday delivery; (2) residential consumers are also prepared to see the removal of the distinction between First and Second Class post as they see little meaningful difference in service quality between the two; (3) consumers want several paybacks' for a reduction in service frequency; (4) greater innovation in delivery options for packets and parcels extending the number and range of pick up points to include longer opening hours and more convenient locations maintaining the current pricing structure (one price goes anywhere'); (5) regulation of reliability and punctuality; (6) the majority of consumers felt that vulnerable groups, such as low income households, older people or those with disabilities, would be further excluded by wider use of electronic forms of communication and wanted the postal regulator, Ofcom, to be given powers to protect these consumers.
Bloomberg: FedEx Corp.'s (FDX) plan to boost air cargo profit margins to 10 percent or more, partly by replacing junkyard-ready jets with more efficient models, will be challenged by a yearlong wait for the first of the new planes.
BBC: A cap on prices that Royal Mail can charge for large letters and small parcels sent by second-class post has been confirmed by the regulator. Ofcom decided that the price limit would be linked to the rise allowed for regular second-class stamps. It estimated that half the amount spent by the average family on postal services was the cost of sending large letters and small parcels.
The Toronto Star: With arbitration stalled and no sign of a new contract any time soon, Canada Post took the unusual step Thursday of tabling a revised offer to postal employees who were legislated back to work more than a year ago. The Canadian Union of Postal Workers quickly issued a bulletin, saying it is calling its negotiating team together to review the offer. It noted the company posted the offer on its website even before the union had a chance to meet and review it.
The Orange County Register: Now it's the U.S. Postal Service that's basically bankrupt. The problems with the USPS are obvious. The primary business, delivering first-class mail, has largely been by superseded by email. Package delivery largely was taken over by Federal Express and UPS, two private firms that do a better job even though they have to pay taxes, unlike the USPS, a nonprofit independent government agency. A third problem is that the USPS still operates, like many government agencies at all levels, on a "defined benefit" retirement model. Retired employees get pension and medical benefits, no matter the cost, with taxpayers supposed to pick up any unexpected expenses. The obvious solution is privatization, which actually was advanced in the final months of the Reagan administration in 1988. Subsequent administrations have had no interest in privatization. Mitt Romney, the presumptive Republican nominee for president, hasn't talked about it although it has been advanced by one of his economic advisers, Kevin Hassett.
Pub lic News Service: The National Association of Letter Carriers (NALC) says a bill awaiting a vote in the U.S. House would all but guarantee a future collapse of the U.S. Postal Service (USPS). Mike Zagaros is president of NALC Branch 9, based in the Twin Cities. He says HR 2309 would end delivery service to the doorsteps of 90 percent of American homes, eliminate Saturday mail delivery, and result in massive delays through downsizing. Rep. Darrell Issa (R-Calif., Dist. 49) says the legislation would provide a viable path forward to make the Postal Service more efficient, protect its workforce and ultimately return it to profitability.
From the Federal Register:
Washington Post: Would it startle you to learn that the U.S. Postal Service netted an impressive profit in the first quarter of this fiscal year? Probably so, given all that has been said about an agency supposedly bleeding billions of dollars as Americans abandon paper mail for the ease of the Internet. One prevalent myth is that delivering the mail to 150 million addresses six days a week, as more people turn to the Internet, puts taxpayers on the hook for multibillion-dollar losses. In fact, boosted by record worker productivity, the Postal Service is admirably weathering the worst economy in 80 years. In fiscal 2007 through 2010, if you subtract the related costs from the earned revenue from mail delivery (the Postal Service hasn't received taxpayer money in 30 years), it had an operating profit of $611 million. There is indeed red ink, but the reasons are unrelated to the mail. In 2006 Congress required that, within the next decade, the Postal Service pre-fund future retiree health benefits for the next 75 years a burden no other agency or company faces. That accounts for 85 percent of all of the agency's red ink since and more than 90 percent of the $6.46 billion shortfall from the first half of fiscal 2012.
July 19, 2012
The official launch of Task Team #16, Technical Issues related to Non-Physical Addresses (TINPA). The Task Team now appears in MITS. This Task Team's sponsors are Sharon Harrison (MTAC Leader for First-Class Mail) and Jim Cochrane (USPS VP, Product Information). The Task Team Leaders are Adam Collinson (Industry; Grayhair), Mike Tate (Industry; Bank of America), and Jim Wilson (Postal; Manager, Address Management). Because Financial First-Class mailers are the major industry stakeholders in this Task Team, Sharon Harrison will assist the leaders of this Task Team to its conclusion. The Task Team is set up to address the following issue: A new Post Office Box address style designed to be a street-style address has been rolled out to approximately 8-9M customer boxes. In MTAC User Group # 5, the industry identified several concerns/issues related to the street-style address approach, and raised questions related to its program implementation. The Postal Service maintains address information to serve operational needs related to the mailing function, and thus considers issues regarding the use of address information for non-mailing related purposes to be outside the scope of MTAC. However, other technical solutions may be identified through a Task Team focused on determining whether reasonable and viable additional options can be developed to assist mailers in the identification of non-physical addresses, taking into consideration the fairness of the proposals to the impacted parties. This may have an impact on other issues / procedures in that the Industry sees issues with the detailed CASS results on the PBSA addresses, most of which are related to issues UG # 5 has already identified. This Task Team should explore technical implications to identified policy solutions (example: if industry wants a physical indicator, then will it be recognized by CASS, etc.). The desired results from this Task Team are to: Determine whether reasonable and viable additional options can be developed to assist mailers in the identification of non-physical addresses Give due consideration to the fairness of the proposals to the impacted parties Propose technical solution options The expected date of completion is November 28, 2012.
Scripps News: How can the USPS remain at all viable? There can be no turning back the clock to the 1970 Postal Reorganization Act, in which Congress in its wisdom decided to treat the agency "like a company independent of taxpayer funding," as Government Executive magazine's July issue notes. Many thought it was a good idea -- including the AFL-CIO, because postal workers would become collective bargainers. Has the changeover worked? Obviously, it hasn't. But, given the explosion of technology, it's doubtful that anything could have been done to make the USPS more competitive. Even partial government subsidies haven't turned things around. Now the shortfalls are so large -- the USPS has lost $25 billion in the last five fiscal years, Government Executive reports -- that congressional budget cutters don't want much to do with the service. The federal government must decide whether it wants to have a viable U.S. postal system or let it become just a part of romantic history. If it's the former, is the government willing to assume the total cost?
Post & Parcel: The Philippine Postal Corporation is consolidating its mail processing activities for the Manila area within its facility in Pasay City. The company, which is in the middle of a rebranding exercise to improve its image with its "PhilPost" brand becoming "PHLPost" said this month that transferring its Metro Manila Distribution Center to a better site would improve delivery service quality.
C NNMoney: Mail processing plants are shrinking, thousands of postal workers are moving and thousands more are retiring. And there's the possibility of a default on a payment due to the federal government in two weeks. The U.S. Postal Service is in the midst of a difficult summer, and its problems might not get resolved any time soon.
U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia: GameFly, Inc., Petitioner v. Postal Regulatory Commission, Respondent
U.S. Court of Federal Claims: "NORTHROP GRUMMAN SYSTEMS CORPORATION, Plaintiff, v. THE UNITED STATES (Postal Service), Defendant" The Court hereby GRANTS defendant's motion for an enlargement of time to respond to plaintiff's complaint and ORDERS that defendant's response to plaintiff's complaint be filed by Friday, September 7, 2012.
Engadg et: Smartphones and email-equipped feature phones have proliferated in even the most resource-dry areas of Asia, Europe and North America, but for many subscribers in Africa, SMS is the only option for text-based communication on the go. And, to give residents a more consistent method for reading and responding to email from their mobiles, Google just launched Gmail SMS in Ghana, Nigeria and Kenya. To sign up, simply head over to the "Phone and SMS" settings page in Gmail, add your mobile number and complete a verification process. Once enrolled, the service will automatically forward all email to devices as text messages. The service could even be useful for those that do have access to Android, iOS or Windows Phone devices -- data outages can cripple smartphones, forcing users to turn to phone calls and SMS to connect with family, friends and colleagues. Geva Rechav, a Google product manager for emerging markets, confirmed in a blog post that Gmail SMS messages will be free to receive, but standard fees will apply for outgoing emails. [EdNote: And if there were a way to link digital (cell phone & email) and physical addresses, you could stimulate a thriving online commercial sector in those countries. The linking data also would provide the kind of intelligence that would be needed to locate postal distribution centers in proximity to loci of online commercial activity. And the postal digital strategy in the U.S.? Well, at least we know how to count from one to ten on our fingers. With any luck, postal officials might grasp that they really don't need congressional or PRC approval to be able to do that.]
Recruiter: Postal company TNT Post has announced plans to significantly expand its national coverage and create 20,000 new jobs over the next five years. The plans will move forward depending on the success of a pilot delivery programme in West London. Since mid-April, the company has employed 400 people on this scheme, with 50% aged 18-24.
From the Federal Register: Postal Regulatory Commission NOTICES Product List Changes , 42515-42516 [2012-17605][TEXT ] [PDF]
Business First: United Parcel Service Inc. plans to submit a bid on an upcoming contract with the U.S. Postal Service that could have local implications. According to UPS spokesman Norman Black, the postal service has notified both UPS and its chief competitor, FedEx Corp., that it is looking for a contractor to provide airlift services. Though there's no guarantee on the timing, Black said he believes the postal service likely would post a request for proposals next month. "We've already informed the post office we plan to bid on it," he said.
A merican Postal Workers Union: APWU President Cliff Guffey is blasting House Republican leaders for their "utter failure to solve the nation's problems." Guffey made the remarks in response to recent signals that the chamber won't act on postal reform legislation until after Congress's August recess and perhaps not until after the November elections. In light of the failure, the union president is calling on APWU members to focus their attention on the upcoming elections. "The House leadership's inaction demonstrates the importance of changing the politics in our country," he said. "We must wrest control of the House from elected officials who are more interested in scoring political points than in conducting the nation's business. And we must take control from extremists who would like to privatize the Postal Service," Guffey said.
Wall Street Journal: Most everyone agrees the Postal Service needs an overhaul. It had a loss of $3.2 billion in the second quarter of this fiscal year; it is to report third-quarter results on Aug. 9. The agency blames factors including declining mail volumes and the 2006 mandate by Congress that it annually set aside billions for future retirees. But while the Senate has passed legislation to overhaul the agency, the House says it doesn't expect to take up its own proposal until after August. The two sides remain far apart. Senators voted in April, on a bipartisan basis, for legislation that largely shores up the agency's finances by returning an estimated $10.9 billion overpayment made into the federal employee pension system. The legislation limits the agency's ability to close postal branches and stop Saturday delivery. Republican House leaders support legislation they say would require the agency to operate more like a business, in part by establishing a base-closing committee to reduce the network of post offices. Some rural-district House members, from both parties, have been worried about closures in their areas. The House wouldn't consider financial relief in the Senate bill "absent wholesale reforms" that are in the House bill, said Fredrick Piccolo Jr., chief of staff for Rep. Dennis Ross (R., Fla.), a sponsor of post-office legislation. He said that there will "in all likelihood be no vote before the August recess."
The Japan Times: Japan Post Bank and Japan Post Insurance Co. are expanding operations under the revised postal privatization law, opening the door to criticism from private financial institutions that fear they will lose customers on an unlevel playing field. The original postal privatization law permitted the postal bank and life insurer to start new businesses depending on the progress of the privatization of the postal services. But as the privatization process has been shelved as a result of the 2009 change in government, the expansion of operations by the postal bank and insurer has been frozen.
July 18, 2012
New York Times: The Postal Service, faced with continuing financial losses because of a drop in mail volume, expects to default for the first time on its annual payment for future retiree health benefits. A spokesman for the Postal Service said that barring intervention from Congress, the agency would default on the two payments for future retiree benefits. Missing the health care payment will not cause immediate disaster, nor will it affect current retiree benefits. The Postal Service will still be able to pay its employees and buy fuel for its trucks to deliver mail on time, postal officials said.
CEP News (Courier-Express-Postal), published by the MRU Consultancy, has reported that:
According to the regulatory authority Arcep, La Poste was able to improve its A-Post ('lettre prioritaire') D+1 rate by 3.9% to 87.3%. Given the little difference in price between A-Post and B-Post ('lettre verte' - 57 eurocent vs. 60 eurocent), Arcep argues that La Poste should achieve a D+1 rate of at least 95%. In 2009 La Poste announced its target to achieve a D+1 rate of 90% by 2012.
The MRU, founded in 1992, is the only consultancy in Europe, which has specialised in the market of courier-, express- and parcel services. For large-scale shippers and CEP-services in particular, the MRU provides interdisciplinary advice for all major questions of the market, as there are for example market entry, product design, organisation, and EDP.To learn more about the stories reported above, contact CEP News. (We appreciate the courtesy extended by CEP News to help whet your appetite for more of what CEP offers.)
BtoB: Harte-Hanks said it is projecting a net loss for its second quarter ended June 30, and made particular note of weaker direct marketing revenue from its high tech, pharmaceutical and financial services customers. It also pointed to disappointing results from the company's Shoppers local-advertising division.
