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March 5, 2012
Charter Schools -- Is It Time We Had Charter Postal Services?
Wikipedia --Charter schools are...schools that receive public money but are
not subject to some of the rules, regulations, and statutes that apply to other public schools
in exchange for some type of accountability for producing certain results, which are set forth in each school's charter. Charter schools are opened and attended by choice....
 The American: A massive taxpayer bailout of the Postal Service is coming, but this time Congress can’t blame Wall Street. This bailout will be 100 percent Made in Washington. The United States is unique in its antediluvian postal policy. Congress tells the postal managers to “run the USPS in a businesslike fashion,” and then blocks every decision they make. Congress won’t even let the Service cut Saturday delivery in the face of collapsing revenue, must less manage its sorting network.
Target Marketing:
Federal Times: Agencies face billions in additional contracting costs because of a new federal accounting rule that requires the government to reimburse contractors for a greater portion of employee pension costs.
The U.S. Postal Service Office of Inspector General invites you to comment on the this week’s “Pushing the Envelope” blog topic:
Should the Postal Service be a competitive business, an enabling infrastructure, or something in-between?
With over $20 billion in losses in the past 4 years and facing a possible financial insolvency, the U.S. Postal Service is at a critical juncture. In addition to solving the financial problem, one concern is the future role of the Postal Service. Join three guest bloggers, Richard Kielbowicz, Steve Hutkins, and James Campbell, in this first of five week-long blogs discussing the elements of a postal solution. Is the Postal Service a competitive business that maximizes profits or a national public infrastructure with a universal service obligation? Share your thoughts on our blog.
A new audit project has been started on the external website. CB Richard Ellis Group Incorporated Contract – 12TG018DA000. Our audit will review the contract between CBRE and the Postal Service to determine if it provides adequate cost benefit to the Postal Service.
  
They say there are three kinds of people in this world:
Those who make things happen. Those who watch things happen. And those who wonder what happened.
This is NOT the time to watch or wonder. This is the time to MAKE things happen.
Do you have a vision of what the postal system could be in the year 2020 that you'd care to share? No?
Well, we do, and we'd like you to be a part of that vision and help make things happen. Now's the time to determine what role you want to play in the crafting of PostalVision 2020 Learn more about the vision and the role can play.
Want to just watch or wonder? Hey, what have you got to lose?
Maybe . . . YOUR business!
Federal Times: As many as 2,000 U.S. Postal Service employees could face a reduction-in-force under the mail carrier's plans to close more than 220 mail processing plants, a spokesman said. Those affected would generally be white-collar executives, supervisors and administrators who lack union representation. The jobs involved would be among 30,000 career positions the Postal Service plans to eliminate through the downsizing by late next year. Postal spokesman Mark Saunders cautioned that the agency won't know the number of employees actually leaving until "much later in the process." In addition, the Postal Service is holding off on any plant and post office closings until mid-May, even as some lawmakers are pressing for a longer delay. Postal spokesman Dave Partenheimer had no information Friday on when a RIF might begin.
New York Times: Last year, researchers at the Project for Excellence in Journalism persuaded six companies that own 121 newspapers to share private data about the financial performance of many of their papers. And the findings were grim. On average, for every new dollar the newspapers were earning in new digital advertising revenue, they were losing $7 in print advertising revenue. The papers seemed not to be diversifying their revenue streams or coming up with innovative products at a fast enough clip.
Financial Times: Come November, many American men such as these – white, blue-collar and angry – will turn their back on the Democrats and vote Republican. The white working class deserting the Democrats to vote Republican is a trend that has accelerated under Barack Obama. High quality global journalism requires investment. They all have a few things in common. They hate the media but watch Fox News. They mostly listen to Glenn Beck, the former Fox host who, in the words of one commentator, “made extremism congenial”. [EdNote: The tenor of pre-election times. But just when you think you might know how things will turn out . . . look at the following . . . .]
Wall Street Journal: The resurgence of Mr. Romney, who hadn't led the Journal poll since November, lays the path for a potential matchup against a president whose own position is strengthening. President Barack Obama's approval rate hit 50% in the poll, its highest since last May, as more voters expressed confidence in the economy.
 LiveMint: After sparring with the home ministry over biometric data collection and national security concerns, the Unique Identification Authority of India (UIDAI) has found itself in a new row, this time with the state-owned postal network. The authority says India Post is delaying the delivery of letters informing residents of the unique identity numbers allotted to them under the government’s Aadhaar project. The upshot is that the authority, led by Infosys Ltd co-founder Nandan Nilekani, is considering handing the job of delivering the letters to private sector firms.
The Record Searchlight: Debra Bowen is the California secretary of state -- A U.S. Postal Service (USPS) plan to shut down 223 big mail processing hubs across the country and 14 here in California — including the one located in Redding — threatens to disenfranchise millions of Californians who vote by mail. Implementing this plan in the middle of a presidential election year would be a disaster for democracy. That's why I am calling on the USPS to delay the closure plan it may roll out just 21 days before California's June 5 Presidential Primary Election. Instead, the USPS should delay shutdowns until after the November 5 General Election.
 eFinancial News: This weekend brought a fresh bout of press commentary about the part-privatisation of the Royal Mail, the state-owned postal service, and the question of its £25bn pension fund. The government plans to take the fund off the company's hands, because no private company would touch it with a barge-pole, stymieing Royal Mail's prospects of signing some kind of deal with another postal operator. Royal Mail's giant pension plan is in deficit - that is part of the problem in the first place. As well as £25bn of assets, the government is due to take delivery of something like £33bn of liabilities. That's according to the most recent information submitted to the EU competition authorities, which are giving the whole arrangement a once-over. The government says it hopes to receive the EU verdict by the end of March.
Hell Mail: The Royal Mail which has seen a fall in mail volumes of 25% since 2006 could lose the battle for sustainability if stamp prices continue to rise - according to findings by Consumer Focus. With the responsibility for postal regulation now in the hands of Ofcom and the brakes lifted on pricing, the Royal Mail could be heading for an acceleration in volume decline with even more customers switching to alternative communication platforms such as email. Consumer Focus said the tipping point, where there would be a noticeable jump in the number of people who would stop using Royal Mail, is if second class stamps rise to 50p and first class to 75p and the number of people abandoning using Royal Mail altogether would be likely to be more than double the rate at current prices. [EdNote:This should serve as a note of caution to all who believe the solution to the U.S. Postal Service's problems lies simply in the raising of rates. Take away the class-based inflation cap off of rates and watch the mail as it marches out of the door.]
Roll Call: Susan Collins has always been her own Senator, but with the looming departure of fellow Maine Republican Sen. Olympia Snowe, she might finally have the freedom and the spotlight to show it. Described as a tireless worker, a “legit, real legislator” and an independent thinker by sources close to state and party politics, Collins has carved out a niche for herself within a rigid Republican Conference, particularly on national security issues. But for years, she has been paired, at least in perception, with Maine’s senior Senator: another female moderate lawmaker with whom Collins did not always agree.
March 4, 2012
Government Executive: "Rep. Ross: I'm Not an Idiot."
Battle Creek Enquirer: Unfortunately, the postal reform bill pending in the Senate (S. 1789) fails to adequately address the problems. Although the 21st Century Postal Service Act would reduce the level of retiree health-care pre-funding, the annual cost of pre-funding would continue to impose significant debt on the USPS and would result in the unnecessary cuts in service the Postal Service is planning.
OnlinePRMedia: Further to the Royal Mail’s announcement regards to introducing VAT on certain postal services, a new payment channel is being introduced named ‘account payment’ specifically for 1st & 2nd class mail. This will allow these postal services to remain VAT exempt, but it expected that a 2nd class item could increase up to 55p at the upcoming price increase in April 2012.
PRWeb: The recession caused demand for the Direct Mail Advertising industry to fall as businesses cut costs to maintain profit. Despite these negative factors, the decline in revenue was relatively mild in the context of the broader advertising services sector, and the industry is poised for further growth in 2012. Direct mail advertising displays relatively low volatility, suffering less in a downturn because many businesses substitute their traditional advertising methods with cheaper, broader-reaching advertising methods. During the five years to 2017, revenue is expected to increase. As consumers increasingly turn to the internet to find bargains and coupons, a greater number of firms will offer services online.
Tulsa World: It's easy to blame the postal service. Maybe it deserves some. But next time you're complaining, remember that Congress, which has a habit of ignoring pressing problems, especially during election years, shares a lot of that blame.
Politics.MO: Just a few miles away from the soon to be closed Springfield mail processing center, Republican U.S. Senate candidates called for a 21st century restructuring of the U.S. Postal Service during their second debate. Former state treasurer Sarah Steelman and St. Louis businessman John Brunner both said they are for more “choice and competition” in the mail market. “We have to have a whole new filter that we approach problems, to bring more free market and more competitiveness,” Steelman said. Their mutual opponent, U.S. Sen. Claire McCaskill, D., announced her plan earlier this year to attempt to fix the post office’s financial future. Her plan would remove the requirement for the Postal Service to pre-fund their pension programs for 75 years, and encourage the post office to find more ways to increase efficiency.
March 3, 2012
 At the Postal Regulatory Commission: The Postal Regulatory Commission has an exciting employment opportunity for a highly motivated, highly skilled person with extensive and varied experience in journalism, communications, and media relations.
BGR: Apple claims to have created or supported more than half a million jobs in the U.S. [EdNote: Heck, that's nuthin' compared to the eight million jobs created by postal.]
BGR: Google announced at the Mobile Money: Delivering Innovative Mobile Payment Services panel during Mobile World Congress that Sprint will introduce “at least 10 additional phones” with Google Wallet support in 2012
InformationWeek: UPS is starting the global rollout of the fifth generation of it mobile handheld device, called Diad, and it will deploy about 100,000 of the units by the time the rollout is complete in 2013. Drivers use Diad to access and send package and delivery information, collect customer signatures, and more. While no one will mistake Diad V for an iPhone, with this version's touchscreen, camera, speedy processor, and 1 GB of memory, at half the size of its predecessor, UPS draws more than ever on features similar to consumer mobile technology. But UPS also faces the same harsh reality as every company using mobile technology: Technology cycle times are getting shorter, in part because consumer tech lives on six- to 18-month turns, not the three to five years business IT prefers.