Attention Postal One! Users: PostalOne Outage - A major Oracle database technology upgrade will be completed during an extended maintenance window from 6 p.m. CDT on Saturday, August 4, 2012, through noon CDT on Sunday August 5, 2012. During this outage, PostalOne! and Mail.xml will be unavailable including FAST, and eDOC Web Services. PostalOne TEM Major Upgrade Outage - The major database technology upgrade will be completed on the Test Environment for Mailers (TEM) during an extended maintenance window from 6 p.m. CDT on Saturday, August 4, 2012, through noon CDT on Sunday August 5, 2012. If you have any additional questions please contact the Help Desk at 800-522-9085.
If you missed yesterday's PostCom webinar on a "Deep Dive into Postal Legislative Bills" you can still view the webinar and the slides used in that presentation online.
4-Traders: The U.S. Postal Service today announced plans to move ahead with a modified plan to consolidate its network of 461 mail processing locations in phases. The first phase of activities will result in up to 140 consolidations through February of 2013. Unless the circumstances of the Postal Service change in the interim, a second and final phase of 89 consolidations is currently scheduled to begin in February of 2014. "We revised our network consolidation timeline to provide a longer planning schedule for our customers, employees and other stakeholders, and to enable a more methodical and measured implementation," said Patrick R. Donahoe, Postmaster General and Chief Executive Officer of the Postal Service. "We simply do not have the mail volumes to justify the size and capacity of our current mail processing network. To return to long-term profitability and financial stability while keeping mail affordable, we must match our network to the anticipated workload," said Donahoe. "Our current plan meets our cost reduction goals, ensures seamless and excellent service performance throughout the implementation period, and provides adequate time for our customers to adapt to our network changes."
PRWeb: In today's fast-paced business culture, marketers have been forced to change their efficiency models. This is good business practice, but during an economic downturn, it marks the difference between losing ground to budgetary liabilities and reaching long-term professional sustainability. After all, this is the age of Facebook, e-mail blasts, and internet-based commerce. In a society so dependent on the latest tech-tools; is there still room for DM campaigns? Marketing strategists nationwide have answered with resounding affirmation. In fact, DM has shown a consistently high ROI rate. Why? It comes down to quality-testing.
Warsaw Business Journal: Poczta Polska (the Polish Post) is planning widespread investments totaling zl.800 million by 2015, Parkiet reported. Poland's national postal service is investing in a major overhaul of its IT, logistics and transport systems, as well as the look of its branches. This year alone, the company plans to spend zl.272 million on changes, about zl.170 million more than in 2011. A key focus will be employee training in the areas of sales and customer service, as well as a new attractive motivation and remuneration system, spokesperson Zbigniew Baranowski told Parkiet. Poczta Polska will also implement a new system for supporting operations and management processes.
Tanzania Daily News: The minister for Communications, Science and Technology, Prof Makame Mbarawa, has said that the Tanzania Posts Corporation Board of Directors will now be subjected to evaluation. He said that the new precedent in the Corporation will determine if the board members should continue serving in their posts. [EdNote: Too bad we don't do that in the States.]
Government Executive: t costs the U.S. Postal Service and postal regulators more than $3,000 every time a facility decides to appeal a closure decision, a new report finds. The joint report from the USPS inspector general and the Postal Regulatory Commission found that it takes 15 hours and $1,365 for the USPS legal department to process each appeal. Appeals then go through the Postal Regulatory Commission, where it can take anywhere from $1,806 to $2,496 and 19 to 29 hours to process them. Staff hours account for much of the cost. About 23 percent -- or 126 -- of the 537 post offices USPS targeted for closure as of May 2012 appealed the decision. Facilities have 30 days after a decision to appeal to PRC. The report recommended the Postal Service's legal department strengthen its staff resource planning and better track attorney and staff hours spent on the challenges.
Commercial Appeal: A U.S. Postal Service belt-tightening could hit home in Memphis big time with a decision to put up for grabs a lucrative contract held by FedEx for more than a decade. While some analysts downplayed the possibility of FedEx losing an estimated $1.2 billion airlift contract entirely, it seems clear that competition would boost the beleaguered post office's bottom line.
4-Traders: The U.S. Postal Service was recently recognized by the Universal Postal Union (UPU) and the Express Mail Service (EMS) Cooperative Network, which operates within the framework of the UPU, with awards for excellence in international call center service and delivery performance- 2011 EMS Customer Care Award,large group category and 2011 EMS Performance Award,silver level category. Postal operators in the EMS Cooperative Networksubmitted ballots earlier in the year to vote for 2011 EMS Customer Care Awardwinners.
BBC: Postal workers in East Anglia are using satellite receivers to map the exact location of every property in a Royal Mail trial to improve sat-nav systems.
CRI English: China's postal industry reaped a business revenue of 97.34 billion yuan (15.45 billion U.S. dollars) in the first half of the year, up 24.4 percent year-on-year, the State Post Bureau said Wednesday. The postal industry has witnessed rapid progress in the first half, with better structuring and improved enterprise capabilities, said the bureau at a mid-year work conference. The country's above-scale logistic enterprises made nearly 2.4 billion deliveries in the first half, up 51 percent year-on-year and exceeding the total delivery volume in 2010, according to the bureau.
July 17, 2012
Courier, Express, and Postal Observer: Amazon's network of parcel lockers creates a set of proprietary addresses that are accessible only to Amazon and retailers that use fulfillment by Amazon. The development of a proprietary set of addresses, and more than likely the delivery infrastructure to delivery parcels to the parcel locker should allow Amazon to cut its delivery costs to customers who chose to use them. Customers that use parcel lockers as their address are unlikely to add extra delivery costs for amazon for repeated delivery attempts as well as reducing the per-order delivery cost by allowing the delivery carrier to make many deliveries to a single location. The combination of a proprietary address and lower delivery costs will increase Amazon's competitive threat to brick and mortar retailers and online retailers that do not use fulfillment by Amazon. In addition, Amazon will likely use a local delivery courier to deliver to parcel lockers thereby cutting the volume of Amazon's business that the three largest parcel carriers, FedEx, United Parcel Service and the U.S. Postal Service, now handle.
USA Today: NALC President Frederic Rolando -- The Postal Service's financial problems don't result from providing the world's most affordable delivery service (without a dime of taxpayer money). That universal service, which helps unify this vast nation, is what's right with the USPS. What's wrong is the 2006 congressional mandate that the Postal Service pre-fund future retiree health benefits for the next 75 years and pay for it within a decade. This accounts for 85% of all postal red ink. Absent that unrealistic mandate, faced by no other agency or company, the USPS has performed remarkably well in a troubled economy. From fiscal 2007 through fiscal 2010, it had a $611 million operational profit delivering mail. This fiscal year's first half, 94% of the red ink stemmed from pre-funding payments. Rate the debate We aren't oblivious to changes in how Americans communicate, including online bill paying. We don't contend that if Congress fixed the pre-funding mess it created, the financial issues would vanish. We do know, though, that postal authorities can't develop a forward-looking business plan to address those structural issues while this artificial crisis has them focused on a desperate attempt to free up billions of dollars a year.
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The Passing of David Minton "Friend and colleague, David Minton, passed away today in Texas. He was 77. David had been in declining health recently , but did manage to enjoy a good number of healthy and satisfying years after fulfilling his dream of retiring to his hometown of Denton, Texas, following a remarkable career here in Washington. David was a special person and a truly unique character --no one who knew him will ever forget him Our friend and colleague, David Minton, passed away today in Texas. He was 77. David had been in declining health recently , but did manage to enjoy a good number of healthy and satisfying years after fulfilling his dream of retiring to his hometown of Denton, Texas, following a remarkable career here in Washington. David was a special person and a truly unique character --no one who knew him will ever forget him." --- James Cregan |
eGovMonitor: Zumbox, a Los Angeles, based provider of digital postal mail services, has secured $10.6m in Series C funding. Backers include CEO John M Payne and Computershare, a global provider of employee equity plans and investor services. Zumbox provides the world's first platform for Digital Postal Mail. It connects large transactional, financial and government mailers to consumer households for the delivery and storage of digital postal mail via the Internet. Digital Postal Mail is an exact facsimile of paper mail created from a redirection of the print stream delivered to a secure, centralised digital mailbox and including powerful interactive features. Zumbox intends to use the capital to fund operations, sales, marketing and development of its technology platform in the United States. "It's no secret the postal landscape is changing - almost every day we read about the struggles of the USPS and the increasing shift toward digital in our everyday lives," said John Payne CEO of Zumbox.
At the Postal Regulatory Commission: The latest rolling calculation of the postal CPI has been posted on the Postal Regulatory Commission website.
StreetInsider: Helane Becker, commented on last night's 10K filing by FedEx, which stated the contract with the U.S. Postal Service is up in September of 2013 and the USPS will allow competing bids upon expiration. Becker noted: 1) USPS is FDX's largest customer with total revs of $1.2 billion; 2) Hold-rated UPS may be the beneficiary if FDX loses the contract; 3) Overall, FDX made $42.7B in revenue and $6.59 EPS for FY12, so the USPS contract is relatively small in the overall picture.
Progressive Railroading: Intermodal rail is a "sensible option" that could help the U.S. Postal Service (USPS) reduce expenses, improve environmental sustainability and maintain service standards if some mail that now moves by truck is transported by railroads, according to a report recently issued by the U.S. Postal Service Office of Inspector General's Risk Analysis Research Center. Titled, "Strategic Advantages of Moving Mail by Rail," the report found that in the short term, shifting a portion of mail volume from truck to intermodal rail could yield $100 million in annual cost savings without requiring changes to the postal service's network. In addition, USPS could save significantly more in the long run by realigning its processing and transportation network, and "strategically recommitting to the use of intermodal rail," the report states. Moreover, the use of intermodal rail can significantly reduce greenhouse-gas emissions and help the postal service meet its environmental goals.
USA Today: House leaders can't seem to find any time to schedule a vote that would actually help solve a problem: Overhaul the U.S. Postal Service, which is hemorrhaging $25 million a day. The House has a plan to help staunch the red ink, but it has been gathering dust since a committee produced it last October. There was talk about bringing the plan up before the August recess, but House Republican leaders have signaled that's unlikely to happen. It might not even happen this year. How come? The leaders aren't saying publicly, but here's a good guess: The legislation prescribes unpopular-but-necessary medicine for the ailing Postal Service, such as ending Saturday mail delivery and closing little-used post offices and mail facilities. That's the kind of tough vote lawmakers tend to put off as long as possible, at least until after the election. But given the way the Postal Service is losing money as mail volume steadily declines, delay would be the height of irresponsibility. Since the Senate approved an overhaul measure in April, the Postal Service has lost more than $2 billion while the House has dawdled. Odd aren't these the same lawmakers who regularly thump their chests about fiscal responsibility?
The Telegraph: The Post Office - which was separated from Royal Mail earlier this year - is planning to speed up the roll out of its new Post Office Locals from this summer, as part of a major overhaul of the 11,800-strong post office network. But the MPs warned the plans could be undermined by deficiencies in the training of staff and the inflexibility of its proposals, and a reduction in services offered by the outlets. The plan will see up to 2,000 of the branches - one in five of the entire network - close and then reopen as "PO Locals" in nearby shops or garages.
News Track India: Sri Lanka is finalizing plans to end the age-old telegram service citing unprofitability due to e- mail and other forms of communication, a minister said here on Tuesday. Sri Lanka has been operating a largely unprofitable telegram service for years without seeing profits, Postal Minister Jeevan Kumaratunge told media adding that only an average of 50 telegrams are sent daily. "As a result we are considering closing that department and transferring around 1, 800 employees to other work in the postal services," he said. The postal service, which is state-owned in Sri Lanka made a loss of 3 billion rupees (about 23 million U.S. dollars) last year.
Save the Post Office: USPS Manager of Retail Operations, Jeffrey Day the Postal Service's one and only witness for POStPlan testified before the Postal Regulatory Commission last week. He was there to be cross-examined about the details in the plan to reduce hours at 13,000 post offices. There wasn't much in the way of Perry Mason moments, and judging by the questions from the Commissioners and the PRC's Public Representative, there doesn't seem to be a lot of opposition to POStPlan. With the two postmasters associations both on board, it appears that only the APWU is interested in challenging the plan, and its concern seems to be who's going to be staffing the POStPlan offices.
Bloomberg Businessweek: FedEx Corp. (FDX) (FDX) is at risk of losing a $1 billion customer when its contract with the U.S. Postal Service expires next year. The Postal Service has told FedEx it will seek bids for domestic air transport for its first class, priority and express mail when its contract for those services expires in September 2013, the Memphis, Tennessee-based company said in a regulatory filing. "The USPS is FedEx's largest customer," with total revenues of more than $1 billion, Helane Becker, an analyst with Dahlman Rose & Co., said in a report today. FedEx Express also has around 5,000 drop boxes at Postal Service locations that will be removed under an agreement that expired in June, the company said in the filing.
From the Federal Register: Postal Service NOTICES Product Changes: Every Door Direct Mail , 4201642017 [201217300] [TEXT ] [PDF]
Federal Business Opportunities: The United States Postal Service (USPS) is seeking sources for upcoming FY 13 requirements to relocate Flats Sequencing Systems (FSS) from their current operating sites to new processing centers. The FSS is a large specialized mail processing platform which contains numerous components and subassemblies. Each system accounts for approximately 50 semi-tractor loads of material. This notice seeks information from potential sources of supply that have recent experience in relocating large and complex electro-mechanical systems. Suppliers must have the capability to perform a baseline inspection and test, teardown, move, re-install, calibrate and then retest the system to the pre-move performance levels. This is a request for information only and is not a solicitation to purchase equipment or services. The USPS intends to use the information gathered through this announcement to pre-qualify multiple sources for the opportunity to submit proposals for future solicitations issued. Performance under any resulting contract(s) is estimated to occur in calendar year 2013 and beyond.
A number of Industry members expressed an interest in providing feedback and sharing their experiences with the "Every Door Direct Mail" (EDDM) product, and asked the Postal Service to establish a specific venue for that purpose. We heard you, and are pleased to report that a toll-free number is now available for those who would like to provide input on EDDM: 1-877-747-6249 (1- USPS 4 SM BIZ) When you reach the agent at this number, please say that you would like to provide feedback on the "Every Door Direct Mail" product, and identify your mailing industry role (e.g., printer, Association member, Mail Service Provider, etc.). The agent will briefly collect other basic information from you and submit it to the Postal Service; by the close of the next business day, a postal representative will directly contact you.
July 16, 2012
Business2Community: A recent survey of marketing professionals revealed that approaches to marketing campaigns run the gamut in terms of technique, philosophy, and tools utilized. The one consistent theme across the board was the emphasis placed on knowing your market. Specifically, the marketing professionals were concerned with knowing how your market prefers to be contacted. For example, is your product such that a phone call is appropriate, or are you a better fit for email campaigns. Secondly, the marketing professionals highlighted how important traditional paper mail can be to your marketing endeavors. With so many companies moving to strictly email marketing or social media marketing, traditional mail has actually opened back up as a viable option for getting noticed. Because so many companies are sending less and less paper mail, the mail that is actually being sent is more and more likely to get noticed. This being said, postal mailing addresses are an important component to consider when buying an email marketing list.
A white paper has been posted on the U.S. Postal Service Office of Inspector General (OIG) website (http://www.uspsoig.gov). If you have additional questions concerning the report or blog, please contact Wally Olihovik at 703-248-2201 or Agapi Doulaveris at 703-248-2286. Strategic Advantages of Moving Mail by Rail (RARC-WP-12-013). The Risk Analysis Research Center has produced a white paper titled "Strategic Advantages of Moving Mail by Rail." The paper proposes that by shifting some volume from highway to rail, the Postal Service can save costs, while maintaining service standards and helping to meet its environmental goals. Read the white paper and share your thoughts on our blog.
Promotional Marketing: Royal Mail is launching a major new initiative, MarketReach, to provide companies and their agencies with a full suite of mail campaign solutions to grow their businesses. Frank Schinella, managing director of Royal Mail's Media Business, says: "We know that in a competitive environment, getting your message across to customers in a planned, targeted and impactful way is integral to business success. Mail is a great way to complement and integrate digital advertising, adding a real element to a campaign. We want to help advertisers and agencies by providing the skills and expertise to make it even easier to add mail to their marketing activities." For the first time ever, Royal Mail has pulled together a whole range of expertise and skills needed to add a real element to marketing campaigns which it warns are otherwise becoming increasingly digital-led.
SOAWorld: Well, well, well, fancy that. Australia Post is reportedly trying to buy a piece of the Digital Post Australia (DPA) joint venture set on rivaling its coming Digital Mailbox and challenging its mail monopoly. DPA's partners are the US start-up Zumbox, which is kicking in its platform after failing to persuade New Zealand Post to use it; the Australian arm of the multibillion-dollar Computershare; and the publicly traded Australian company Salmat. The two Ozzie companies already handle mail for banking, insurance, utilities, telecommunications, government and share registries and are supposed to reach every home in the country.
Federal Times: Here's at least one area where the U.S. Postal Service is showing some serious growth: The number of appeals of post office closings. From 2007 to 2009, there were exactly two such appeals. As of mid-May, the year-to-date total for fiscal 2012 was 126, or well above the 103 appeals filed in all of 2011, according to a new joint report from the inspectors general for the Postal Service and Postal Regulatory Commission. The paperwork in closing appeals can be voluminous. Given the cost of legal services (even those provided by in-house attorneys), the expense of processing individual cases appears surprisingly low. Between the Postal Service and PRC, the average cost ranges from about $3,171 to $3,861, the report found. But the Postal Service, recognizing that it lacks the manpower to handle the estimated workload, has issued a statement of work for a one-year litigation support contract.
Multichannel Merchant: Amazon has been making moves to enable same day delivery for years. Its constant push to open fulfillment centers in several densely-populated areas and the March purchase of robotic fulfillment automation service provider Kiva Systems enables the same day delivery.
Financial Times: Shares in Dutch postal company PostNL fell more than 5 per cent in early trading after express delivery firm TNT Express announced that a planned 5.15bn takeover by UPS would be delayed until the fourth quarter following an extended review by European competition authorities.
Federal Times: Barring some unexpected intervention from Congress, the cash-strapped U.S. Postal Service will default on Aug. 1, when it fails to pay $5.5 billion into a retiree health care fund, which is required under law. Two months later, on Sept. 30, the Postal Service is likely to default again, this time on a $5.6 billion payment to the same fund. It's a monumental failure but it's Congress, not the Postal Service, that should be ashamed.
The Hill: The House's delay in considering a postal reform bill is sparking concerns that the rescue of the U.S. Postal Service could be delayed until after the November elections or even until the next Congress. A House GOP leadership aide said this week that Republicans were onboard with the bill from Issa and Ross, and "cognizant" of the deadlines USPS faces and its financial situation. "We remain committed to postal reform, but a decision hasn't been made about when the House bill will be considered," the aide said.
July 14, 2012
 Welcome to Another PostCom Postal PodcastJoin PostCom President Gene Del Polito, Grayhair Software Postal Affairs Vice President Angelo Anagnostopoulos, and Capital One Supplier Manager Tom Lloyd in a discussion of predictive presorting and the benefits of full-service IMb. |
BurrusJournal: After all of the grandstanding, Congressman Darryl Issa has chickened out on his threat to impose draconian changes on the US Postal Service under the guise of reform. He has preened and postured about the elimination of no layoff, six day delivery, abrogating negotiated agreements and a host of citizen and employee protections, but when given the opportunity he chickened out. The Senate completed its work two months ago and passed the torch to the House, and what did Issa do? He ducked the opportunity not because he does not continue to harbor his evil intents, but because he did not have the votes. Republican supporters have deserted him in droves warning that the politics of postal reform before the November elections is not in their favor, and that the issue is extremely embarrassing since they have an opportunity to take back the White House.
The Star: He has a master of science in chemistry from the University of Munich and a doctorate in neurobiology from the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology, but he does not look at test tubes nor neural networks. Instead, he looks at how businesses and societies are linked and how they can be further connected. A scientist by training but a corporate figure by profession, Frank Appel heads one of the world's leading postal and logistics company. As a PhD student, he was involved with spinal chord regeneration research.
DMM Advisory: IMb Services Update
Wall Street Journal: United Parcel Service Inc. said it expects its proposed acquisition of TNT Express NV to close in the fourth quarter as European regulators need more time to analyze the deal. UPS said the European Union review of the deal is expected to move into a phase that can take up to 25 weeks to complete. As a result, the U.S. shipping giant said it is prepared to extend the offer period beyond the original deadline of Aug. 31. The Atlanta-based company had previously expected the deal to close in the third quarter.
July 13, 2012
Courier, Express, and Postal Observer: More recent reporting has indicated that political considerations may have possibly killed any chance that the House of Representatives will act on postal reform at all in this session of Congress. The Postal Service now appears likely to default on a $5.5 billion payment into a health benefits fund on August 1. The default will occur during the last week that that the House of Representatives and Senate are in Washington. As such, Representatives Darrell Issa and Dennis Ross will both be available to argue that the default represents not only a failure of postal management but also the Obama administration. Senators Tom Carper and Joe Lieberman and Representatives Elijah Cummings, and Gerald Connelley who support either S.1789 or alternative approaches will likely focus more narrowly on the failure of the House to take action on any bill as another illustration of how broken the legislative process is in this hyper partisan environment.
Post & Parcel: Russian Post is hopeful that the government will unveil a strategy for the development of the postal industry this autumn. The government's new Minister of Communications and Mass Communications, Nikolai Nikiforov, faced the Russian press on Wednesday and stated the postal sector as one of his five priorities. Holding a press conference at the headquarters of the state-owned Russian international news agency RIA Novosti in Moscow, the minister said some of his top priorities were to eliminate the digital divide within Russia, to expand access for citizens to the Internet. He also wants to introduce electronic government and municipal services, setting up a direct e-government system. The government's communications ministry also wants to work to develop the mass media industry within Russia – both the print subscriptions and advertising sectors, which new deputy minister of communications Alexei Volin said was turning over around $10bn USD a year in Russia.
The latest issue of the PostCom Bulletin is available online. In this issue:
From the Federal Register:
Postal Regulatory Commission PROPOSED RULES Analytical Methods Used in Periodic Reporting , 41336–41337 [2012–16570] [TEXT ] [PDF]
Postal Service PROPOSED RULES Authorization to Manufacture and Distribute Postage Evidencing Systems; Discontinued Indicia , 41336 [2012–17067] [TEXT ] [PDF]
TechCrunch: This week the BBC tested out Facebook advertising by running a campaign for the Facebook page of a fictitious small business called VirtualBagel. The investigation was headlined "Facebook ‘likes' and adverts' value doubted". During the week over 3,000 people Liked the ads even though the company doesn't exist and simply shows you a picture of a bagel. The ‘investigation' is partly a reminder that Facebook still has issues with fake profiles and astro-turfing, but is also a simple re-stating of the fact that you get what you pay for and if you put up a dumb ad targeted too widely you'll waste your money.
Postalnews Blog: For the second time in less than a month, the USPS employee newsletter has carried a story touting JC Penney's re-branding effort, which made heavy use of direct mail. Unfortunately, the "reinvention" hasn't been going very well. The original News Link story appeared on June 19. On the same day the Associated Press reported that JC Penney's CEO had abruptly left the company. The timing of the News Link story may just have been unlucky, although there had already been indications in the press that the Penney campaign wasn't working. So why on earth bring it up again? Especially considering today's news about JC Penney. Letting employees know about imaginative uses of direct mail is a great idea, but it might be better to avoid publicizing ones that have failed as dramatically as JC Penney's has!
Reuters: China's 35,000 express delivery companies can ship packages hundreds of miles for less than the cost of a standard U.S. letter, pricing out global players such as FedEx and UPS that control just 3 percent of the fast-growing market. Backed by an e-commerce boom, China's express delivery market more than doubled to $13 billion in revenue in the five years to 2011, and is expected to overtake the $70 billion U.S. market to become the world's biggest within two decades. But with so many local companies vying for business, a crushing price war that has already driven Deutsche Post DHL out of the domestic market may trigger a massive wave of consolidation that eliminates thousands of small firms.
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C-Span: The Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee held a confirmation hearing on the nomination of Stephen Crawford to the U.S. Postal Service Board of Governors. Crawford was part of President Obama's 2008 transition team for the U.S. Postal Service where he made recommendations on policy. Among them he suggested that the Post Office offer free PO boxes to citizens as a substitute for delivery to their homes and reduce frequency of mail delivery to 3 to 5 times a week.
July 12, 2012
Ars Technica: A new study from the Berkeley Center for Law and Technology asked 1,200 households several straightforward questions about what level of privacy they think they have when using a cell phone, and what information is and is not OK for companies to track and store. The majority thinks they have far more privacy than they do, and are unequivocally opposed to some of the most common forms of data collection.
The Times of India: The postmen in rural areas are also collecting the prices of different food products and consumer items. This is being done under an agreement signed between the Central Statistical Organisation (CSO) and the postal department to prepare consumer price index (CPI) of the rural areas, said director, postal services, Allahabad region, Krishna Kumar Yadav.
Post & Parcel: Germany's Monopolies Commission has backed government proposals to boost competition in the nation's letters market, but said measures do not go far enough. The Commission issued a position statement last week responding to the proposals from the Federal Ministry of Economic Affairs, published back in March. The government wants to make changes to Germany's Postal Act because despite the full liberalisation of the country's EUR 9bn postal market back in 2008, Deutsche Post still dominates with a 90% market share, and progress in improving competition has stalled in the last few years.
National Institute of Standards and Technology: We're pleased today to announce a major milestone in the implementation of the NSTIC: the award of a two-year grant to an organization that will serve as the formal convener and secretariat for the soon-to-be-established Identity Ecosystem Steering Group. The awardee, Trusted Federal Systems (TFS) will facilitate collaboration among multiple stakeholders to help drive the creation of consensus standards and best practices that can advance national priorities. Under a two-year cooperative agreement TFS will support the new private sector-led Steering Group as it tackles the wide range of policy and technical challenges associated with crafting an Identity Ecosystem Framework. TFS will shortly announce details for the first in-person meeting of the Steering Group, tentatively scheduled for the week of August 13 in metropolitan Chicago. Virtual participation will be supported for those who cannot make it in person. Details will follow in the next few days, and we will continue to use this blog to communicate in the interim while the Steering Group's website is established. Throughout this transition period, the NSTIC National Program Office will continue to be actively engaged in the preparation and launch of the Steering Group, including stakeholder outreach. As always, if you have any questions, please contact us at nstic@nist.gov, or reach out directly to our Senior Advisor for Stakeholder Engagement, Jim Sheire, at james.sheire@nist.gov.