Save the Post Office: Rep. Gerald Connolly (D-VA) -- The Washington Post recently published an article about the travel expenses of Postal Regulatory Chairman Ruth Goldway. The author of the article seems to have missed that the reason for Ms. Goldway’s travel is to pursue positive business model reforms for the Postal Service. These innovative reforms are connected directly to her travel and her exchange of ideas with postal systems in other countries. Here in America, the Postal Service earns three times less money from innovative non-postal products and services than its European postal system counterparts. Partially because Ms. Goldway has learned from best practices overseas, she has been an articulate advocate for innovation that would allow the Postal Service to earn more revenue rather than focus myopically on downsizing.
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3 Step Approach to Improving Customer Experience & Driving Engagement
Join us for a Webinar on March 6
Please join the Association for Postal Commerce for a free webinar on Tuesday, March 6, 2012 at 1:00pm Eastern.
Empowered consumers. The rise of social & mobile. The need to integrate multichannel data. Marketers' ultimate focus remains the same – wooing customers. And the fundamentals are the same: targeting customers with relevant content is critical to achieving ROI; clean, accurate data yields better results; identity resolution is essential, and delivering the right message to the right person at the right time is key.
Dave Duszynski, Director, Sales Support & Client Relations, Experian Marketing Services
will share practical approaches, industry/client examples, and useful tips to move your marketing forward. Key topics include: • Adopt a four-stage customer engagement framework to understand your customer’s journey • Conduct benchmarking to determine your company’s level of engagement maturity • Improve capabilities and drive quantifiable business results with a diagnostic methodology | |
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Philadelphia Inquirer: The U.S. Postal Service Office of the Inspector General has agreed to review the planned closing of a mail-processing center in Wayne, one of 223 nationwide slated to close as early as June. U.S. Rep. Patrick Meehan (R., Pa.) visited the center Friday and told workers he had received confirmation that the closing would be reevaluated. The Southeastern Pennsylvania mail-processing center is to be consolidated with the Philadelphia distribution center on Lindbergh Boulevard. The site to be closed serves Chester, Montgomery, and Bucks Counties.
GoBankingRates: As you continue to look for ways to save time and money in your everyday life, one facet to examine is your method of banking. Paying bills online is becoming increasingly popular, as automatic payment scheduling can be a major time-saver. It can also save you money by eliminating the need for postage stamps. However, for many, traditional bill payment by check remains the preferred method. Expediency and security are two of the most important factors to consider when choosing between online banking and traditional banking. Yet there can be elements of uncertainty that come with either method: Bills paid via the postal service are at risk of being lost, but even electronic payments have been known to go missing from time to time. Also, the time frame for payment to reach your recipients can vary greatly according to the payment method used. In fact, there are instances where it can take longer for your payment to arrive and be processed if paid online.
 From the Federal Register: Postal Service NOTICES Meetings; Sunshine Act , 13159 [2012–5327] [TEXT] [PDF]
 BGR: China, the world’s most populous nation, is the first country in the world to reach 1 billion mobile subscribers. According to the country’s Ministry of Industry and Information Technology, mobile phone subscriptions in China had reached 997 million by late February, and were expected reach one billion by the end of the month
National Association of Postal Supervisors: The National Association of Postal Supervisors and the United States Postal Service concluded Pay Consultations on February 29, 2012 without reaching an agreement. The resident officers participated in a teleconference with the national executive board where the executive board was briefed on the offers presented by the Postal Service and the subject was discussed at length. In accordance with provisions of Title 39, NAPS will file their intention to exercise their rights to Fact Finding. NAPS believe that we presented reasonable proposals for pay and benefits. The proposals by the Postal Service did not address important issues for our members.
Legal Newsline: The U.S. Department of Labor is suing the U.S. Postal Service for discrimination and retaliation.
 Post & Parcel: Deutsche Post is facing more allegations of predatory pricing in its native Germany, with regulators now investigating its bulk advertising mail service Infopost. The Federal Network Agency confirmed yesterday that it has launched a review of the unit, which provides delivery services for large customers sending direct marketing, samples and catalogues. The regulators said complaints had been “mounting” from the national postal operator’s rivals that Deutsche Post was undercutting its competition unfairly with subsidies from the rest of its business.
WIVB: A Buffalo pastor and Common Council member is making a passionate plea against plans to shut down a U.S. postal facility. Reverend Darius Pridgen is calling for a one-day boycott of local postal service operations.
The National Postal Forum is extending pre-registration until March 9th 2012! Registering by March 9th saves you $50 over the onsite registration fee as well as allowing you to use the fast moving pre-registration lines when you check in at the conference in Orlando. Save time and money by registering now!
NALC Activist Network:
The NALC is on high alert as we await action as early as next week on H.R. 7, The American Energy and Infrastructure Jobs Act of 2012. Once again, it looks like the bill will be offset largely on the backs of current and future federal and postal employees. Initial reports indicate that they might use $30 billion from federal pensions hits to help pay for it.
While we have no firm details at this point on what exact hits will be included, those that have been raised include:
Current employees
- Increasing pension contributions for FERS and CSRS employees 1.5 percent over three years, starting in 2013.
- Eliminating the Social Security supplement for those who retire after 2012.
- Reducing the multiplier from 1.1 percent to 1 percent per year of service when calculating the FERS annuity for those who retire at or after age 62, cutting benefits 9 percent from the current formula. (There is no change for those who retire under age 62.)
Future employees
- Increasing pension contributions an additional 0.9 percent—this on top of the 2.3 percent that was included in the recent payroll tax extension, raising future hires from 0.8 percent to 4 percent in pension contributions.
- Moving from a high-3 average salary to a high-5.
- Using a multiplier of 0.7 percent per year of service when calculating the FERS annuity.
 Bloomberg: Deutsche Post AG, Europe’s largest mail carrier, is among companies interested in Celesio AG’s unit that provides logistics services to drugmakers, according to three people with knowledge of the matter. Celesio, Europe’s largest drug wholesaler based in Stuttgart, Germany, hired Morgan Stanley and Societe Generale SA to run the sale of the business called Movianto, said the people, who declined to be identified because the talks are private.
March 2, 2012
 DMM Advisory: POSTNET Barcode Discontinuation Proposed. Today, the POSTNET™ Barcode Discontinuation proposed rule was posted on the Federal Register website and soon it will be posted on the Postal Explorer® website under Federal Register. The proposed rule includes the basis for discontinuing use of POSTNET™ barcodes and allowing only Intelligent Mail® barcodes (IMb™) for automation price eligibility by January 2013. The Postal Service™ understands that many mailers currently use POSTNET barcodes and we are committed to providing information to and working with individual mailers and software providers to ensure that the use of an Intelligent Mail barcode is achievable for all mailing customers.
Enhanced Online News: GrayHair Software, Inc., known for its industry-leading services for business mailers, announces that it now provides a solution for the data that is part of the Informed Visibility program that the USPS® released in January. This solution is offered through the company’s current line of applications and provides direct mailers and logistics companies with the ability to utilize this data in their current operations. The enhanced visibility of the movement of pallets, trays and sacks through the postal network is translated by GrayHair into meaningful information. Mailers benefit from earlier access to fundamental data regarding the location and delivery of their mailpieces. The analysis of this data allows mailers to take preventative steps to solve problems and make split-second adjustments.
At the Postal Regulatory Commission: Meeting Notice: March 14, 2012 Portions Open to the Public 1. Report on legislative activities. 2. Report on status of Commission dockets. 3. Report from the Office of the Secretary and Administration. 4. Report on analytical tools used by Commission staff. 5. Report on international activities and inbound international mail revenues and costs. 6. Strategic overview of the military postal service. Chairman’s Public Comment Period Portions Closed to the Public 7. 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. For more information, please contact: Shoshana M. Grove, Secretary of the Commission, at 202–789–6800 or shoshana.grove@prc.gov
 The Economist: A former PMG as President? Yup. According to The Economist, former Poste Italiane chief Corrado Passera could be in the running to succeed Mario Monti as Italy's chief of state.
Wall Street Journal: An analysis of U.S. Treasury data suggests China, with $3.2 trillion in foreign-exchange reserves, has begun to rapidly diversify its currencies portfolio. Economists have long warned that if China starts to cut back its purchases of U.S. securities, U.S. interest rates could climb, damaging the American economy and ratcheting up the government's borrowing costs. China has many reasons to try to reduce its exposure to the dollar. They include very low yields paid by Treasurys and a vulnerability to U.S. decisions on managing its debt, which could lead to inflation that would erode the value of those holdings. Last summer's political debate over raising the U.S. debt ceiling sparked worries that the U.S. could default on obligations. [EdNote; You might not like it, but who can blame them. Blame? Well, that goes to a Congress that has amply demonstrated its inability to get down to serious work on any of the critical issues that face this nation and its economy . . . . let alone the postal system.]
Wall Street Journal: Wal-Mart Stores Inc. and Target Corp. are among roughly two dozen retailers working together to develop a mobile-payments system to compete with similar products from Google Inc. and big cellphone companies, according to people with direct knowledge of the project. The push represents an effort by frustrated merchants to get the upper hand in the fast-developing market that turns cellphones into payment devices. The race pits the retailers against banks, credit-card networks, telecommunications firms and technology companies.
Youngstown Vindicator: Not that we didn’t suspect as much, but it is now clear that the U.S. Postal Service was only going through the motions when it asked for public input into its plans to close post offices and postal service centers throughout the nation. As it turns out, it didn’t matter whether a handful of people bothered to express an opinion, as was the case in many instances, or that nearly 8,500 took the time to respond, as was the case in the Youngstown area. Small and medium-sized cities are losing their distribution centers, and large cities will gain.
The Tennessean: Thurgood Marshall Jr., son of the late Supreme Court Justice Thurgood Marshall, has been named to the board of directors of Nashville-based Genesco Inc., the company said Thursday. He is a partner in the Washington, D.C., law firm Bingham McCutchen, where he works in the areas of public policy, ethics compliance and corporate governance, according to the firm’s website. A 1981 graduate of the University of Virginia Law School, Marshall worked in the administration of former President Bill Clinton from 1997-2001, and also was chairman of the White House Olympic Task Force in connection with the 2002 Winter Olympics in Salt Lake City, Utah. He currently serves as chairman of the board of governors of the U.S. Postal Service; he was appointed to that board by President George W. Bush. Marshall also is on the board of directors of the Nashville-based Corrections Corporation of America, as well as the Ford Foundation and the Ethics Resource Center.