Now hear this: "This Week In Postal".........the latest podcast posted now!
Chief Marketer: Mailers are pleased the U.S. Postal Service is going to expand its promotional discount program for pieces using QR codes to the holiday season. But most aren't overwhelmed at the prospect of an extra discount for using priority mail. The USPS is offering mailers a 2% discount on standard and first class letters, flats (catalogs) and cards displaying mobile QR codes sent out between Nov. 7 and 21. It also plans an extra 1% discount if they fulfill 0.5% of their orders via priority mail.
Post & Parcel: Canada Post is launching a new awards programme to recognise innovation in the Canadian ecommerce market, offering postal prize packages worth a total of $1m. The awards – and prize money – will be shared out among five categories, including best multi-channel retailer, best online retailer, best new e-business, "Outside the Box" achievement and consumer champion. Separate prizes in the multi-channel and online retailer categories are to be awarded to large retailers and small retailers.
Federal Times: The cash-strapped U.S. Postal Service is within weeks of defaulting on a legally required $5.5 billion payment into a heath benefits fund for future retirees. So far, it appears House leaders have no intention of preventing that from happening — they have postponed any action on relief measures until at least fall. Lawmakers appear likely to let USPS default, representatives of mailing industry groups said Thursday. "They'll let them default," said Gene Del Polito, president of the Association for Postal Commerce. "What time is there left to do anything?" Tony Conway, executive director of the Alliance of Nonprofit Mailers, sees little chance of an intervention from Congress before next month's deadline. Lawmakers have "got all this stuff on their plate, and they're running out of time and there's no vehicle, so it doesn't appear it's something they're going to get to," he said.
Washington Post: A congressional solution to the financial woes faced by the U.S. Postal Service won't be considered by House lawmakers before they leave for a month-long August recess, likely killing ambitious plans to overhaul the nation's mail system this year. The lack of a decision so far by House Republican to hold a vote on overhauling postal operations means lawmakers are once again likely to pass a short-term stop-gap measure to shore up postal finances, but not address longer-term structural and financial concerns, congressional aides and industry observers said Thursday. Just eight legislative days will remain in the fiscal year when the House returns in mid-September, leaving little time for Congress to change the current law that requires USPS to pay about $5.4 billion annually to prefund future retiree health and insurance obligations by Sept. 30. So lawmakers may once again do what they did last year: permit USPS to pay its annual obligations later in fiscal 2013.
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Welcome to the PostCom Postal Podcast Join PostCom President Gene Del Polito, GrayHair Software Director of Solution Strategies Paula Stoskopf, and Time Inc. Postal Operations Director Todd Black in a discussion of "Toward a Better Understanding of the Flats Mailstream." |
AMEInfo: UPS announced enhancements to several technology tools for UAE customers that streamline the process of creating shipments online and enhance their ability to track multiple shipments at once. Easy-to-use UPS Internet Shipping, which requires no software downloads, lets UAE customers create shipments online from any computer connected to the Internet. Accessible through ups.com, a streamlined screen layout with step-by-step structure lets shippers enter all shipment details on a single page and print a shipping label, saving time and ensuring that all the required fields are properly filled in. A range of additional options, from e-mail notifications to delivery confirmation, provide shippers with the package tracking tools they need to be informed about their shipments.
Gloucester County Times: The last thing the beleaguered U.S. Postal Service needs is consumers who think that their mail is not secure. It's been happening in South Harrison Township, however. Scott Balfour, a spokesman for the U.S. Postal Investigation Service, says they're looking into a worker who is responsible for theft complaints. While the vast majority of postal workers are honest, any lack of confidence in the mail can only worsen the postal service's estimated $905 billion financial hole.
Washington Post: Vincenzo Di Vita celebrated his retirement after nearly 40 years with the Italian postal service with a modest toast given by his co-workers in early December. He planned to hold a party at his home a few weeks later — but by then, he could no longer afford it. Just days after Di Vita accepted a buyout designed to carry him until his government pension kicked in, Italian Prime Minister Mario Monti unveiled a program of tough measures to rein in public spending in the deeply indebted nation. Among the most radical changes: raising the minimum retirement age for men with Di Vita's work experience from 62 to 65. Di Vita was suddenly without a job and without a pension. As countries in Europe and beyond grapple with ballooning deficits and debts, government spending on pensions has become a popular target. The International Monetary Fund has recommended raising retirement ages to ease the financial burden associated with rising life expectancy. The issue has become so controversial in the United States that little action has been taken to address increasing retirement costs.
Wall Street Journal: Deutsche Post AG subsidiary DHL plans to invest more than 400 million euros (US$490.6 million) in China over the next few years to better tap into the country's growing demand for logistics services. DHL's focus on Asia in recent years has helped it build a more comprehensive intra-Asian business than rivals FedEx Corp. (FDX) and United Parcel Service Inc. (UPS), which are more focused on longer-haul routes from the region to Europe and North America. That focus has paid off as the economic troubles in the West have hurt demand for logistics services, and DHL executives said Wednesday they expect demand for trade within Asia to remain robust despite signs of slowing growth in China. Chief Executive Frank Appel said the company has invested more than $2.5 billion in Asia over the last couple of years, with Greater China, including Taiwan and Hong Kong, contributing about 10% of the company's total revenue.
Sen. Thomas Carper: Sen. Tom Carper (D-Del.), Chairman of the subcommittee that oversees the U.S. Postal Service, reacted to recent reports that House Leadership will not consider postal reform legislation before its five-week recess beginning in August. The U.S. Postal Service is obligated to pay $5.5 billion to the Department of Treasury on August 1. Without legislation, the Postal Service will be unable to make that payment and will be forced to default:
"I find these reports that the House Leadership is now considering delaying action on postal reform legislation until after its August recess deeply disappointing. In light of the challenges that face the Postal Service and the economy as a whole, the House's continued unwillingness to act on this issue is completely irresponsible. In April, the Senate came together to pass bipartisan postal reform legislation. Since then, the U.S. Postal Service has hemorrhaged nearly $2 billion in losses in the time that the House has sat on its hands and failed to take up our bipartisan Senate bill – or its own bill – to reform the Postal Service. Meanwhile, the House has managed to find time to vote on any number of issues – many of them highly political in nature, will never become law, and certainly don't have the ability to preserve jobs and economic activity as postal reform would. The American mailing industry employs over 8 million people and generates almost $1 trillion in economic activity each year and a healthy Postal Service is essential to this industry. The longer the House delays action, the more consumers and businesses become uncertain about the future of the Postal Service, undermining confidence in the Postal Service's future and harming its ability to build new business. The only way to protect the Postal Service and the industry that relies on it is for the House to act now, not wait until September or later. I strongly urge them to act swiftly to debate and pass a bill to preserve this American institution for generations to come."
July 11, 2012
Government Executive: The House will not debate its postal reform bill before Congress leaves for August recess , a source on Capitol Hill says. House leadership's decision to postpone the debate comes despite objections from the bill's architects and pressure from U.S. Postal Service officials and regulators. Many believed the bill would come up between the July 4 holiday and August recess. Now, with debate tabled until after August, the legislation is unlikely to pass before the lame duck session following the November elections. According to The Hill , the House will be in session only seven weeks before Nov. 6, when the post-election session will begin. Then, it likely will have to juggle a long list of other outstanding business, including appropriations and a farm bill. A source on the Hill confirmed that House leadership decided not to debate the bill before August recess, over the objections of House Oversight and Government Reform Committee Chairman Darrell Issa, R-Calif., and Rep. Dennis Ross, R-Fla., both architects of the House bill. Other sources with knowledge of postal reform confirmed that the bill would not be debated prior to Aug. 6. See also The Hill.
Post & Parcel: Australia Post is continuing the expansion of its retail "superstores" with the opening of the first such branch in Western Australia this week. Australia Post said the superstore particularly pushes a personalised and self-service approach to postal retail. It also includes a online shopping tools in a special zone that allows shopping via Apple Macs and iPads, and a dedicated area for travel services that offers passport, currency and travel insurance.
BtoB: Email marketing volume remained at record-setting levels during the month of June, with volume growth for the year expected to exceed 2011's level, according to a study by email marketing company Responsys Inc. Individual email campaigns averaged 15.8 promotional emails during June, an increase of nearly 21% year-over-year. According to Responsys, email volume will grow about 20% this year, compared with 16% growth last year. This is due to a shift away from such traditional channels as direct mail and print; enhanced email ROI versus other channels; and recipients' preference to receive commercial messages via email, according to Responsys.
4-Traders: Interactive Media in Retail Group (IMRG), a UK-based association of e-commerce companies, has become the newest member of the UPU's Consultative Committee. The group is the first member specializing in e-commerce to join the committee, an assembly of postal stakeholders that are not public postal operators or regulators, but which represent the interests of the wider postal sector. "E-commerce and supply chain integration are key pillars of the world postal strategy to be adopted by 192 member countries at the 25th UPU Congress in Doha, Qatar," said Director General Edouard Dayan. "We are looking forward to a fruitful relationship with IMRG."
Post & Parcel: UK regulators are holding a final consultation on Royal Mail's plans to roll out its "Delivery to a Neighbour" programme for parcels across the country.
Arizona Daily Star: Letters, magazines and packages intended to be delivered to some 400 addresses in the Catalina Foothills went up in flames Tuesday morning when a mail delivery truck caught fire along its route. A postal inspector went to the fire scene to secure any mail that was not damaged in the blaze It appears that the mail is a total loss. "The truck is basically melted," the inspector said, since "he fire was that intense."
Sen. Tom Carper (D-Del.), Chairman of the Subcommittee on Federal Financial Management, Government Information, Federal Services, and International Security, will chair a hearing to consider the nomination of Stephen Crawford to be a Governor, U.S. Postal Service on Thursday, July 12, 2012 at 2:30 p.m. in room 342 of the Dirksen Senate Office Building in Washington, D.C. The nominee will be introduced by Senator Benjamin L. Cardin (D-Md.) You can watch a live webcast of the hearing at http://www.hsgac.senate.gov/hearings/nominatio n-of-stephen-crawford-to-be-a-governor-us-postal-serivce.
InAudit: Governments and regulators urgently need to address the issue of declining postal volumes and changing patterns of communication and develop new policies that integrate postal with other communications policies, including broadband availability, a new report by advisory firm KPMG suggests. The study "Delivering Tomorrow: Sustaining and future proofing mail services" calls on governments, regulators and operators to take a "holistic approach" in creating sustainable models for the postal network of the future, as postal operators worldwide are being forced to address their business models and operations at unprecedented speed.
Federal Times: One way or another, it looks like a major congressional battle is headed our way over the U.S. Postal Service's long-sought goal of ending most six-day mail delivery. The most probable flash point is the postal overhaul bill (H.R. 2309) sponsored by Reps. Darrell Issa, R-Calif., and Dennis Ross, R-Fla., which would allow postal officials to begin moving to five-day delivery within six months of the legislation's being signed into law. The House's Republican leadership hopes to bring the Issa measure to the floor this month; earlier this week, the National Association of Letter Carriers said its "most urgent goal is to prevent this devastating bill from ever becoming law" and announced that it was setting up a toll-free number for members to contact individual lawmakers in opposition.
Washington Post: A total of 2 million households in five cities will have a surprise visit from their letter carrier this summer, and the carriers won't be delivering mail. Escorted by a police officer, they will deposit up to two bottles of emergency doxycyclene in each mailbox, first responders to a fictional anthrax or other bioterrorist attack. The pill bottles won't actually contain real drugs. But everything else about the delivery will look real, a scenario designed to prepare local officials for a biological terror attack with a quick strike delivered by the U.S. Postal Service.
PRWeb: Pitney Bowes Inc. has unveiled the mailstation2™ with pbWebConnect™, the world's first mailing and shipping system for the small office that combines the efficiency and speed of the postage meter with the convenience of online applications. The all-in-one solution includes access to special USPS® discounts, delivering everyday cost savings, choice and flexibility easily to small businesses. pbWebConnect enables customers to easily save money through the ability to access special USPS discounts not typically available through standard metering systems. Customers benefit from up to 15 percent savings on Priority Mail®, 25 percent savings or more on Express Mail®, and free Delivery Confirmation™ with Priority Mail. The mailstation2 with pbWebConnect gives the customer the ability to manage mail and packages the way that works best for them, via the postage meter or online. Online features like printing stamps on demand, applying the correct postage directly onto envelopes, free address correction, and printing USPS shipping labels can speed up the process of getting mail, documents and packages out the door, creating additional efficiencies.
Quincy Journal: U.S. Senator Dick Durbin (D-IL) has sent a letter to Postmaster General Patrick Donahoe urging him to adhere to a provision – included in the Senate Financial Services and General Government Appropriations passed last month by the Senate Appropriations Committee – that would require the Postal Service to conduct a new audit that shows cost savings before moving forward with plans to close or consolidate facilities that were recently found to be efficient.
The Hill: A key House Republican dinged the U.S. Postal Service in a recent letter for slowing down efforts to cut costs. Rep. Darrell Issa (R-Calif.), the chairman of the House Oversight Committee, said the cash-strapped agency had dragged its feet and reined in plans to consolidate facilities, and failed to implement other cost-cutting measures at its disposal. "Tough decisions are required in order to right-size postal infrastructure and enable the Postal Service to remain financially viable in a world where overall mail volume is on the decline," Issa wrote on Monday to Postmaster General Patrick Donahoe and Thurgood Marshall Jr., the chairman of the USPS board of governors. "As the two most senior officials within the Postal Service, this burden falls squarely on your shoulders."
Government Executive: A House plan to help the U.S. Postal Service restore its financial health is expected to come up for a vote before the August recess. The bill, which takes a more austere approach than the Senate postal reform bill passed in the spring, would reduce postal delivery from six to five days a week, transfer about $11 billion in surplus retirement contributions into the Postal Service's coffers, decrease the agency's contribution to employees' health and life insurance premiums, and restructure the payments USPS is required to make annually to prefund retirees' health benefits. At the Postal Regulatory Commission's monthly meeting Tuesday, PRC spokeswoman Ann Fisher said the House Oversight and Government Affairs Committee staff, including its chairman, Rep. Darrell Issa, R-Calif., was hard at work trying to secure the House votes needed for passage. The committee is not yet publicly releasing details of reports accompanying the bill. Ali Ahmad, a spokesman for Issa, could not provide the exact date of House floor debate. It is expected to come up before Congress takes a monthlong recess beginning in early August.
July 10, 2012
National Association of Major Mail Users: January 2013 Direct Marketing and Transaction Mail Rate Action - Canada Post Announcement Effective January 14, 2013, Canada Post will introduce
price and service changes to the Direct Marketing and Transaction Mail Services.
From the Federal Register: Postal Service RULES New Express Mail Price Categories: Express Mail Padded Flat Rate Envelope , 40527 [2012–16488] [TEXT ] [PDF]
Wall Street Journal: The Government Accounting Standards Board has issued new rules that aim to crystallize government pension liabilities. It failed on that count. GASB's private cousin, the Financial Accounting Standards Board (FASB), began requiring corporations to discount their pension liabilities with high-quality fixed income assets in the 1980s. However, GASB let governments stick with their desired, er, expected rate of return, which is typically about 8%. Governments have resisted climbing down from Fantasyland because using lower discount rates would explode their liabilities. GASB's new rules allow governments to continue discounting their liabilities at their anticipated rate of return so long as they project enough future assets to cover their obligations. But few pension funds project that they'll run dry since they're hooked up to a taxpayer IV. In reality, nobody knows how much taxpayers will owe because so much depends on inscrutable actuarial and economic factors like interest rates 30 years from now (not even the Federal Reserve purports to be that omniscient). Slight discrepancies in assumptions can yield huge variations in estimated liabilities.
Wall Street Journal: Organized labor spends about four times as much on politics and lobbying as generally thought, according to a Wall Street Journal analysis, a finding that shines a light on an aspect of labor's political activity that has often been overlooked. Unions spend millions of dollars yearly paying teams of political hands to contact members, educating them about election issues and trying to make sure they vote for union-endorsed candidates. But much of unions' spending on this effort—involving internal communication with members—doesn't have to be reported to the FEC.
TechCru nch: Some more consolidation in the adtech space: the German logistics, communications and postal giant Deutsche Post DHL has acquired IntelliAd, a German online marketing agency that specialises in optimizing search ad buys, as part of a larger strategy to make a bigger push into online advertising and marketing.
FinanzNachrichten: TNT Post and the Francotyp-Postalia subsidiary Mentana-Claimsoft have signed a letter of intent according to which both companies plan to work together on de-mail - the digital and verifiable alternative to the present paper-based letter.
Benzinga: People living in Ireland whose friends or family members have moved abroad in order to find employment should turn to specialist courier companies if they're looking for a cheap and reliable way to stay in touch, according to delivery specialist Parcel2Go. Parcel2Go wants to help make it easy for friends and family to stay in close contact, even if there are thousands of miles in between them. The company offers a range of services to destinations within Ireland and Northern Ireland from the likes of Nightline, GLS Ireland and Fastway Couriers. In addition, world services are available from the biggest international parcel courier firms such as Nightline, Parcelforce, CityLink and FedEx.
Lexology: In June 2012, a bill to amend the Czech Postal Services Act was finally approved. The amendments follow the latest development at EU-level regarding the liberalisation of the postal market, and will come into force in January 2013. The amendments will have the effect of removing the existing monopoly held by the state enterprise Ceská pošta (Czech Post) over deliveries of postal items that weigh up to 50 g with a price of up to 0.7 EUR, and shall open up the market to competition. Businesses as well as natural persons will be authorised to provide postal services provided that they fulfill the duty to notify the Czech Telecommunication Authority. The notification must include, inter alia, a list of the postal services to be provided, the area of activity for the postal services, details of the proposed postal network and the date of commencement of postal services. Some additional administrative requirements will also need to be fulfilled, including the requirement for foreign company applicants to submit a commercial register extract.
WLFI: Postal workers are saying there shouldn't be any cause for concern if you see your mail deliverer out of uniform. USPS spokesperson, Mary Dando, said these workers are new hires. They are being put on a route immediately, but are waiting for their uniforms.
Post & Parcel: Digital postal mail company Zumbox has raised $10.1m ahead of plans to ramp up its electronic transactional mail services in the United States. The firm that offers every home in America an alternative digital mailbox tied to their physical address raised funds from existing shareholders and also its strategic partner Computershare, the Australian-based financial stakeholder communications giant. In the US market, Zumbox is up against Hearst Corporation's Manilla service, which yesterday revealed that it has just signed up its one millionth consumer, supporting mail services from 2,000 mailers. Later this year it will also see competition growing when Pitney Bowes' Volly digital mail service has its consumer launch in the US.
Hellmail: Mendip District Council in Somerset has announced it is to switch from Royal Mail to a hybrid email service in an effort to slash its annual postal bill. With fears that its postal costs could rise by around £10,000.
VietNamNet: A lot of foreign companies have arrived in Vietnam to explore the market and seek to buy the stakes of domestic postal service companies in the last half a year, since the day Vietnam fully opened its market to foreigners.
Transport and Logistics News: United Parcel Service Pty Ltd (UPS) workers are pursuing their right to strike as the company's refusal to negotiate a fair agreement places their livelihood in jeopardy, according to acting national secretary of the Transport Workers Union Michael Kaine. "The TWU represents hundreds of UPS employees along the eastern seaboard inNew South Wales,QueenslandandVictoria, and thousands of members working for TNT across the country," Mr Kaine said.
At the Postal Regulatory Commission: Meeting Notice July 10, 2012. Portions Open to the Public 1.Report on legislative activities. 2.Report on communications with the public. 3.Report on status of Commission dockets. 4.Report from the Office of the Secretary and Administration. 5.Report from the Office of Accountability and Compliance. 6.Report on international activities. 7. Presentation to Commission on the Biological Medical Countermeasures program (including the Postal Model for Delivery and Distribution) by representatives of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. Chairman's Public Comment Period. Portions Closed to the Public 8. Discussion of pending litigation. The open portion of the meeting will be audiocast. The audiocast may be accessed via the Commission's website at http://www.prc.gov
The Hill: A group pushing to overhaul the U.S. Postal Service is calling on congressional appropriators to limit their interest in the cash-strapped agency. The Coalition for a 21st Century Postal Service, which represents trade associations and companies within the mailing industry, says that too much attention from the Appropriations committees could make it more difficult for lawmakers to find common ground on a broad postal reform bill. The group, in letters obtained by The Hill, reached out to lawmakers after Senate Majority Whip Dick Durbin (D-Ill.) included an amendment that would make it more difficult for the Postal Service to close facilities.
Wall Street Journal: Though many in Washington don't like to admit it, one of the reasons the capital is so polarized is that the country itself is polarized. And so far, there is little to suggest that the campaign of 2012 will do much to change that. In fact, there are signs the country is becoming more polarized along the way. That doesn't bode well for those who hope that the election will somehow compel leaders in Washington to bridge the deep divides that have turned the nation's capital into a partisan free-fire zone in recent years. One election outcome that might change the polarized atmosphere in Washington would be a decisive presidential-election victory—the kind of outcome that would deliver a clear mandate for one side's view of government's proper size and role.
The Sydney Morning Herald: A FEDERAL government contractor that was paid more than $1 million to deliver e-security alert services to Australians has lost 8000 subscribers' personal information in the postal system. AusCERT, which was paid $1,199,484.52 to run staysmartonline.gov.au between April 29, 2008 and April 29, 2012, lost subscribers' data after using Australia Post to send it on a DVD to the Department of Broadband, Communications and the Digital Economy (DBCDE) on April 11 when its contract to run the alerts service expired. In an email to the site's 8000 subscribers sent about 6pm on Friday, the ''Stay Smart Online Team'' said information that had ''gone missing'' included subscribers' user names, email addresses, memorable phrases and passwords. It said passwords were ''unreadable'' (stored as a cryptographic hash).
Stuff: Farmers could probably live with a rural postal delivery three or four days a week, says Federated Farmers president Bruce Wills. Those wanting to keep a six-day service may have to pay for the extra days, he said. State-owned enterprise NZ Post is in discussions with the federation and Rural Women NZ as the company awaits the Government's response to its request for a review of the 1998 Deed of Understanding which stipulates NZ Post must maintain six-day-a-week delivery to most of the 1.9 million delivery points in New Zealand and operate a network of no less than 880 outlets.
PRNewswire: Valpak, a leader in local print and digital coupons, announced today the signing of seven new franchise agreements for territories including North Brooklyn, N.Y.; Salem, Ore.; Grand Rapids, Mich.; Memphis, Tenn.; Parsippany, N.J.; Jacksonville, Fla. and East Toronto, Ontario. Both North Brooklyn and East Ontario are new territories for Valpak and residents in these markets will receive the Blue Envelope for the very first time. These developments are part of an aggressive growth plan for the brand to increase its presence throughout the country.
Hartford Courant: Rob Cordery spends much of his time thinking up ways to prevent forgery. Take the markings that are stamped near the top of a letter or package. Those markings contain specific information including postage cost, origin, destination, mail class, weight, tracking numbers and a crypographic signature. Tracking these transactions is an important accounting task for the U.S. Postal Service, but it isn't easy. If the markings were too easily deciphered, they could be forged, a revenue problem the U.S. Postal Service doesn't need. The markings are complicated, to prevent such forgeries. Cordery, an inventor at Pitney Bowes, is behind a sizeable amount of this technology.
U.S. Postal Service Office of Inspector General Risk Analysis Research Center Report Number: RARC-WP-12-012 "Postal Service Contributions to National Infrastructure"
July 9, 2012
eWeek: More respondents reported buying physical goods with their phones than online services, digital goods, or virtual currency, despite the general popularity of digital downloads, such as applications and music, the report noted. For the second consecutive year, both biller and bank-operated online bill pay sites were used by more than 50 percent of the respondents. Overall the report found nearly three-quarters (73.5 percent) of U.S. consumers now use online bill payment, indicating online bill payment is now the dominant way to pay bills in the U.S.
PRNewswire: Valassis, one of the nation's leading media and marketing services companies, announced results of a study indicating that today 90% of grocery retailers use weekly circulars as their promotion of choice although they clearly expect the increased influence of social media and digital to greatly impact their promotion tactics within the next five years. This was among the findings of the Supermarket Media Usage Study of 60 leading grocery decision makers, representing approximately 50 national and independent grocers/chains. The survey was executed on behalf of Valassis by Stagnito Custom Media. The study also found that grocers are adapting their media tactics in response to declining paid newspaper circulation, and have decreased their newspaper-distributed circulars within the past year. As a result, 26% of respondents reported increased usage of mail-delivered and online promotions.
Geneva Lunch: The Swiss and French post offices, Swiss Post and La Poste, have created a new international post joint venture, Asendia, with more than euros 400 million in turnover and 1,000 employees on three continents. The new company's sector of activity covers all international mail solutions, including the dispatch and delivery of mail, catalogues, press and small goods up to 2 kg, as well as upstream and downstream services in the value chain.
Jersey Evening Post: THREE former Jersey Post executives walked away with over £800,000 between them last year in combined earnings and pay-off deals after being axed by the States-owned business. Chief executive Ian Carr, finance director Ian Ridgway and human resources director Julie Crabtree were given over half a million pounds to end their contracts. Jersey Post chairman Mike Liston defended the ‘compromise agreements' and said the three were among 40% of staff members who had either lost their jobs or suffered pay cuts due to the loss of bulk mail business as a result of the end of LVCR. Mr Liston said £2 million a year had been removed from the ‘white-collar' pay bill in the past three years.
The New Times: Representatives from member countries of the Pan African Postal Union (PAPU) are meeting to deliberate on various issues related to postal services in Africa at the United Nations Conference Center in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia. The meeting which kicked off on Wednesday discusses philately and also deals with challenges of illegal postage stamp issues among other topics. A discussion on Thursday noted that there is a continued proliferation of illegal stamps in many African countries
Brand Republic: The Royal Mail is expanding its business with the launch of its own direct marketing services facility, MarketReach, to help boost the use of mail marketing by UK brands. The government-owned postal service will provide both brands and agencies with a range of direct marketing services, including planning, production, data and creative services, to help fill a "gap" in skills at partner organisations. Royal Mail said it was looking to "behave more like a media owner", and less like an industry advisory body such as the RAB or Thinkbox, by helping advertisers to integrate "real elements" into increasingly digitally-led campaigns.