MSN Fox Sports: The UPS Store has teamed up with social media publisher and author of Duct Tape Marketing and The Referral Engine, John Jantsch. On March 13 from 2 to 3 p.m. EST, Jantsch will host a "best marketing practices" discussion for small business owners on The UPS Store Facebook page. In addition to professional printing services, The UPS Store network offers a variety of services to help with the logistics of running a small business including, mailboxes with a real street address, packing and shipping services, notary and direct mail services. The UPS Store and Mail Boxes Etc. network comprises the franchise system of retail shipping, postal, printing and business service centers.
City Biz Real Estate: With the deal now signed, New Breed Logistics has grabbed the keys to 250,000 square feet on airport-leased land to immediately ramp up a logistics operation for the U.S. Postal Service. According to Green, New Breed needs to be on line and ready to go April 1.
Politico: Sen. Bernie Sanders -- "We believe the Postal Service in the short term should be released from an onerous and unprecedented burden to pre-fund 75 years of future retiree health benefits over a 10-year period. With $44 billion now in the fund, the Postal Service inspector general has said that program is already stronger than any other equivalent government or private-sector fund in the country. There already is more than enough in the account to meet all obligations to retirees. The Postal Service should also be allowed to recover more than $13 billion in overpayments it has made to its pension plans. With these changes alone, the Postal Service would be back in the black and posting profits. Though these accounting changes won’t solve the Postal Service’s long-term financial problems, they would provide a few years to turn the Postal Service business model around."
 Azerbaijan Business Center: Communications enterprise Azərekspresspoçt is preparing to introduce a new service on delivery of bank credit cards. Azərekspresspoçt reports that its specialists are developing software and mechanisms to ensure provision of the service on delivery of cards and tracing of credit cards sent to customers by banks through Azərekspresspoçt website. "Customers of banks open an account in the bank in advance, register credit cards, and then within a few days the banks, by using our services, organize delivery of new cards to cardholders,” Azərekspresspoçt noted. Azərekspresspoçt intends to begin introducing the new system to be widely used by local banks from 1 April 2012. Over the past year Azərekspresspoçt signed 24 contracts for postal services, and for the last two months - 12 contracts for provision of EMS services and courier mail services.
Bemidji Pioneer: Shuttering post offices and mail processing centers across Minnesota, including the sorting center in Bemidji, could lead to the end of the U.S. Postal Service, Sen. Al Franken said Thursday. The Minnesota Democrat, on a conference call with reporters, said closing 117 post offices and five mail sorting facilities could be devastating to customers, businesses and Postal Service employees. “I don’t want that,” Franken said. “If these closures take place, there will be deep implications for businesses and families in Minnesota.” He warned the changes will force more postal customers to do business online, signaling “the beginning of the end.”
CNN: The chief of the struggling U.S. Postal Service received $384,229 in compensation last year -- and at least one lawmaker thinks he should take a paycut. Sen. Jon Tester, a Montana Democrat, decried top U.S. Postal Service salaries in a letter this week to the board governing the service. Tester wants top postal executives to cut their own salaries and bonuses as they move to cut mail delivery services and close postal plants and offices, laying off tens of thousands of workers. Postmaster General Patrick Donahoe received a base salary of $271,871 in 2011, according to a November filing by the service with the Securities and Exchange Commission. But he also made another $81,954 in pension and deferred compensation. And he benefited from $30,404 in "other" compensation, including security costs, life insurance premiums, parking and financial planning services. All of the top officers at the U.S. Postal Service had annual base salaries topping $200,000, according to the filing. Donahoe's compensation in 2011 was less than half what his predecessor as postmaster general, John Potter, made in 2010 -- $798,418. Potter retired last year.
The CEO and chairman of United Parcel Service Inc., D. Scott Davis, made $10.7 million in 2010, the most recent pay data available for that company. That company employs 398,000 people and reported more than $3.8 billion in profits last year. The CEO of FedEx, Frederick W. Smith, made $7.26 million in 2011, according to financial filings. FedEx posted $1.4 billion in profit for the most recent fiscal year ended May 31 and employs 290,000.
Wall Street Journal: Congress says it is trying to find ways to get the U.S. Postal Service out of the red. But some lawmakers have also become an obstacle in this cost-cutting effort as they resist the agency's plan to close post offices and mail-sorting hubs. Elected officials from West Virginia to New York to Missouri publicly say they will fight the shutdown of a mail plant in their districts after the agency last week named 223 it intends to close. "I'm going to do everything I can to block their efforts," said Rep. Maurice Hinchey (D., N.Y.), pledging a battle to keep a Newburgh, N.Y., plant open. In a flurry of public statements, other lawmakers urged the agency to "halt" or "go back to the drawing board." [EdNote: Yup . . . . You wait . . . . They'll twist the Postal Service's arms to back off on consolidation plans, and again accuse the PMG of "folding like a cheap suit." Well, maybe that's because his federal suits are made by a really lousy congressional tailor.]
From the Federal Register: |
Postal Service | |
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RULES | |
International Postal Service – Global Expedited Package Services Contracts , | | |
12724 [2012–5049] |
[TEXT] [PDF] | |
PROPOSED RULES | |
POSTNET Barcode Discontinuation , | | |
12764–12769 [2012–5050] |
[TEXT] [PDF] |
The Hill: Key lawmakers have expressed concern that the Postal Service’s top regulator is spending too much time on the road at a time when the agency faces serious financial challenges. Rep. Darrell Issa (R-Calif.), the chairman of the House Oversight Committee, and Sen. Tom Carper (D-Del.) have suggested that Ruth Goldway’s trips are hampering the Postal Regulatory Commission’s ability to offer advice about proposals that would change how mail is delivered in the U.S. Concerned lawmakers say that, while Goldway has racked up more travel costs than her predecessor, their issue is more that the regulatory commission seems to be falling behind on its duties while the chairwoman is away. “The committee finds Chairman Goldway’s travel decisions and absenteeism particularly troubling considering the grave financial situation of USPS, her role in reviewing the limited actions USPS is undertaking, and the fact that she has openly called for USPS to receive a taxpayer subsidy,” Ali Ahmad, a spokesman for the House Oversight Committee, told The Hill in a statement. But perhaps most of all, Goldway, a Democrat who has been at the PRC since the Clinton administration, sees the interest in her travel as something of a red herring, and driven by officials who disagree with her on certain postal proposals.
The latest issue of the PostCom Bulletin is available online. In this issue:
- The Postal Service published its unaudited January results with the Postal Regulatory Commission. USPS lost $1.3 billion in January 2012. The Postal Service’s controllable operating loss for the month was $147 million. The total loss was due to the Postal Service Retiree Health Benefit Fund prepayment of $1.0 billion and a workers compensation adjustment of $85 million.
- There has been much confusion about how unenveloped mailpieces should be treated under the new rules and what requirements apply to the unenveloped mailpieces category versus the folded self-mailer pieces category. In this article, consultant Laine Ropson helps clarify the requirements for the most commonly used category of unenveloped pieces – letter-size pieces with tear-off strips.
- According to PostalVision 2020 founder and organizer John Callan, “The U.S. Postal Service is hemorrhaging red ink. The Postal Service recently placed a 911 call to Congress, pleading for permission to address a wound caused by a plummeting first-class mail rate and explosive adoption of electronic communication. The USPS’s proposed five-year business plan, “Plan to Profitability,” must be approved and immediately enacted in order to constrain the bleeding and sustain the USPS until 2016.”
- Green Teams help Postal Service save millions. Ecommerce to hit $327B by 2016. Senate Committee to hold nomination hearing of Hammond for PRC. Mobile Ads: The annoyance issue re-emerges. Time for USPS to think outside the mailbox. Sen. Sanders seeks to save USPS from a ‘death spiral.’ Has Congress made it impossible for USPS to survive. Amid scrutiny of travel, Commission chief bound for Switzerland. Blodget: Of course USPS should restructure, Task: No way - They’re ruining America. USPS provides PRC with monthly IMb progress report. Save the Post Office - why the mail still matters. Tester asks USPS executives to take a pay cut. Senator Brown calls for quick action. In meeting with PMG, Higgins fights for Buffalo. How to fix the USPS. Reforming the Postal Service. After massive cutbacks, Quad/Graphics investing in ‘redefining print.’
- Updates from the Domestic Mail Manual.
- Updates from the Federal Register that affect the mailing industry.
- An update from the USPS Office of Inspector General.
- A review of postal news from around the world.
- Postal previews.
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March 1, 2012
At the Postal Regulatory Commission: Docket No. RM2012-3 -- Institutional Cost Contribution Requirement for Competitive Products. "Order Granting Request Of The United States Postal Service For Extension"
Boston Globe: U.S. Representative Edward J. Markey, a Malden Democrat, declared his opposition to closing postal service facilities in Waltham in a letter sent this week to Ron Stroman, deputy postmaster general.
The following has 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.
- Contract Delivery Service Cost Controls in the Suncoast District (Report Number CA-MA-12-001). Our report determined that no contracts were awarded based on possible, rather than active, deliveries. However, administrative officials did not always perform route surveys to verify the actual number of deliveries. Without current and accurate survey information, it may be difficult for contract officials to negotiate an accurate price for a contract and the Postal Service may be incorrectly paying contractors. We also found inconsistencies in the policy related to completion of route surveys in Handbook SP-1, Highway Contract Routes - Contract Delivery Service
- Standardization of Integrated Mail Handling System Loaders at Network Distribution Centers (Report Number NL-AR-12-002). Our report determined only 247 of the 524 Integrated Mail Handling System loaders at Network Distribution Centers (NDC) have been modified to accommodate both Postal Paks and over-the-road (OTR) containers. The unmodified loaders can only safely accommodate Postal Paks. Once the remaining loaders are modified, the Postal Service would attain consistent use of the equipment in the NDC network and be able to improve the flow and redistribution of OTR containers, reduce cardboard purchases, avoid unnecessary transportation of empty OTR containers, and eliminate a safety hazard.