MarketingWeek: Royal Mail hopes by offering brands enhanced planning, creative and data solutions they will be reminded of the "power of physical", an appreciation lost in the rush to embrace digital. Is the launch of Market Reach an new dawn for physical direct marketing? Or the last desperate throw of the dice for a channel in terminal decline? The intention for Market Reach is not management of decline. Royal Mail is hoping that the full-service solution will inspire brands and agencies to either add DM to their channel mix or substitute it for another. The hoped for outcome is to increase physical DM's share of the UK's advertising market.
PRLog: Ecommerce specialists at Postcode Anywhere will be demonstrating a new address validation service this week at the Microsoft World Partner Conference, in Toronto, Canada. The address validation and auto-complete technology, called Capture+, makes address entry easier in Microsoft Dynamics CRM. Capture+ combines search-engine style auto-suggest technology with worldwide address datasets and integrates with Microsoft's CRM solution in minutes. Capture+ aims to make customer, contact and lead relationship management simpler with one-click address auto-fill. The service also incorporates extra data, set to "eliminate" common customer address problems such as not having a postcode or zip code on file, or not being able to arrange delivery to flats.
Denver Post: During the last five years, there has been only one kind of news about the U.S. Postal Service — bad news. The Postal Service, like many other businesses, is facing a sea change as people increasingly conduct their lives and business online. But it's worse than that. The agency doesn't get taxpayer support and must be financially self-sufficient — like a private business — but is subject to meddling by Congress. When the Postal Service has tried important diversification initiatives, it has been hampered by Congress. It's hard to imagine how a complex operation such as the Postal Service can make the changes necessary for financial survival so long as senators and representatives insist on dictating business strategy. At this rate, the Postal Service, which is losing $36 million a day, hasn't got a chance.
Washington Post: A group of concerned citizens paid us a high compliment the other day — by showing up to picket outside our doors. Nice to know our words are provocative enough to protest. In particular, the protesters repeated the oft-made argument that the Postal Service would be just fine, financially, if only Congress would relieve it of an annual $5.5 billion retiree health fund pre-payment. The retiree fund payment is not causing the Postal Service's collapse. Its essential problem can also be stated simply: Because of technological change, the volume of first-class mail is plummeting, with no end in sight. Yet the Postal Service remains geared to the demands of a bygone age, burdened by a large network of little-used post offices and mail-processing centers, as well as a unionized work force of more than half a million people. The union labor contracts insulate workers from layoffs and guarantee them more generous health-care benefits than the general public, or even other federal workers, receive. This is not a sustainable system.
Transport Intelligence: At the beginning of the year, there was mild optimism of a global economic recovery in 2012. However, as the first half of the year ends, optimism has soured. Declines in demand, particularly along the Asian trade lanes, have resulted in capacity issues for both air and ocean freight providers. The region's export-driven economy continues to decline as its major trade partners Europe and the US contend with economic concerns of their own.
Roll Call: The four-week stretch before the August recess might sound like a long haul, especially for this Congress. But by lobbyists' count, they have at most 16 legislative days left before politics completely swamps the Capitol Hill agenda.
July 8, 2012
Postalnews Blog: Dead Tree Edition today suggests that all this talk about retirement incentives has caused postal workers to put off retirement in the hope of getting a big bonus. There's just one problem with the Dead Tree article: the numbers don't add up. It turns out that postal employees are retiring at just about the same rate this year as they did last year.
Fayetteville Observer: Nobody's surprised that the U.S. Postal Service needs to cut spending to stay alive. But some measures proposed to accomplish that leave our heads shaking.
Guardian: Citizens are being warned to brace for another wave of industrial action, this time from the T&T Postal Union, as members decide an appropriate response to a plan by the T&T Postal Corporation that might put hundreds of employees on the breadline.
Dead Tree Edition: Talk of early-retirement incentives for U.S. Postal Service employees may have temporarily backfired: Career employees of the U.S. Postal Service have apparently been retiring in record low numbers The number of full-time employees shrank by only 1.6% in the past year, according to a statistical report USPS released Friday. That's a minuscule net attrition rate in an organization that is hardly hiring any new full-time employees, where half the employees are 50 or older, and where nearly half the employees are eligible to retire.
July 7, 2012
USPS News Link: Mailing Solutions Specialist Kimberly Ingram turned a pizza contact into nearly $5 million in new postal revenue. While meeting with the store manager of a local Domino's Pizza store, Ingram was given the contact information for the company's district manager. She scheduled follow-up meetings with the district manager, 50 Domino's franchise owners and a corporate marketing representative for the western U.S., pitching them on the benefits of Every Door Direct Mail. The pitch worked, and a test campaign saw a substantial increase in pizza orders. Domino's officials then decided to launch a 268-store Every Door Direct campaign throughout the western U.S. — generating $4.8 million in new USPS revenue.
Courier, Express, and Postal Observer: The Majority Leader of the House of Representatives has released the calendar for the week of July 9th and H.R. 2309, the Postal Reform Act, is not on the agenda. As noted previously, the next step for H.R.2309 will come when the House Committee on Rules will meet to consider under what rules debate will occur on the floor and may determine which amendments the House will consider when debating the bill. It is possible that the Rules committee could meet early this week to allow consideration of H.R. 2309 on what appears to be a vote free day on Wednesday, July 11th. However, that meeting is unlikely to be held until a manager's amendment to H.R.2309 is completed and circulated. As major stakeholders who support H.R. 2309's approach had not seen the text of this amendment as of Friday, it would appear that the chance of any action on postal reform this week is slim.
KRNV: Area postal inspectors are speaking up saying they're seeing an increase in drug trafficking through the mail. This comes after a News 4 exclusive that police believe the medical marijuana clubs in South Lake Tahoe are connected to drugs being shipped to the East coast.
Winnepeg Free Press: In the last two months, Canada Post's digital mail service, called Epost, has gained a sizable number of new Winnipeg subscribers. That's because the Winnipeg Regional Health Authority is now distributing its fortnightly pay stubs to all of its 12,000 employees via Canada Post's digital platform. The WRHA Epost service began May 3 and about 70 per cent of employees have already signed up, which is considered a strong early uptake on the service on the part of Canada Post. Those who haven't yet signed up will receive their pay stubs through the mail until they do. Those Winnipeg health-care workers are part of massive group -- numbering 7.5 million -- who subscribe to Canada Post's free online service. For Canada Post, it is no less than the difference between sustainability and a significant decline in business.
July 6, 2012
Join PostCom for a FREE webinar: NEW USPS Package Products & Enhancements by Join PostCom's Lowrance for a FREE webinar - Deep Dive into Postal Legislative Bills- 7/17 at 1pm ET.https://www1.gotomeeting.com/register/602241081
July 5, 2012
From the Federal Register: Postal Regulatory Commission NOTICES Price Adjustments , 40387-40389 [2012-16589][TEXT ] [PDF]< /p>
Attention Postal One! Users: You are receiving this email because a Critical Incident ticket was opened by the USPS Help Desk for an issue that is impacting PostalOne! performance. At the current time the PostalOne! system is operational but we are experiencing a performance issue that is impacting Mail.dat processing and we have a higher than normal backlog. You will be notified as root cause is identified and resolution is known. Wall Street Journal: The U.S. economy posted its third consecutive month of weak job growth, hurting President Barack Obama's reelection prospects and turning up the pressure on the Federal Reserve to do more to help the economy. The report echoes recent data that suggest the U.S. economy is losing steam. Signs of a global slowdown are prompting caution even among companies that haven't yet seen a direct impact. Federal Times: The Office of Personnel Management has cut its backlog of unprocessed pension claims by 21 percent in the five months since it unveiled a new strategy to fix the longstanding problem. According to statistics posted online today, OPM cut the backlog by 1,150 cases in June, bringing the backlog down to 48,323 unprocessed claims. In January, when OPM announced its plan to fix its problematic pension process, the inventory was 61,108. But even though OPM has made progress so far in 2012, the size of the backlog is still far greater than it was in October 2010, when OPM Director John Berry pledged to fix the problem. That month when Federal Times first reported that many retirees were waiting six months to a year for pensions that were often half of what they were owed OPM said it had 38,400 cases backlogged. Please join the Association for Postal Commerce for a free webinar on Wednesday, July 25 at 1:00pm EDT as USPS Headquarters, Mail Entry & Payment Technology presents: "The World of MIDs, CRIDS, and the Business Customer Gateway." The webinar will focus on: Customer Registration IDs (CRIDs), Mailer IDs (MIDs), and the Business Customer Gateway. You will learn how Mail Owners and Mailing Agents may acquire an MID; when and how it is used in the Intelligent Mail® barcode, and electronic mailing information (eDoc); and how it enables receipt of Intelligent Mail ®Full-Service Feedback Data. Pakistan Observer: Federal minister for Postal services Sardar Al-Hajj Mohammad Umar Gorgaij clarified that financial allegations on Pakistan post of Rs 20.7 billion during fiscal year 2010-2011 on the basis of Auditor General Report are baseless, unjustified and groundless. According to the Federal Secretary Ministry of Postal Services, total budget of the department is almost 11 billion, out of which 80 % is allocated for salaries of 48000 employees and the rest 20 % is supposed to be utilized for operational expenditure. [EdNote: Wow....the percentage of Pakistan's postal costs due to personnel is the same as the U.S. After the billions we've invested in automation, we should be ashamed.] Post & Parcel: With the US Postal Service now in the process of consolidating its mail processing network, its Inspector General has called for lessons to be learned from a particularly problematic consolidation carried out last year. The Office of the Inspector General (OIG) found that the consolidation of a single mail plant in Maryland, close to the US capital, led to "significant" delays in mail services and a $558,000 increase in transport costs. The investigation into the transfer of mail processing from the Frederick, Maryland, plant to the Baltimore processing plant from October 2011 to January 2012 found that delayed mail volumes increased by nearly 200% during the consolidation, to 4.6% of total mail volumes. Customer service scores also declined during consolidation, falling by 17.2% compared to the same period the previous year in the Frederick area, and 12.2% in the Baltimore area, the report said. The Postal Service is set to close 48 of its 461 area mail processing plants across the United States in the next two months, with plans to close a further 92 in January and February 2013.#USPS Karen Key on 7/31 1pm ET https://www1.gotomeeting.com/register/744927256
The following reports have been posted on the U.S. Postal Service Office of Inspector General website (http://www.uspsoig.gov). If you have additional questions concerning a report, please contact Wally Olihovik at (703) 248-2201 or Agapi Doulaveris at (703) 248-2286. Frederick, MD to Baltimore, MD Area Mail Processing Consolidation (Report Number NO-AR-12-006). Our report determined that consolidating Frederick Processing & Distribution Facility destinating mail processing operations into the Baltimore Processing & Distribution Center initially delayed mail, lowered service and customer experience scores, and increased transportation costs. Management acknowledged these challenges, however, has addressed many of the problems experienced during the consolidation and operating conditions have improved as of February 2012. Federal Times: The early numbers are in and it appears that as many as 7,400 postmasters and full-time mail handlers could be headed for the exits under separate buyout/early retirement offers from the U.S. Postal Service. For both groups, the sign-up deadline was Monday. Although applicants can still back out, the Postal Service anticipates that between 3,800 to 4,200 postmasters could resign or retire in response to the $20,000 buyout incentive, USPS spokesman Mark Saunders said today. The Postal Service is offering full-time mail handlers $15,000 to take the money and run; between 2,800 and 3,200 may go, Saunders said. One thing is clear: Proportionately, the early-out option has been a much better sell among the nation's 21,000 postmasters than its roughly full-time 43,000 mail handlers.![[Federal News Radio]](../../graphics/flags/fednewsradio.gif){kind=small}
Federal News Radio: The Postal Service is outpacing nearly every civilian agency in knowing who is on their network and exactly what they are doing. With more than 220,000 employees authorized to be on their network, USPS is winning the battle against the insider threat. Bloomberg Businessweek: Lawmakers intent on dictating how the U.S. Postal Service cuts billions from its spending are among those helping themselves to a favorite congressional perk: free mail. U.S. House members sent more than $45 million worth of such mail in 2010 and 2011 even while switching much of their communication to e-mail in recent years. China Daily: Approval of domestic delivery services by international logistics companies such as FedEx Express Corp and United Parcel Service Inc is still pending, clouding the prospects of foreign players that are eyeing a bigger slice of the soaring Chinese express delivery market. In May, the State Postal Bureau published domestic license applications from two US-based couriers, FedEx and UPS. But the requests were partly thwarted by speculation that their access to the local market would pose a threat to national security. Washington Post: Letter to the Editor -- "The U.S. Postal Service should amend its motto to include "or lack of electricity," given its stellar performance over the past several days. While I was without electricity for more than 72 hours, my mail was delivered. Not bad, considering many postal employees were probably without power at their homes and the same for many post offices as well. Nice job." San Francisco Business Times: The U.S. Postal Service has identified eight Bay Area properties it plans to sell. The sites include seven buildings and one piece of vacant land that are among 109 sites nationwide that the Postal Service wants to unload. The Bay Area properties will not officially hit the market for another few months, according to David Rouse, a real estate specialist with the Postal Service based in Washington D.C. DMM Advisory: The May – June MailPro [HTML] [PDF] is available now on about.usps.com/mailpro. You'll find articles about Click-N-Ship For Business, Picture Permit Imprint Indicia, mailpiece dimension options for Every Door Direct Mail, Intelligent Mail barcodes for automated letters and automation flats, and more. Customers can access current and past issues of MailPro online or subscribe by sending an e-mail to mncsc@usps.com. Include your name, title, company name, complete delivery address, and daytime phone number.