Tampa Bay Business Journal: U.S. Rep. C.W. Bill Young used a fax to pressure the postmaster general into letting St. Petersburg keep its postmark this week. [EdNote: FAX? Ever thought of using the MAIL? I know, heaven forfend. Maybe that's why the Postal Service is seeking to close postal facilities.]
Direct Marketing News: As the U.S. Postal Service (USPS) — which reported in February losses totaling more than $3 billion — struggles to stay solvent, it is using a number of promotions to try to keep shippers shipping. Some marketers, though, are skeptical of the value of these promotions, including a 3% discount slated to be offered to direct mailers that use QR codes on their envelopes during the summer.
Dead Tree Edition: In this increasingly multichannel marketplace . . . the printing industry will be driven to make capital investments in new technologies, such as those to deliver targeted and customized print solutions and to deploy multichannel marketing campaigns through the integration of new media. Competition in the highly fragmented printing industry remains intense. The industry has excess manufacturing capacity created by declines in industry volumes, which is causing the printing industry to face continued downward pricing pressures. In addition, the growth and adaptation of alternative marketing technologies . . . as well as alternative delivery of content has resulted in marketers and publishers allocating their marketing and advertising spend across a wide and expanding selection of non-print media options, which further exacerbates industry overcapacity.
New York Times: All the free-market enthusiasts in Congress should have no problem with the determination of Patrick Donahoe, the postmaster general, to make the gravely troubled mail system “smaller, leaner and more competitive.” Yet most lawmakers have decried or ducked money-saving options like eliminating Saturday mail delivery and consolidating mail-processing centers — crucial parts of Mr. Donahoe’s reform plan. Their resistance is even stronger to possibly closing 3,653 of the nation’s 32,000 post offices, even though more than 3,000 offices have only two-hour workdays or less than $27,500 in annual revenues. To be self-supporting, the service aims to cut its 653,000-member work force by more than 100,000 over four years, mainly by attrition. Congressional action is desperately needed to get reforms moving. The question is whether lawmakers will do the right thing in an election year, or let the Postal Service sink further.
Boston Globe: The fiscal troubles of the US Postal Service could have been a blessing in disguise for Boston and the MBTA, had the federal agency decided to cut costs by closing an outmoded mail-processing plant next to South Station. Removing the hulking plant would make way for expansion of the train station, which would improve the reliability of the commuter rail system - and open up spectacular development opportunities along Fort Point Channel to boot. Yet when the Postal Service announced a round of plant reductions last week, the list didn’t include the 1.4-million-square-foot Boston plant. Instead, the Postal Service is doubling down on it. The result makes little sense: Processing centers in Waltham and Shrewsbury would close, and operations would move to the Boston plant and North Reading.
 Federal News Radio:There are a number of proposals to put the cash-strapped Postal Service on firmer financial ground. But Sen. Ben Cardin (D-Md.) says many of them would reduce the service levels the public has come to expect and further drive away business.
Wicked Local: Congressman Edward J. Markey, D-7th, urged the United States Postal Service (USPS) to keep the Northwest Boston Area Mail Processing Center in Waltham open and to hold off any decisions to consolidate the plant, after the postal service announced plans to close it. Read more: Ed Markey calls for Waltham postal facility to remain open.
Hey Congress! We've all heard loud and clear what you don't want to have happen to reduce postal costs. What we now want to hear is what Congress actually wants to do to ensure the nation a viable universal mail delivery system that will fulfill its infrastructural mission to serve as a platform for economic growth.
Post & Parcel: Deutsche Post has teamed up with Microsoft to allow small and medium-sized businesses in Germany to manage their customer relationships in a “cloud computing” platform connected to the mail. The German postal service unveiled its new “Dialogue Manager Online” service today at a trade fair in Hannover, offering an online Customer Relationship Management (CRM) system for SMEs.
February 29, 2012
 If the political pundits are correct, there is a high likelihood that both the Senate and the White House will remain in Democratic hands. If that's the case, the 2012 election will do little to change the face, or the challenges it faces today. There is no reason to delay. Congress should get working on postal reform . . . . . WORK . . . . Remember? The reason we PAY members of Congress.
Courier, Express, and Postal Observer: In yesterday’s post, I stated that “The Postal Service has been coy about whether it will offer retirement incentives partially because if Congress passes a bill that includes the incentives included in the S.1789, the Postal Service can offer larger incentives than it can under current law and the Postal Service needs the refund of FERS over-payments to cover early retirement incentives.” This statement raised some questions from readers that are worth responding to in a full post.
 Post & Parcel: Latvian Post’s new management board has launched a review of the business ahead of the liberalisation of the country’s postal market next year. Ministers appointed a new three-person board last month, chaired by former head of delivery Māris Kleinbergs, with a view to the arrival of competition in the postal market from January 2013 in compliance with European Union postal laws. Yesterday the Post said its new leadership is now planning a reform process for existing operations and developments that will also involve introduction of new services. The biggest changes will involve a restructuring of the company to avoid duplication of operations and cut out unnecessary costs. Currently, Latvian Post has around 600 sites and 4,600 staff.
From the Federal Register: Postal Regulatory Commission NOTICES Postal Service Pricing Proposals , 12336–12337 [2012–4787] [TEXT] [PDF]
Target Marketing: 2012 Media Usage Survey Extra: Where Are B-to-B Marketers Putting Their Money?
 The Postal Service is one of America's great institutions. It connects 150 million households and businesses and is the bedrock infrastructure of the American economy and society. Yet the Postal Service faces powerful and unpredictable forces. These forces – the economic downturn, the Digital Age, globalization, and statutory and regulatory demands – are fundamentally changing its outlook for the future. Actions are needed by postal management and Congress to assure that all Americans have universal access and the opportunity to take part in the emerging new world. But, what are those actions? Scheduled Guest Contributors:
- James Campbell, Attorney and Consultant
- Jeff Colvin, Director Economist, OIG
- Dan Combs, CEO, eCitizen Foundation
- Steve Hutkins, Editor and Administrator, Save the Post Office
- Richard Kielbowicz, Associate Professor, Communication Networks
- Roger Kodat, former Official, Department of the Treasury
- Jessica Lowrance, Executive Vice President, Association for Postal Commerce
- John Payne, CEO, Zumbox
- Alan Robinson, Courier, Express, and Postal Observer
- John Waller, former Director of Office of Accountability and Compliance, Postal Regulatory Commission
The OIG's Inquirey Into Five Elements of A Postal Solution . . . . Check it out!
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OF COURSE, THEN THERE IS THE ULTIMATE TEST OF
ANY POSTAL REFORM MEASURE
(1) It must ensure the fiscal viability of the U.S. Postal Service,
(2) It must ensure the Postal Service is set up to operate on a self- sufficient basis, and
(3) It must ensure the ability of the Postal Service to satisfy the nation's postal needs.
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Post & Parcel: US mail technology company Pitney Bowes has struck up an important alliance with software giant Adobe to boost the capabilities of its forthcoming digital mail platform, Volly. The partnership should have a number of outcomes, including an improvement in the data analytics that will be available to mailers sending transactional mail digitally through the Volly Secured Delievery System. It will also mean the Volly service can be accessed by consumers on the go, via mobile phone applications and tablet "apps" including for iPhones, iPads and Android systems. And, the company said it will mean a "white box" version of the Volly platform can be implemented by postal operators and banks around the world, to use as their own self-branded digital mail platforms.
NCTechNews: Bell and Howell, a leading provider of solutions and services for paper-based and digital messaging solutions, today announced that 22 employees in the company's postal software group have been certified by the USPS® as Mailpiece Design Professionals (MDP). Employees in the customer support, data services and professional services departments earned the certification.
Business Wire: TransPerfect, the world's largest privately held provider of language services and translation-related technologies, today announced a new relationship with The United States Postal Service (USPS). The USPS has set the goal of providing a complete online experience and more personalized services for its customers whose language preference is Spanish or Simplified Chinese. To this end, the USPS has enlisted TransPerfect services and technologies.
 Postal Technology International: With Russia, yet another country has turned to the innovative KePol logistics solution for the delivery and pick-up of parcels. Especially in urban areas such as Moscow and St. Petersburg, KePol machines provide the secure transfer of items on a 24-hour basis. The Pochtomat company is currently revolutionising e-commerce in Russia by providing the safe transfer of goods using KePol machines with LogiBox branding. Pochtomat is the operator of a machine network that gives web shops an opportunity to choose from various logistics companies to deliver items to their customers. The Russian parcel logistics market is characterised by enormous expansion with annual growth rates of 30 to 35 percent. In 2011 a transaction volume of Euro 8 billion was generated.
The Big Fat Marketing Blog: It must be just sheer callousness or tone-deafness to the sufferings of the less fortunate that would drive anybody to even think of eliminating or raising lower postage rates for nonprofit mailers on the pretext that it might help cut the USPS's deficit. But that's exactly what Rep. Darryl Issa wants to do with his bill H.R. 2309.
Gizmodo: The Earth has a roughly 12 percent chance of experiencing an enormous megaflare erupting from the sun in the next decade. This event could potentially cause trillions of dollars' worth of damage and take up to a decade to recover from. In today's electrically dependent modern world, a similar scale solar storm could have catastrophic consequences. Auroras damage electrical power grids and may contribute to the erosion of oil and gas pipelines. They can disrupt GPS satellites and disturb or even completely black out radio communication on Earth. [EdNote: And we're worried about postal reform?]
Yahoo! Finance: Form 10-K for United Parcel Service Inc
Loyola Phoenix: Congress hasn't helped the Postal Service with its mandates. In 2006, lawmakers required an annual prepayment of retiree health benefits for the next 75 years. Right now, that has USPS paying $5.5 billion a year through 2016. The Postal Service is unusual among government agencies in that it does not rely on any tax money. But at the rate things are going, it could soon become a burden on taxpayers. For all the benefits of email, there is still mail that has to get shipped the old-fashioned way through the post office, from packages to physical receipts of payments. And although privatized mail carriers such as UPS and FedEx now send a huge percentage of shipments across the nation, they are also two of the biggest customers of USPS, who can ship where they can't. These companies don't ship everywhere; the Postal Service does. If nothing is done, and soon, this vital American institution will fade away.
Ground Report: More than a hundred and fifty years old organisation, India Post is one of the giant departments of the government of India. With around 155000 post offices it is the biggest postal system in the world employing close to 500,000 people. A vast majority of the post offices – approximately 130000 – are located in the country's rural recesses and have been instrumental in letting in fresh air into the hinterland. Most were opened during the period of hectic expansion of postal facilities commencing around half a century ago under the department's commitment to provide to every single person access to basic postal services in a largely poor country at affordable cost – a concept that goes by the name of Universal Service Obligation.
CEP News (Courier-Express-Postal), published by the MRU Consultancy, has reported that:   Rising profits despite a decreased turnover marked PostNord's business development last year.
Given the significant drop in volumes at PostNord, CEO Lars Idermark announced a change of strategy. In the light of the current development there was a 'great need to restructure PostNord's operations in the next few years'. This would lead to fundamental changes and major investments into production and infrastructure, said Idermark. According to him the logistics business will be expanded - among other things through acquisitions. Overall, PostNord plans to invest between 800 and 900m euros in the next three years.
 PostNL was able to stabilise its turnover despite a significant drop in addressed mail volume (-7.2%) last year.
The Danish post has improved its mail collection efficiency by RFID tags.
 Pos Malaysia recorded a considerably rise in turnover and significantly higher earnings in the last business year.
 According to the responsible authority Posten Norge violated data protection regulations. Thus, Datatilsynet imposed a fine of 13,500 euros on Posten Norge news portal »Posttipp« (28.02) reported. The case in point concerns Posten's address database. The authority stated that the Norwegian post failed to delete addresses from the database in due time when customers requested so.
 RPost entered the Swiss market announcing an aggressive expansion strategy.
Poste Italiane plans to sell its subsidiary Mistral Air. Besides letter and parcel transports the airline also operates passenger flights to Christian pilgrimage sites like Lourdes in France.
 New Zealand Post Group recorded higher revenues and vastly improved results in the first half year of the fiscal year 2011/2012.
Swiss Direct Mail Company AG (DMC AG), a wholly-owned subsidiary of Swiss Post, takes over AWZ AG's delivery business, effective March 1.
Mail order business continued to thrive in Germany in 2011. On Monday the German E-Commerce and Distance Selling Trade Association (bvh) reported that the industry generated a new record revenue of 34bn euros, up 12.2 from the previous year.
Swiss Post launched an online platform for people interested in logistics called 'Logistikpunkt' (logistics point). The platform will provide information on logistics and enable experts to communicate with each other.
The Russian post closed the third consecutive year in the black.
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.)
KXLH: U.S. Senator Jon Tester (D-MT) is asking U.S. Postal Service executives to take a pay cut. On Tuesday, he wrote a letter to the Postal Board of Governors saying senior leaders of the Postal Service should forgo some compensation. [Johnny Paycheck:" ♪ ♫ ♪Take this job and shove it. I'm not workin' here no more.....♪ ♫ ♪"]
February 28, 2012
PC World: Mobile payment technologies are spreading fast, as Google Wallet is already available on NFC-ready Android phones, and Isis Mobile Wallet is coming this summer. But mobile payment technologies may be slow to spread, at least in the U.S., as polls show Americans are suspicious of NFC technology for security reasons, analysts note. Backers of mobile payments, meanwhile, say that NFC technology is more secure than plastic credit cards, and that users would not be held liable for losses through theft or fraud. The skepticism among Americans is at odds with widespread acceptance of using NFC mobile devices in South Korea and Japan and parts of China to pay for train rides and small retail purchases.
Post & Parcel: Mailers in the UK could be facing increases in Royal Mail postal rates above 20%, once Ofcom brings down the company's regulatory price controls. That was the suggestion from Royal Mail chief executive Moya Greene today, as she faced a barrage of questions from a Parliamentary committee about her company's pricing plans.
Post & Parcel: Deutsche Post has completed its withdrawal from financial services, selling its remaining stake in the Postbank business to Deutsche Bank AG.
The Vindicator: U.S. Sen. Sherrod Brown, a Democrat from Avon, on Tuesday called for quick action to save postal service jobs in Youngstown and across Ohio. In a letter to Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid of Nevada, Brown urged the Senate to pass postal reform legislation that would restore the USPS to fiscal solvency. Brown has cosponsored the Postal Service Protection Act, which preserves Saturday mail delivery, restricts the closure of rural and urban post offices, and protects mail processing facilities. The legislation would eliminate the federally-mandated requirement that the postal service prefund 75 years worth of future retiree health benefits. This mandate costs USPS $5.5 billion annually and has accumulated 50 years' worth of pension funds to date.
WKBW: Late Monday, New York Congressman Brian Higgins met with United States Postmaster General Patrick Donahoe to make the strongest case to keep the United States Postal Service mail processing facility in Buffalo open. "From the onset the Postmaster has indicated that the closing list was 'fairly set' and over the last several months we've become increasingly frustrated with the lack of justification and transparency in the USPS process," Higgins said in a news release. "But, we don't ever give up on Western New York. Buffalo deserves to be heard and we took our fight to the top."
The Daily Camera: These are busy times for postal inspectors in Colorado. Investigators at the U.S. Postal Inspection Service in the state said that, anecdotally, they have seen a dramatic increase in the amount of marijuana people here are trying to mail out of the state.
 Post & Parcel: Finland's Itella Group has announced plans to cut 70 jobs within its Swedish and Danish logistics operations.
 Post & Parcel: Guernsey Post is switching its delivery service to a five-day week from the end of next month.
Seattle Weekly: An investigation by the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) confirmed allegations that the Postal Service discriminated and retaliated against a Seattle employee who helped a co-worker file a safety complaint. The Department of Labor is now in the rare situation of suing the Postal Service for violating federal whistleblower protection laws.
Courier, Express, and Postal Observer: Looking at the APWU job cuts as a proportion of total APWU jobs by craft shows the extent of the impact on individual employees and provides some idea as to the impact on mail handlers, supervisors, managers and administrative personnel. and The projected job cuts that the Postal Service provided the American Postal Workers Union (APWU) shows that three Areas will see mail processing jobs cut by more than 20% with the Eastern Area seeing job cuts of nearly one-third. Information on maintenance crafts suggests that the consolidation is expected to reduce maintenance employees by oer 80% in two areas with over 56% of maintenance jobs lost nationwide.
Bangor Daily News: The U.S. Postal Service is neither broken nor bankrupt. Rather, a number of important actions need to be taken to enable this invaluable American institution to be saved as well as revitalized. First, President Obama and Congress need to adopt immediate corrective legislation to ensure that the postal service is adequately funded by addressing the real reason for the USPS's financial problems. Proposed cuts only will make the financial problems of the USPS worse, not better. With further cuts in services and resources, the USPS will lose even more customers, creating a continued downward spiral of lost revenue and financial shortfalls. A constructive alternative proposal has been advanced by David C. Williams, inspector general of the USPS
Bangor Daily News: Sen. Susan Collins, R-Maine, celebrated the emergence of the traditional L.L. Bean hunting boot as a hot fashion item Thursday morning during a tour of the company's manufacturing facility in Brunswick.
Hornell Evening Tribune: The planned consolidation of more than 260 U.S. Postal Service processing centers, a plan unveiled last week, is separate from the possible closure of mail retail locations, according to a Postal Service spokesperson. While last Thursday's announcement marks the end of a study regarding consolidating processing centers, examining the shuttering of Postal Service retail offices is continuing.
At the Postal Regulatory Commission: Employment Opportunities at the PRC. | |
Hear ye! Hear ye! Congratulations to Mark Mandell of Intelisent on his election as PostCom Treasurer. |
Courier, Express, and Postal Observer: Last week, the Postal Service provided employees significantly more information regarding the scale of the changes coming to its operations and for many employees whether the facility they now work at will remain open. While this information has provided employees with some indication as to what lies ahead, the details as to what will happen to individual employees remain sketchy.
Online Media Daily: By 2016, nearly 10% of consumer spending will be done online, according to new estimates from Forrester. By then, the research group expects U.S. ecommerce sales to reach $327 billion -- up from roughly $200 billion in 2011. Key growth drivers include consumers' greater familiarity with the Web, along with rapid mobile and tablet adoption. Further fueling ecommerce are new shopping formats, including flash sales and subscription models; online loyalty programs; and aggressive promotional offers from Web retailers.
Forbes: USPS loses millions of dollars annually. Any business that loses this much money annually should be restructured, sold or eliminated. Instead of looking at the past, analyzing the trends and identifying strategies for the future, USPS continues to stay in the pony express mode; essentially they "gave" business to United Parcel Service (UPS) and Federal Express. It is critical to (a) understand consumer trends, (b) adapt to consumers' needs, (c) ensure quality standards, and (d) be strategic in the marketplace. The U.S. Postal Service failed in all four areas.
BBC: Plans to increase the prices of stamps will not lead to an "affordability issue", the Royal Mail chief executive has told MPs. Moya Greene told the Commons' Business Committee that the cost of stamps would have to rise. Regulator Ofcom is consulting on plans to remove price caps on first class stamps and raise the price limit on second class to as much as 55 pence.
DutchNews: Top managers at TNT Express and PostNL received millions of euros in extra payments when the express delivery service was split from postal delivery last year. The money came from the sale of shares during a period when the share value of both companies had fallen, says the Volkskrant, quoting PostNL's annual report for 2011. Peter Bakker, CEO of TNT Post before the split, received nearly €900,000 extra. This, together with other benefits and a golden handshake of €2.6m, brought his pay-off to €4.5m.
 ERR News: Estonian residents should think twice before ordering any pills, blue or otherwise, over the internet - nearly 200 such packages have been returned to their senders over the last six months, national postal service Eesti Post has said. According to the Medicinal Products Act, it is forbidden to send and receive any drugs by mail if one party to the transaction is a legal entity, as is the case with online purchases. Private persons, however, are allowed to send up to five unopened packages to one another.