IMbâ„¢ Services Update
A major Oracle® database technology upgrade will be completed during an extended maintenance window from 6 p.m. Saturday, July 14, 2012, through 8 a.m. CDT Sunday, July 15, 2012. During this outage, PostalOne! and Mail.xml® will be unavailable, including FAST® and eDOC Web Services.
National Association of Postmasters: The latest issue of the National Association of Postmasters of the U.S. legislative update is available online.
The latest issue of the
PostCom Bulletin is available online. In this issue:
PRWeb: Direct mail advertisers have not experienced significant losses, despite the economic recession. Some companies have chosen to use direct mail advertising during the harsh downturn, since they provide a cheaper, more targeted form of advertising than traditional mainstream media, such as radio and TV. However, as companies engage in mainstream advertising again over the next five years, the industry will face heightened competition. In particular, increasing competition from digital advertising, including the internet and mobile messaging, will threaten industry growth. For these reasons, industry research firm IBISWorld has added a report on the Direct Mail Advertising industry to its growing industry report collection.
The Royal Gazette: Shadow Finance Minister Bob Richards yesterday claimed Government doesn't understand why the Post Office's ‘return-to-sender' policy is giving Bermuda a bad name. Mr Richards joined Ombudsman Arlene Brock in urging the Post Office to recommence delivering all mail to its intended destination, saying the Island needs to show it's in the customer service business. But he expressed alarm that Economy Minister Patrice Minors was standing by a practice of returning some incorrectly addressed mail to senders.
National Association of Letter Carriers: Next week, the fight to save Saturday delivery will take center stage in the House of Representatives. The House is expected to take up H.R. 6020, the annual Financial Services and General Government appropriation bill. Although the bill does not appropriate any taxpayer money for the Postal Service, its passage is important to the future viability of the USPS since it includes a provision (policy rider) mandating the continuation of six-day delivery service – just as it has every year since 1984. NALC has learned that House Government Reform Committee Chairman Darell Issa (R-CA) may seek to strip the provision from the bill next week when the House begins debate on the legislation by raising a parliamentary point of order arguing that the six-day mandate violates House rules that bars Congress from legislating on an appropriations bill. Issa sent a letter to Rules Committee Chairman David Drier in June requesting an "open rule" for the debate on H.R. 6020 so that he can raise the point of order, which Drier granted.
MarketWire: Pitney Bowes warns that SMEs who are persisting with stamps, may have missed out on significant savings already. It's now been two months since the Royal Mail raised the price of first class stamps to 60p for a standard letter; franked mail is 27% cheaper at 44p per item. SMEs that are sending as few as 10 first class letters per day could have already saved up to GBP 72 on their postal costs by using a franking machine instead.
Business Standard: Mirroring signs of revival, the Department of Posts (DoP) has registered the highest decline in deficit in more than 10 years at Rs 550.73 crore in 2011-12 on the back of increase in revenues, mainly from financial services.
Yakima Herald-Republic: The Postal Service is a quasigovernmental agency that is self-supporting and doesn't receive taxpayer funding. The Internet era and the national economic recession have decimated its economic model, as first-class mail volume has plummeted 25 percent since 2006. For the first quarter of this year, the postal service nationally lost $3.2 billion, $1 billion more than for the same period in 2011. The Postal Service is not alone in having to deal with the recession. But almost singularly it is a business in a political realm; every proposed change runs afoul of a constituency that then puts pressure on elected officials to stop -- or, in this case slow -- the changes. There is no shortage of ideas for fixing the agency.
Minnesota Public Radio: The U.S. Postal Service has been on a slow decline, running deficits in the billions of dollars every fiscal year with 650,000 employees. But Americans are hesitant to do away with the Postal Service, and even suggestions to cut back service have caused uproar. What is the future of the post office in America, and what can -- or should -- be done to save it? Guests Ian Lee: Assistant professor of strategic management in the Sprott School of Business at Carleton University and A. Lee Fritschler: Professor of public policy at George Mason University. He served as Chairman of the U.S. Postal Rate Commission from 1979-1981.
New York Times: It used to be that a letter sent was a letter delivered. Not so much anymore. Even before the Postal Service begins closing hundreds of processing centers to cut costs, several businesses say they are beginning to see a decline in service.Postal officials will not comment on the suit, but they said they had not heard a significant number of complaints from large mailers. And when they have received complaints, they said, they have responded quickly.
Dead Tree Edition: The more things change at the U.S. Postal Service, the more they stay the same. Consider this statement written 31 years ago by then-Postmaster General William F. Bolger:
"The main disadvantage of the Postal Service's present status is that the 'safeguards' that accompanied independence have tended to grow to the point that new fetters have been substituted in part for the former ones. The Postal Service continues to be overregulated, and its managers continue to have difficulty finding the authority to execute certain decisions that are necessary to modernize the service and operate the postal system efficiently."
July 4, 2012
Post & Parcel: Brazil Post has formally invited the FENTECT union to begin negotiations for a new collective bargaining agreement for 2012-13. The negotiations would seek a new labour deal to succeed the current agreement, which expires on 1st August. Brazil Post said in a statement on Monday that it would aim to make the next labour contract successful and benefit its 120,000 employees, including 57,000 mail carriers. It said over the past nine years, pay for most staff has increased 138%, compared to the Consumer Price Index increase in the same period of 76%
The Information Daily: The European Commission has cleared under the EU Merger Regulation the proposed creation of a joint-venture between the French and Swiss postal incumbents La Poste and Swiss Post to carry out most of their current activities in the area of international mail delivery services. The decision is conditional upon the divestiture of the subsidiary of Swiss Post in France.
PRNewswire: FedEx Corp. has announced that its FedEx Express business unit has completed the acquisition of Rapidão Cometa, one of the largest transportation and logistics companies in Brazil with revenues of more than $500 million in 2011. This acquisition is the latest step in the company's strategy for profitable growth in the Latin American and Caribbean (LAC) region.
New Hampshire Labor News: Mitt Romney and his economic advisors like Kevin Hassett have a clear message in how a Romney administration would address the US Postal Service. It's fairly simple they would eliminate it. Kevin Hassett a key Romney economic advisor, while writing for the American Enterprise Institute, stated first they have to rewrite the rule concerning universal service. "It would be trivial to fully privatize postal delivery with guaranteed universal service. We need only write regulations that require firms that compete for postal business to provide universal service." He then addresses the obstacle to this idea both unions and Democrats. Why has the Republican party turned a non-partisan government service into a polarizing political issue? Hassett:"The Democrats will never let us do that, of course. The political might of the public employee unions is just too great. " So clearly weakening the Postal Unions is the first step towards their elimination. Other federal unions are soon to be next in line.
Federal Times: When American Postal Workers Union members agreed to a contract last year that included wage and benefit concessions, they were obviously binding themselves for the life of the agreement with the U.S. Postal Service. Less obvious—at least to FedLine–was that they were also setting the stage for similar givebacks by other postal unions. That's a lot clearer now, however, with the award of the three-member arbitration board charged with setting the terms of a new contract between Postal Service and the National Rural Letter Carriers' Association. The APWU agreement "provided precedent that would have been very difficult to ignore," wrote Joey Johnson, the board's NRLCA-appointed member, who partially dissented from the final decision announced yesterday.
CEP News (Courier-Express-Postal), published by the MRU Consultancy, has reported that:
The realignment of the administration of state-owned firms under the holding Sepi (CEP-News 24/12) appears to involve the intended privatisation of the Spanish post.
The Belgian post won't pay a dividend to its shareholders for the last business year. In 2011 bpost slid deep into the red (-54.7m euros, CEP-News 24/12) due to state-aid repayments imposed by the EU-Commission.
Some 5,000 employees of Pos Indonesia went on strike for three days to demand higher wages and pensions and free health insurance. Additionally, they protested against the outsourcing of jobs. Currently, around 30% of all jobs at Pos Indonesia are outsoruced to subcontractors.
Employees of the Tunisian post went for two days on strike, demanding the creation of 1,000 additional jobs. According to the international trade union network UNI Global Union the post suffers from a 'serious lack of staff' and the service quality could only be improved with more personnel.
Chunghwa Post, Taiwan's state-owned postal operator, is the country's third largest sweat-shop. This is the result of a survey carried out by the public Council of Labor Affairs in last year. Afterwards a fine of 11,400 euros was imposed on the post.
The MRU, founded in 1992, is the only consultancy in Europe, which has specialised in the market of courier-, express- and parcel services. For large-scale shippers and CEP-services in particular, the MRU provides interdisciplinary advice for all major questions of the market, as there are for example market entry, product design, organisation, and EDP.To learn more about the stories reported above, contact CEP News. (We appreciate the courtesy extended by CEP News to help whet your appetite for more of what CEP offers.)
Federal Times: If you're eager (and who isn't?) to see how the U.S. Postal Service responds to Northrop Grumman's $180 million lawsuit over a monster automation project, well, sit tight. The original deadline was today, but Federal Claims Court Judge George Miller has given Postal Service lawyers an extension until Sept. 7. "Additional time is needed to conduct further investigation that is required to prepare full and accurate responses to allegations" in Northrop's suit, Miller ruled last week. Northrop did not object to the delay.
The Times of India: The postal department has entered into a partnership with state-run telecom company BSNL to provide money order service using mobile phones.
Royal Gazette: Ombudsman Arlene Brock launched a withering attack on the Post Office's ‘return to sender' policy amid claims it is hurting international business. Her team discovered staff spending time correcting details of incompletely addressed mail but — instead of then delivering them — posting them back to the sender pointing out their mistake. This makes a mockery of Government's claims the policy saves money by cutting time spent researching badly addressed mail, the Ombudsman said in her annual report. Mr Brock contrasted Bermuda's attitude to the Cayman Islands, where she says the delivery of mail is a social good and every effort is made to get it to its destination.
eCommerceBytes: Whether you sell on a marketplace such as eBay or Amazon or on your own website, you spend a lot of time dealing with shipping labels and communicating to buyers that their item is on the way. This week, Canadian sellers are getting new functionality for dealing with Canada Post shipments, the same features that have been making the lives of U.S. sellers easier when dealing with their USPS shipments. OrderCup has launched what it says is the first shipping automation tool for Canadian online sellers who use Canada Post.
Pasadena Sun: The battle over the future of the U.S. Postal Service landed at Pasadena City Hall Monday, where more than 100 post office workers and three members of Congress gathered to protest plans to shutter a Northwest Pasadena mail distribution center.
Zambia Daily Mail: THE Zambia Postal Services (Zampost) has registered a new company to be called Zampost Microfinance Company Limited, which is expected to be operational this year. Zampost Microfinance awaits an operational license from the Bank of Zambia. Zampost public relations and corporate affairs manager Francis Mumba says the company will provide an opportunity to people to borrow money at a "reasonable rate".
4-Traders: PostNL has submitted an application with the Dutch Independent Post and Telecommunication Authority (OPTA) for compensation of the net costs of the universal service obligation (USO) for 2011. This involves, among others, costs incurred by PostNL to meet the statutory obligation for six-day delivery, retaining 19,000 mail boxes and an extensive network of post offices. The Postal Directive and the Postal Act 2009 provide for a scheme for compensation for the net costs of the USO. Net costs are caused by the obligation to deliver the services under the USO. PostNL assesses these net costs at €107 to €125 million. The net costs of the USO increase due to decreasing volumes, while the statutory obliged service levels as mentioned above remain the same.
Materials Handling World: An Post, Ireland's national postal operator and one of the country's largest employers, has completed a major project with Zetes to enhance its customer delivery service levels. The contract, which involves supplying an electronic proof of delivery (ePOD) solution to equip all 4,200 of its delivery staff with a 100% paperless track and trace system, is a key element of its development strategy. In commissioning the solution from Zetes, An Post had four key objectives: to improve the overall customer delivery experience through the provision of real time tracking data; to reduce the manual administration required for proof of delivery (POD) cards; to ensure that An Post has the capability of taking immediate advantage of future developments in mobile technology and finally, to further improve the company's environmental footprint through lower paper consumption. An Post is the first national postal operator worldwide to equip its entire postal delivery workforce of 4,200 -foot, bicycle or van based delivery staff- with a handheld scanner to confirm, track and trace deliveries and collections in real time.
Morning Whistle: The China Air Transport Association (CATA) was communicating actively with State Postal Bureau, the Civil Aviation Authority of China, local airlines and express companies, to protest the application of domestic business licenses from global giants, FedEx Corporation and United Parcel Service, Inc. (UPS), the 21st Century Business Hearld said.
From the Federal Register: Postal Regulatory Commission Changes in Postal Rates , 39747–39748 [2012–16434] [TEXT ] [PDF]
Federal News Radio: The Pentagon next week will begin deploying a system that will roughly 27,000 employees in the building the ability to treat their incoming postal mail in much the same way they treat their email: open and read it, ignore it or throw it away — all with the click of a mouse. Even in an electronic age, the Pentagon gets mail. Lots of it. And most pieces are official mail, not grocery ads or home-mortgage offers. Each day, 13,000 pieces of mail come through the Defense Post Office, a DoD operation that is managed by Washington Headquarters Services and is separate from the U.S. Postal Service. Under the Digital Delivery Mail Program, automated sorting equipment at the Pentagon's mail facility will capture a color image of the front and back of each envelope as it's processed into the system. Employees throughout the building will then be able to log in to a secure, web based system, view their day's mail and make a decision on how to handle it. The system will let users direct the Defense Post Office to deliver the physical mailpiece, open it and deliver just digital image of the contents, return it to the sender or discard it as junk mail. [Listen to the audio presentation.]