Register-Guard: The U.S. Postal Service has decided to forge ahead with its poorly conceived plan to close mail distribution centers in Springfield, Salem, Pendleton, Hillsboro and Bend and have their work picked up by Portland's facility. U.S. Rep. Peter DeFazio calls Thursday's announcement that the agency will proceed with the closures "outrageous."
Reuters: Dutch mail firm PostNL NV said it raised the value of its stake in TNT Express, the delivery firm which U.S. peer United Parcel Service has offered to buy, reflecting gains in the share price.
February 27, 2012
At the Postal Regulatory Commission: USPS Preliminary Financial Information, January 2012.
Committee on Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs: Nomination of Hon. Tony Hammond to be a Commissioner, Postal Regulatory Commission March 06, 2012 10:30AM, Location: SD-342
RFID Journal: Danish postal operator Post Danmark—a branch of PostNord, which provides national postal services to Denmark and Sweden—is employing an RFID system that tracks the movements of postal vehicles and the emptying of mailboxes throughout the entire country, via transponders that both transmit and receive data upon coming within read range of each other. With the solution, provided by Danish startup Commotive, PostNord has been able to improve the accuracy of its pickup times at each mailbox, as well as optimize carrier routes and reduce the need for carriers and vehicles, according to Christian Østergaard, PostNord's head of business information and production alignment.
Yahoo! Contributor Network: Problems within the United States Postal Service continue, as it struggles with a growing deficit and shrinking business. Desperate to come up with a plan that will salvage the independently funded public service, the Postmaster General, Patrick Donahoe, is calling for fast implementation of the new five-year package. In order for the plan to be successful, an annual reduction in expenditures of $20 billion by 2015 is an absolute necessity. To accomplish this task, Donahoe has endorsed sweeping changes that effect employees and customers alike. To implement the changes, legislative reform has to come from Washington. The APWU is opposed to the new plan. They advocate that the closing of post offices and mail centers will mean the death of mail service. It is the opinion of the Postal workers Union that modernization, improving services, and offering new products are the keys to success. To date there are no viable economic experts that agree with the assessment of the Union President. There is overwhelming agreement that unless the Postal Service streamlines its operations by cutting unnecessary jobs, post offices, and mail processing centers it cannot survive the 21st century. If it fails, the taxpayer will become responsible for its debt and continued operation, and that is not an acceptable outcome.
DMM Advisory: Customer Support Rulings Posted. The Postal Service™ has issued three in a continuing series of revised and new Customer Support Rulings. They are posted on Postal Explorer® (pe.usps.com):
- (Revised) PS-177, Mailpieces Opened After Delivery, provides policy guidance to customers and postal employees concerning mail endorsed "Return Service Requested" or any unendorsed piece of mail that is opened and returned.
- (New) PS-338, Mobile Barcodes (QR Codes) Printed in Periodicals Publications, includes a new policy statement concerning the use of Mobile Barcodes in a Periodicals publication to determine whether they would be considered advertising or nonadvertising content.
- PS-339, Sealed See-through Pouches in Periodicals Publications, includes a new policy statement concerning perishable matter that may be inserted in copies of a Periodicals publication as unsolicited promotional product samples prepared in completely sealed, sift-proof, see-through pouches.
Post & Parcel: By 2050, consumers could be producing their own customised products on 3D printers, with the global logistics industry providing raw materials physically, and blueprints for those products digitally. That is one of the five possible scenarios the world might find itself in within 40 years, according to a study by Deutsche Post DHL entitled "Delivering Tomorrow: Logistics 2050?.
Washington Post: There were early expectations of large Republican gains — based on the disproportionate amount of territory Democrats are defending this year — but those have subsided amid signs of an economic rebound, increased approval for President Obama's performance and a GOP presidential contest that's left independent voters feeling uneasy about that party's issue focus. While Republicans are still expected to gain seats — they need a net gain of four to secure a clear majority — independent handicappers now forecast an outcome that could produce only the fourth evenly split Senate in history. Such an outcome, no matter who claims the White House, could leave the next president in a fairly similar situation to the past 14 months: a paralyzed Senate and an unstable House majority that has transformed Washington governance into something resembling a never-ending hostage negotiation in which each side latches on to an issue and demands some form of political ransom in exchange for its survival. [EdNote: Who knows? Maybe the kids will finally decide they need to figure out how to get along. Wonder who's gonna be sent to time-out.]  Video: The Leader Of The Next Party To Take On Postal Reform 
Mobile Marketing Daily: Mobile advertising may have moved at a breakneck pace since the mid 2000s, when you couldn't even find an ad on most phones -- but consumers have not. They still say mobile phone advertising bothers them considerably more than even the annoying torrent of online promotions. A survey of over 4,000 people in the U.S. and U.K. by YouGov on behalf of Upstream finds that 67% of U.S. respondents found unwanted ads served to their mobile phones and smartphones the most offensive, compared to only 9% who found them most offensive on PCs and only 2% on tablets.
The Hill: John Callan, Ursa Major Associates -- "The U.S. Postal Service is hemorrhaging red ink. The Postal Service recently placed a 911 call to Congress, pleading for permission to address a wound caused by a plummeting first-class mail rate and explosive adoption of electronic communication. The USPS's proposed five-year business plan, "Plan to Profitability," must be approved and immediately enacted in order to constrain the bleeding and sustain the USPS until 2016. The Plan to Profitability will not fix the Postal Service, but it will keep it alive for now. Nothing short of a bailout is more likely to save the Postal Service than its Plan to Profitability for the near term. It should be urgently approved. And the open and independent conversation about what comes next should begin now as well.
The U.S. Postal Service Office of Inspector General invites you to comment on this week's "Pushing the Envelope" blog topic: New Blog Series: The Five Elements of a Postal Solution. The U.S. Postal Service is one of America's greatest institutions, connecting 150 million households and businesses. However, it faces powerful and unpredictable forces. Actions are needed by postal management and Congress to assure all Americans have universal access. Beginning in March, the OIG will host a series of five week-long blogs discussing the elements of a postal solution. Guest commentators with a wide range of views inside and outside the postal community will contribute to the series. Everyone is encouraged to participate. View the upcoming blog series schedule, including the list of guest contributors, on our blog. New audit projects have been started on the external website.
- Follow-up on Financial Accountability Audit Reporters – 12BG013FF000. The purpose of this audit is to assess Postal Service management's response to recommendations from prior financial accountability audit reports. This review addresses financial and operational risks associated with the status and efficacy of corrective actions on prior OIG reports and whether they addressed the audit recommendations.
- U.S. Postal Service's Motor Vehicle Accident Prevention Program – 12YG016HR000. The Postal Service uses a safe driver program that established policies and guidelines to ensure that Postal Service drivers are qualified to drive safely. The objectives of the safe driver program are to equip drivers to: drive safely; comply with Department of Transportation regulations; reduce human suffering; reduce property damage and costs; collect and deliver mail efficiently; drivers who are trained to integrate safe driving practices into their daily activities support the operational effectiveness of the Postal Service. Our objective is to assess the effectiveness of the Postal Service's motor vehicle accident prevention program. We plan to review vehicle accidents that occurred in fiscal years 2010 and 2011, interview management to determine the causes for the motor vehicle accidents and how they plan to prevent vehicle accidents. We also plan to review motor vehicle accident prevention programs at major U.S. corporations to identify best practices and determine whether the Postal Service can adopt these best practices in order to reduce motor vehicle accidents costs. What controls should management implement to reduce vehicle accidents costs?
- Frederick, MD to Baltimore, MD AMP Consolidation – 12YG017NO000. For this project, we are reviewing operating conditions at the Baltimore, MD Processing and Distribution Center (P&DC). We will conduct observations of mail processing activities and review operational data to identify potential issues resulting from the consolidation of the Frederick, MD Processing and Distribution Facility (P&DF) into the Baltimore, MD P&DC. These issues could include delayed mail, service declines, safety issues and staffing levels. Our objectives include: Assessing the consolidation of the Frederick, MD P&DF destinating mail into the Baltimore, MD P&DC; examining stakeholder concerns with those mail processing issues resulting from the consolidation.
- City Delivery Operations Data Usage – 12XG013DR000. For this project, we will look at various reports, metrics, and other data sources used by Postal Service staff at all levels. Specifically, we will look at Postal Service requirements for using data and whether or not they are followed, if there are consistencies with how data is used nationwide, the usefulness of the data, staffs ability to access data, and identify possible best practices for how data is used. The objective of our audit is to determine how the Postal Service is using data to manage city delivery operations.
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- Information Technology Software and Infrastructure Service Agreements – 12RR005IT000. The Postal Service is committed to creating and maintaining a cost-effective Information Technology (IT) environment to safeguard the integrity, confidentiality, and availability of Postal Service information. This includes the acquisition of software, hardware, and services to provide the products and services that meet IT standards for the development, implementation, and maintenance of the Postal Service infrastructure. Acquisition activities should ensure that the Postal Service could negotiate cost beneficial IT software and infrastructure service agreements by consolidating requirements into advantageous solicitation. The IT Category Management Center (CMC) is responsible for creating and maintaining national agreements for the Postal Service covering computer hardware, software, IT services, and retail systems. The Postal Service requires that all systems and services use standards to leverage the benefits of faster deployment and efficient development and operation.
 Wall Street Journal: Chancellor Angela Merkel's effort to rally the German people behind her strategy for saving Greece and the euro suffered a blow over the weekend after a senior member of her government said Athens should be encouraged to leave the currency bloc. "The chances that Greece can renew itself and become more competitive are surely greater outside the currency union than within it," said Interior Minister Hans-Peter Friedrich. Athens shouldn't be forced to leave, but rather given incentives "that they can't refuse." [EdNote: See below.]
Federal News Radio: Federal News Radio: Buyout season is upon us. January, February and March are the months that buyouts are most cost-effective for Uncle Sam. So what would you do if the boss offered you $25,000 (before deductions) to take regular or early retirement? What's your tipping point? Last year (2011), 21 federal agencies offered buyouts to more than 30,000 federal and postal workers.