Attention Postal One! Users: The Dashboard will not be updated with the Full Service Percent. Users will not see the full service percent for the Mixed/Full Service statements. An ETR will be created to put it back on the dashboard. This will not impact any other Pay anywhere/mail anywhere functionality, just impacts the display of Full Service PCT on the dashboard.
Upon analysis of the Mobile Commerce issues being reported to the Help Desk, we have determined the tickets are primarily related to the following two issues:
We are continuing to work to resolve all issues associated with the Mobile Commerce incentive. If you are experiencing any problems with the incentive, contact the PostalOne! Help Desk at 1-800-522-9085 for assistance.
Instructions for Enrolling Permits (user must have already acquired the Incentive Program service): (1) Log into the Business Customer Gateway (BCG) at https://gateway.usps.com/bcg/log in.htm, (2) Select the Incentive Programs enrollment link (under Account Services) (3) Select the Permit Accounts tab to view your linked permits. (4) Review the listed permits to ensure all permits are listed. If not, follow step 5 below.. (5) If you do not see your permits listed or believe some are missing, you can link missing permits through the Business Customer Gateway.
To do this, return to the BCG homepage. Select the Manage Permits link (under Account Services). Then select which affiliate office or location that you want to link the permit (if you have only one location, select it) then follow the prompts. The appropriate information that you need to link your permit through the Business Customer Gateway is: Account Number, Account Type, Post Office ZIP Code where you opened your permit and one of ten of the most recent transactions. If you are experiencing problems linking your permits, contact the PostalOne! Help Desk at 1-800-522-9085 for assistance. Once your permits have been linked, you MUST go back to the Permit Accounts tab and ensure your permits have been added. This is required to have your permits recognized in PostalOne! for the discount.
For more information regarding how to link permits to your Incentive Programs profile, refer to the User Access to Electronic Mailing Information & Reports Guide, Volume I at https://ribbs.usps.gov/intelli gentmail_guides/documents/tech_guides/user_access/ElectronicMailingInfoReports Guide1.pdf
July 3, 2012
USPS News Link: The outcome of the binding arbitration process between USPS and the National Rural Letter Carriers' Association has resulted in a contract. The agreement is effective July 3, 2012 and lasts through May 20, 2015. The Postal Service is facing a critical financial situation that requires both substantial cost savings from within, as well as substantive legislative reforms from Congress. The arbitrator's decision includes important cost-savings provisions that will benefit the Postal Service over the life of the contract. However, it does not go as far as the Postal Service believes is necessary to address its financial challenges. The results of the Interest Arbitration Award include the following provisions: (1) A 2-year wage freeze, followed by modest increases (2) A lower wage scale for new career employees (more than 10 percent lower) (3) Lower wages for new non-career employees (more than 20 percent lower) (4) An increase in the employee share of health insurance premiums (the same phased-in schedule as the American Postal Workers Union agreement) (5) An agreement to reopen health insurance negotiations if Congress or another union acts on a proposal for new health insurance package other than the Federal Employees Health Benefit plan. (6) Work standard changes that will improve productivity and lower costs.
Reason: ReasonTV caught up with the famished real-world Newmans and Cliff Klavins as they were about to enter the halls of Congress to plead their case to be let out of a 2006 arrangement. That law, The Postal Accountability and Enhancement Act, says that the Postal Service must fully fund its health and retirement accounts to the tune of more than $5 billion a year until 2017, which understandably cuts into the post office's declining cash flow. The law also made various changes to how postal rates are set and a variety of other lesser issues. What the postal workers and their supporters typically fail to acknowledge is that the law also relieved the Postal Service of paying some $27 billion in pension benefits that were attributable to employees' military service. And that the bill passed the Senate unaminously on a voice vote and with 410 votes in the House of Representatives. This wasn't partisan legislation, that's for sure, but an attempt to clean up the bad finances of a major operation.
Times of Malta: MaltaPost plc's equity dropped 1.7 per cent during this morning's session to a new 21-month low of 89c on a single trade of only 2,000 shares. The postal operator's equity has shed 7.3 per cent since the publication of its interim results on May 8. The half-year financial statements revealed a 54.5 per cent plunge in net profits to €500,000 mainly due to changes in the tariff structure imposed by the Universal Postal Union.
DutchNews: Postal company PostNL is halting the reorganisation of its delivery operations until 2013 following more complaints about the new centralised locations, the Financieele Dagblad reports on Tuesday. The company is replacing its 10,000 full-time delivery staff with part-timers and replacing the current 163 local delivery centres with nine centralised locations. Since the reorganisation began there have been complaints of late and missing post and under-trained staff in areas where centralised locations are already in operation.
CNET: There's a pretty good chance you've scanned a QR code with your smartphone. QR is short for "quick response." Hidden in those lines are embedded code only your smartphone can read that points it to a new location on the Web. Online marketing gurus are singing the digital praises for the inexpensive cost with maximum return on investment. Taking your smartphone to a new site certainly can seem cool if you trust the source. But experts believe it's just a matter of time before hackers are able to hijack this clever code, taking you someplace you didn't plan on going. The results could be a nasty virus, botnet, or malicious code that records your personal information, your location, even your bank account numbers. Your best defense, use common sense. Don't scan QR codes randomly found on the street or buildings. If you have to ask yourself who might have made this code, it's probably best to pass.
Wall Street Journal: Authorities in Kazakhstan said an investigation into allegations of corruption involving a remote customs post and some of the world's largest energy firms had turned up no evidence to support the claims. The Wall Street Journal reported in June that members of Karachaganak Petroleum Operating BV and a logistics arm of Deutsche Post AG, which handles freight shipments for the group, received an anonymous email in March alleging improper payments for moving goods through Kazakhstan's Aksai City customs office. DHL and the consortium, which includes Eni SpA, Chevron Corp. and OAO Lukoil Holdings, previously confirmed that they had launched internal probes into the allegations. Kazakhstan's Customs Control Committee said it also was conducting an on-site audit of the customs post in Aksai.
KrebOnSecurity: Shadowy online businesses that sell knockoff prescription drugs through spam and other dodgy advertising practices have begun relying more heavily on the U.S. Postal Service to deliver prescription drugs to buyers in the United States direct from warehouses or mules within the U.S. The shift comes as rogue online pill shops are seeking ways to lower shipping costs, a major loss leader for most of these operations.
DutchNews: Postal company PostNL is breaking the law on keeping letters and parcels secure, telecom watchdog Opta says on its website. An investigation carried out by the watchdog shows that locations where the post is stored until collected by delivery staff are unsecured, leaving letters and parcels at risk of being tampered with or stolen. Many locations are unsupervised, post bags are visible and accessible from the public highway and are left open because there is no way of closing them, says Opta. Keeping the post confidential is a legal requirement.
The Hill: Congress is poised to tackle a handful of high-profile bills between now and Election Day, but the measures face an uphill climb. Lawmakers face a tight window for action on the remaining agenda items, including a farm bill, postal reform and appropriations legislation. The House is scheduled to be in session for just seven weeks in the four months before Nov. 6, and the mix of expiring tax provisions and looming spending cuts is expected to dominate the post-election lame-duck session. A House GOP leadership aide said on Monday that the postal reform and farm bills were still being worked on and that there is "no firm date for when they will be on the floor."
July 2, 2012
Post & Parcel: The postal operator in the former Netherlands Antilles has said it could pull out of providing services for the Caribbean islands of Bonaire, Saba and Sint Eustatius at the end of the year. Nieuwe Post Nederlandse Antillen (NPNA) said on Friday that services on the islands were "costly" and local infrastructure inadequate to provide postal services. Without sufficient payment from the Dutch government, the company said it would no longer provide the services. Curacao-based NPNA operates in Bonaire, Saba and Sint Eustatius under concession with the Dutch government, which now administrates those three islands. The current concession is due to run out at the end of this year, and the two sides are negotiating a possible renewal.
Government Executive: If time is money, then the Postal Service will need plenty of both if it hopes to be around in 2020.
America n Postal Workers Union: The APWU has put the Postal Service on notice that their plan to replace Postmasters at small, rural post offices with Postmaster Reliefs (PMRs) is a direct violation of our 2010 Collective Bargaining Agreement.
Ba ngor Daily News: Post offices play a key role in keeping Maine's islands sustainable. Aside from helping maintain the islanders' contact with each other and with the mainland, they serve as social centers. Most of Maine's small post offices are scheduled to have their hours of operation cut to four from the present eight. But there's an exception for post offices located 25 miles or more away from another post office. They will be operational for six hours a day regardless of their workload. Here's where the islands are hurt: That exemption doesn't apply to the two year-round inhabited Cranberry Isles or to Swans Island, Matinicus or Monhegan. Each is within 25 miles of a mainland post office. But a 25-mile trip is a lot harder and more expensive than most 25-mile trips on land. It involves paying for a ferry ride or owning or borrowing a boat.
The U.S. Postal Service Office of Inspector General invites you to comment on this week's "Pushing the Envelope" blog topic: Is it Time to Redesign Post Offices? More businesses are focusing on design to ensure retail locations are aesthetically pleasing and functional for its customers. Should the U.S. Postal Service do the same? Would the financial benefits of design improvements to facilitate efficient customer transactions outweigh the costs? Share your thoughts on our blog.
Federal Times: Now that the U.S. Postal Service and the National Postal Mail Handlers Union are officially arbitration-bound, it seems time for an overview of the state of USPS labor negotiations. More than a year has passed since members of the American Postal Workers Union ratified a new contract that will run through 2015. But the Postal Service has yet to sew up agreements with its other three bargaining units. As a result, both the mail carrier and tens of thousands of USPS employees have a lot riding on what arbitrators decide.
Linn's Stamp News: Opposition by the United States Postal Service's board of governors appears to have stalled plans for the first U.S. postage stamp to honor a living person. A member of the board told Linn's that many governors have reservations about Postmaster General Patrick R. Donahoe's plans to issue such a stamp this year. The board is planning to discuss the issue at an August meeting in Washington or sooner. Even if the governors agree to the planned stamp, the controversy may make it difficult for the stamp to be manufactured and issued this year under a timetable previously disclosed by stamp officials.
The Motley Fool: With greater access to medical care, [one] can only assume that the demand for the medical devices and drugs that UPS, FedEx, and Germany's DHL ship is bound to rise. Device and drug manufacturers have a mountain of things to worry about as they work to get themselves in compliance with the regulations of the ACA before it goes into full effect in 2014, so they have increasingly been turning over the supply logistics side of their business to these shipping companies.
NPR: The struggling U.S. Postal Service is planning to reduce the hours at thousands of rural post offices. That's just the latest in cost cutting measures for an agency that lost more than $3 billion in just the first three months of this year. In northern New Hampshire, residents of one town are already getting a glimpse of what the future might look like.
The Nation: With advances in information technology (IT), many have lost faith in the Post. They are now used to the Internet and related devices. But Post-Master General and Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of the Nigerian Postal Service (NIPOST) Alhaji Ibrahim Mori-Baba tells ADLINE ATILI that the Post will remain relevant in the communication world. All that is needed for the postal public operator to prove its mettle is to commercialise it, he says.
At the Postal Regulatory Commission: On July 11, 2012, beginning at 9:30 a.m., the Commission will hold a public hearing, in the Commission's hearing room, to question the United States Postal Service on its Post Office Structure Plan (POStPlan). The Postal Service's testimony, including its responses to discovery, is available for review electronically on the Commission's website, www.prc.gov. The Commission will provide a live, audio webcast of the hearing from the home page of the website.
July 1, 2012
New York Times: Ink is an age-old medium, yet it's keeping up with changing times. It's long been used in pens, of course, and more recently in printer cartridges, but now it's also being mixed to print lightweight circuits, sensors and switches. Circuits made with conductive inks that can withstand the rigors of pressure, heat and moisture are replacing copper wire and bulky connections in many new products. The ink circuits, typically made with a range of conductive materials, are printed on surfaces like plastic, cloth and paper. T-Ink circuits can be printed via standard press techniques. Paper, like ink, has an electronic future. Paper can be much more interactive.
Courier, Express, and Postal Observer: After the previous post on an expected schedule for H.R.2309 was promoted promoted on twitter, Congressman Dennis Ross responded and indicated that the schedule could slip. Given that July 11th is already scheduled for another debate and vote on repeal of the Affordable Care Act, any delay in dealing with postal reform in the House of Representatives pushes it until either July 12th or the following week. Delays in bringing H.R. 2309 to a floor vote would indicate that the bill's managers are finding it difficult to find legislative language that will ensure that 218 Republicans are willing to vote for passage.
QRCodePress: The United States Postal Service has announced that it has issued new smartphone friendly QR code stamps that will include images of Miles Davis and Edith Piaf. When smartphones are used to scan the quick response codes, they are redirected to a landing page, which provides the option to listen to Davis's music, while viewing images of both of the musicians, and gaining access to an interesting timeline of their lives.
Courier, Express, and Postal Observer:
In repsonse to a question on Twitter, Congressman Dennis Ross has confirmed that
H.R. 2309, the Postal Reform Act, will reach the House floor on July 10, 2012