PRWeb: The Post Office has developed a new program called Every Door Direct Mail. It has several advantages for churches looking to reach out to their communities this Easter including: no mailing list required, postcards can be oversized increasing response rates, and the cost of the postage, which is 14.5 cents. Memory Cross and Wall Printing have created a program that allows churches to take advantage of this new service to reach out to their communities
Mid Day: A nation-wide 24-hour general strike called by major trade unions Tuesday could cripple the country's transport, banking and postal systems after the government's attempts to avert it remained unsuccessful Monday.
Savannah Morning News: You needn't hold an MBA to recognize the folly of continuing to do business the way you always have when the demand for your main product — first-class mail — drops 27 percent in three years. Or be a Darwinian scholar to grasp the long-range ramifications of online bill pay, now used by 60 percent of Americans and up 55 percent in the last decade. And the number in growing. The USPS might not be broke fiscally, but it is broke from a business model standpoint. Change comes harder to the Postal Service than to organized religions. Much of the resistance — in both instances — is due to the faithful.
DutchNews: Postal delivery group PostNL saw volumes fall 7% in 2011 but sales were stable at some €4.3bn, the company said on Monday.
 ChannelOnline: The recent travel disruption brought about by severe fog has caused a post backlog equivalent to levels usually seen in the run up to Christmas. Jersey Post say they implemented contingency plans over the weekend to ensure all the 160,000 items of mail were ready for delivery this morning. The company confirmed that all items of inbound mail from Thursday, Friday and Saturday last week will be out for delivery today and are asking islanders to be patient as rounds will be taking longer.
Fox Business: Mailing and logistics company Deutsche Post AG said Monday it sees no need for Germany's regulator to approve prices for bulk mail. The company was responding to plans by German Economic Minister Philipp Roesler to amend the post law allowing the Federal Network Agency, which oversees competition in German telecommunications, postal and electricity markets, to approve pricing changes for bulk mail.
Canton Repository: Although many blame Congress and email for the conundrums of our mail service, I blame postmarks. The nifty circular ones suddenly disappeared, replaced by a fuzzy, dot-matrix line. The city is not yours, it’s wherever the mail was sorted. It stinks. A postmark from your town once was a point of pride, an official confirmation that, indeed, your spot on Earth existed. Institutions can be hundreds of years old, but relevance today is as fragile as a simple postmark (invented in 1661).
DJournal: The U.S. Postal service isn’t supported by the government, but its cost-driven reductions suggests a scenario for many other government-related public services when Congress and an administration (which one remains uncertain) act on the necessity of dramatically cutting federal spending. Read more: djournal.com - OUR OPINION Postal cuts suggest deficit cuts’ impact
The Raw Story: With the U.S. Postal Service proposing to make draconian cuts to its workforce and services starting in mid-May, Senator Bernie Sanders (I-VT) has eme rged as the leading opponent of any changes that would reduce the quality of service on which many Americans depend. The plan announced this week would involve shutting 223 out of 461 mail-processing centers, cutting 35,000 jobs, shutting many smaller post offices, and seeking Congressional approval to eliminate Saturday mail delivery. One result would be that the would no longer be any possibility of first-class letters arriving the next day. After these details became public, Sanders responded on his Senate website, “The plan announced today by the U.S. Postal Service is deeply flawed and Congress must change it. I expect comprehensive postal reform legislation to be on the floor of the Senate within the next few weeks.”
The Times of India: The postman in rural areas across the country has his hands full. Apart from his regular job, he now has to go out three to four times a week to collect data from retail outlets which is then used to calculate the rural consumer price inflation. Faced with an acute manpower shortage, the ministry of statistics and programme implementation tied up with the department of posts to get over the problem of collecting such massive amount of data from rural areas across the country.
The Hill: As it presses ahead with plans to cut costs, the U.S. Postal Service (USPS) says it is also trying to avoid putting added pressure on states that allow residents to vote by mail. The cash-strapped agency, which announced last week that it could close 223 or more mail processing centers in the coming months, has also said that it was working with state election officials to soften the blow on ballot collection during this presidential election year. But, so far at least, the agency’s efforts are getting mixed reviews from local officials and lawmakers on Capitol Hill, with California’s secretary of state even calling on USPS to delay any facility closures until after November’s general election.
The American Consumer Satisfaction Index: Scores By Company U.S. Postal Service (Express & Priority Mail)
February 26, 2012
PostalReporters News Blog: Sens. Barbara A. Mikulski and Ben Cardin, both D-Md., demanded Thursday a halt to a new study on moving Easton's mail processing facility to Wilmington, Del. [EdNote: My lord, yes! Halt the study! You actually might find out something you really don't want to know....Like...the facility's really not needed and simply is adding unnecessarily to postal costs.]
Reuters: German Economy Minister Philipp Roesler wants to limit Deutsche Post's ability to influence the prices of stamps for bulk mail, in order to boost competition. The Federal Network Agency, which oversees competition in German electricity, gas, telecommunications, postal and railway markets, will in the future examine prices for such stamps and give its permission before they are changed, a spokeswoman for the Economy Ministry said on Sunday.
News.az: Azerbaijan has been elected in Board of Guardians of the World Post Union ( WPU) for Eastern Europe and North Asian region.
At the Postal Regulatory Commission: In December, the United States Postal Service requested a non-binding advisory opinion from the Postal Regulatory Commission on its proposal to consolidate its mail processing network and alter the delivery standards for First Class Mail and Periodicals. This request was designated as PRC Docket No. N2012-1. In support of its proposal and request for advisory opinion, the Postal Service submitted testimony from 13 witnesses and several thousand pages of supporting documentation. Initial discovery concluded on Friday. Under the law, an advisory opinion of this type is governed by the Administrative Procedure Act, and requires an on the record hearing, as specified in 39 U.S.C. 3661(c). Public Hearings have been scheduled. A copy of the one page procedural schedule for this docket is published on page 8 of this document: http://www.prc.gov/Docs/79/79586/POR_5.pdf
OpEdNews: Without the federal government interceding soon, the United States Postal Service will have insufficient funds to pay its obligations. Should the feds bail out the Post Office in the same fashion as the auto, banking and other lenders were? And, do we even need them when private companies like United Parcel Service and Federal Express deliver packages and letters while showing a yearly profit? Even Postmaster General Patrick Donahoe told a Senate committee that he would like to run the Post Office more like the way private competitors are run, but that current federal law and policy prevent him from doing so. Bottom line, Congress may have both tied its own hands from offering a bailout to the Post Office while at the same time helping the USPS go under.
Federal Times: Barely two weeks after a prominent senator questioned her travel activities, Postal Regulatory Commission Chairman Ruth Goldway is unapologetically heading overseas. Goldway, who publicly posted her travel records on the commission's web site this week after giving them to Carper's office, has defended her travel as relevant to her work and beneficial to the Postal Service and the mailing public. Carper spokeswoman Emily Spain questioned Goldway's priorities. "Embarking on travel that does not appear to be closely related to the role the Postal Regulatory Commission has been given in addressing the Postal Service's dire financial situation would appear ill-advised at this critical juncture," Spain said.
February 25, 2012
Fresno Bee: There are many who think we could do without the U.S. Postal Service in an era when technology seems to have surpassed what some derisively refer to as "snail mail." California Secretary of State Debra Bowen isn't one of them, and she's worried that Postal Service cutbacks could disenfranchise some voters in the June primary election. Bowen says that the threatened closure of up to 11 mail processing centers in California, including three in the Valley, will slow mail delivery and result in some mail ballots not arriving in time to be counted. Late-arriving ballots are not counted, even if they are postmarked ahead of the election. They must be in the hands of elections officials by 8 p.m. on election day. That's when the polls close in California. [EdNote: Show me the money!]
Tucson Citizen: The U.S. Postal Service this week announced that it will go through with plans to close its Cherrybell mail processing plant here. Phoenix will now process Tucson's mail. The net effect of that on Tucson will mean a first class letter will arrive at its intended destination about a day later than usual. That's hardly cause for the garment rending and teeth gnashing by Tucson's political leaders the past few weeks. The elimination of about 150 jobs is despairing yet necessary if the USPS is to survive and continue its critical role in American society and economy. The USPS is in trouble. It's losing billions of dollars a year. The U.S. government doesn't want to subsidize mail delivery. It wants mail users to pay for the cost of delivery. The inefficient and labor-intensive processing system must change if the USPS is to survive. To do that, it has come up with a modernization plan that will eliminate about half of its nearly 500 processing plants. It also wants to close rural post offices, eliminate Saturday mail delivery and make a handful of other reforms in order to save about $3 billion in annual operating costs. Standing in the way are numerous members of Congress spurred on by local and state leaders who want the USPS to reform its operations elsewhere. It's kind of a reverse NIMBYism. Call it KIMBYism for Keep It In My Backyard. But the Congress suffers from multiple personality disorder when it comes to the mail. It wants the USPS to pay its own way but it doesn't want it to raise postal rates, close any facilities or layoff any mail workers, especially not in an election year. When USPS leaders explain their problem and plans to solve it, it's as if the Congress sticks its fingers in it ears and says "la la la la la, I can't hear you, la la la la."
Minot Daily News: The U.S. Postal Service is forging ahead with its ill-conceived plan to close hundreds of mail processing centers across the country, including facilities in Minot and Devils Lake. The decision will make the U.S. Postal Service even less necessary, and it will mean fewer customers, leading to even more financial problems down the road. As it announces the mail processing closures, the postal service also continues to press Congress for permission to drop Saturday delivery and raise the price of a stamp by 5 cents. We wonder if officials would miraculously change their minds on the closures if they got their way on dropping Saturday delivery, which they have been virtually demanding for years. Congress should not give in to such blackmail, of course, nor should Congress allow closures of centers like the one in Minot. As this city grows, and western North Dakota booms with business and population, reducing postal service here makes absolutely no sense. [EdNote: Hmmmm. It would really be nice if, for once, the Minot Daily News would say what it thought Congress SHOULD do. Oh...and by the way, there is no such thing as a free lunch. Whatever you want will have to be paid for.]
Workers World: Community Labor United to Save Postal Jobs & Services issued a media release on Feb. 18 after newspaper, TV and radio media barraged the public that same day with reports that the postal service is broke. The group is organizing a rally on March 17 to protest attempts to lay off postal workers and close post offices. [EdNote: Great....Now we've heard from the Commies.]
Contra Costa Times: Junk mail is under fire in cities nationwide. More than 100 cities, including several in the Bay Area, have joined a Berkeley nonprofit that puts up a virtual "no trespassing" sign to slow the onslaught of 83 billion pieces of unsolicited mail and catalogs sent to U.S. mailboxes annually. San Jose and Berkeley last year worked with Catalog Choice to spread the word to residents and businesses about the free, optional service similar to the Do Not Call lists long used to block telemarketers. City residents choose the vendors from whom they don't want mail. This week, Los Gatos signed up. Santa Monica, Pasadena, Costa Mesa and Seattle also recently joined. Richmond next month decides whether it's in. [EdNote: How nice. Now let's hear how the good citizens of these California cities intend to come up with the revenue needed to sustain the nation's universal mail delivery system. Oh...and while their at it...let's see what they have planned to eliminate all that nasty, bothersome advertising that appears in newspapers, magazines, and on television, cable, radio, and the internet. Idiots....!]
The State Journal-Register: It is too bad Dick "I Never Saw a Tax I Didn't Like" Durbin wasn't around to save the Pony Express and the buggy makers. The postal system as it exists today is obsolete. There is less mail today and will be even less mail in the future. Durbin doesn't want the postal system to cut expenses and it has a limited ability to raise revenue. The postal system needs to cut capacity, close post offices and reduce service to five days a week or maybe even four. The postal system is an independent business that cannot continue to lose billions of dollars a year. The postal system does not have the ability to print more money when it spends too much like Durbin does with the federal government.
The Herald-Record: The future of the Mid-Hudson Processing and Distribution Center could rest in the hands of Congress. U.S. Rep. Maurice Hinchey is promising a bipartisan effort in Congress to save the center. There are several bills pending in the House and Senate aimed at resolving the Postal Service's financial problems that have strong bipartisan support, Morosi said.
 The Telegram: The Newfoundland and Labrador branch of the Canadian Postmasters and Assistants Association (CPAA) is sounding the alarm about what it describes as an impending reduction in operating hours for rural post offices.
From the Federal Register: Postal Service PROPOSED RULES Inspection Service Authority; Seizure and Forfeiture , 11437–11452 [2012–4396] [TEXT] [PDF]
 Marketwire: Neopost has announced a partnership with Uniserv GmbH that enables customers to validate the addresses of additional countries on top of the USA and United Kingdom currently already offered when using Neopost solutions. While customers using the Neopost PrintMachine document output management solution will be the first to benefit, additional Neopost mail optimization and preparation products will also take advantage of the Uniserv data quality products and services. Validating addresses ensures mail is deliverable and keeps valuable financial resources from being wasted on returned mail. Undeliverable mail can impact business operations, efficiency and cash flow due to additional expenditures in re-sending mail as well as lost revenues from late bills and invoice payments.
The News Tribune: The office of the Washington Secretary of State says consolidation plans by the U.S. Postal Service are unlikely to hamper Washington elections. In Washington, ballots must be postmarked, rather than received, by election day. Spokesman Shane Hamlin says that because of that requirement, the postal cuts are unlikely to affect voting or vote tabulations.
Federal News Radio: The Postal Service's revamped five-year business plan, which is aimed at putting the troubled agency on firmer financial ground, is made up of a number of elements. Lawmakers have championed some of them, such as allowing USPS to move employees from the federal health-insurance plan to an independent program. But the Postal Service says the most effective way to stave off a further downward financial spiral is not through a piecemeal approach to its measures. Joe Corbett, the chief financial officer of the Postal Service, told In Depth with Francis Rose that without making all of the changes, USPS faces a projected loss of more than $20 billion in annual losses in 2016. "So we need to make all the changes in our plan in order to return that $20 billion projected to a modest profit," he added.
Associated Press: Ohio's elections chief is asking the postmaster general to reconsider plans to close nine mail processing sites in the state, saying he's concerned about the security of early mail-in ballots that would be handled outside Ohio. Secretary of State Jon Husted says in a Friday letter to Postmaster General Patrick Donahue that some ballots would potentially leave Ohio twice once when they are mailed to voters and once when they're returned.
Reuters: PostNL is the biggest single investor in freight and delivery firm TNT Express NV, subject of a 9 euros per share approach from United Parcel Service Inc. TNT on February 17 rejected UPS's offer, worth a total of 4.9 billion euros ($6.5 billion), but the two are still in takeover talks and some investors are hoping UPS will sweeten its offer. PostNL, which owns 29.9 percent of TNT, has good reason to welcome a suitor. After it hived off TNT in May last year, TNT shares fell from a high of 10.2 euros to as low as 4.46 euros, forcing PostNL to write down the value of its stake by more than 700 million euros ($932 million). The six-month lock-up period that prevented PostNL from selling its TNT stake ended in December and the Dutch postal group had already made clear it would sell the stake when "advantageous and appropriate. So when activist shareholders including U.S.-based Jana Partners and Canada's Alberta Investment Management Corp (AIMCO)started agitating for TNT to shake up its management, appoint new supervisory board members, improve its performance and consider a possible sale, PostNL also stood to gain.
Attention PostalOne!® Users: PostalOne!® Patch Release 29.0.4 Maintenance: On Sunday, February 26 , 2012 the PostalOne! application will deploy a software patch release installed in a rolling fashion with no outage to the PostalOne! application. This patch release (29.0.4) will occur during the scheduled maintenance window from 4:00 a.m. through 8:00 a.m. CST and will correct known issues in Release 29.0. No system availability or performance issues should be experienced by users. If you experience any issues please contact the help desk for assistance at 1-800-522-9085.
Multichannel Merchant: We asked several merchants how a USPS move to 5-day mail delivery would impact their businesses, and here's what they had to say about 5-day mail delivery. Here's what they had to say.
- Bryan Jones, president, CWD Kids -- "I don't think the 5-day delivery will have much of an impact on us. Most of our packages are delivered via UPS so it's not something we are overly concerned about. In terms of the catalog, I don't think we will see a huge impact there either. Most of our books are mailed in a co-mail pool and more than 90% of the books hit in a two- or three-day window."
- Jaimey Wilman, marketing manager for Action Bag -- "Most of our mailings are co-mailed standard rate catalogs. With the shorter mail delivery time, will we probably need to push up our creative and print production schedules to meet our target in-home dates, but we envision that as a manageable shift."
- Jane Glazer, president and CEO, QCI Direct -- "If reducing the mail delivery service will mean no more raises in postal rates, then I am all for it. The government needs to get out of the mail delivery service and the mail delivery service needs to be run like a business. I do not see any logistical problem since we do not deliver next day or 2-day air."
- Lynn Gore, vice president of marketing, Plow & Hearth "In regards to catalog delivery, we are not concerned at all about moving to 5-day delivery. Our typical in-home dates are Mondays, so at most, even with early delivery we only see about 3% of delivery the weekend prior to an in-home. And even if the USPS is not delivering on time, I don't see the demand being negatively impacted. If anything, it would just be redistributed. In regards to merchandise, I think the 5-day delivery could impact sales where key gift-giving holidays fall on the calendar in such a way that the ordering window would be shortened by not having Saturday delivery. In that case, we would be forced to use other methods of delivery so that we could get orders to our customers as close to their need as possible."
- Mike Wolfe, president and CEO, AeroGrow-- "This issue – as are many budget issues – is more complicated than it might appear on the surface. As much as I hate to see service shrink from 6 days to 5 days, if that's what it takes for the USPS to stay solvent, then so be it. Business mailers need a health USPS. That said, my view is that I'm not too troubled by this as long as the average time to get shipments in home is not significantly affected. Not having our catalogs show up on a Saturday is not a big deal as far as I'm concerned."
- Terri Alpert, founder and CEO, Stony Creek Brands -- "It is critical to my companies as catalog mailers that the USPS be able to normalize its cost structure for today's realities. If significant costs are not removed from the system, prices will continue to spiral out of control. If that were to occur, it would likely mean the destruction of my company and the many jobs I have created for my employees and suppliers, many of whom are small businesses. And we would no longer be able to enhance the lives of our customers. The inconvenience of losing one day a week of mail delivery is a small price to pay for the continuation of system on which we all depend."
- Zach Zimet, senior director of marketing, Crutchfield -- "I believe that a move to 5-day delivery would ultimately benefit our business by helping to stabilize the USPS. Our ongoing operations and marketing plans would be minimally affected by the change."
Editor's Note: Well, we've heard a lot these days about what Congress doesn't want the Postal Service to do, and a lot from labor about what it doesn't want Congress to let happen. About the only thing we haven't heard is what Congress and labor are WILLING to do to ensure that postal resources and costs get trimmed to match workload needs and get the nation's postal system on a positive, sound, self-sustaining track.
Crookston Times: The U.S. Postal Service's announcement Thursday of its decision to "consolidate" five mail processing/distribution centers in the state, as part of its plan to shutter at least 223 across the nation to keep the agency solvent, is the latest move to undermine any power out-state Minnesota might have. The plan has drawn criticism from every area in the nation that it affects; no one wants to lose their center. It's also no secret that the independent government agency has been struggling to keep afloat amid an increasingly paperless climate that's had a big impact on the volume of mail streaming in and out of mailboxes. The USPS had to come up with a solution, and this whole consolidation plan was apparently the best it could do absent a funding boost from the government.
BusinessInsider: While the Postal Service continues to slash costs and service, people are starting to wonder whether the day will come when the agency will cease to exist. The USPS is just one more instance of an entity that needs to cut back. The Postal Service needs to change but is not going anywhere anytime soon.
Hellmail: Consumer Focus, the body charged with regulation of UK postal services, is urging the Royal Mail to up its game following a 'slip in results' and patchy performance, particularly in the London area. The call comes as Royal Mail's delivery performance results for Quarter 3 of 2011 (from September to early December) published today, show a decline in results. This follows Quarter 2 figures which showed improvement on previous poor results in March to early June.
McCook Daily Gazette: The Postal Service predicts it will lose a record $14.1 billion this year and plans to cut 220,000 jobs, but critics point to a congressional mandate that the service prefund retirement and retiree health costs as a major part of the problem. The processing centers would have been closed sooner, but the USPS agreed to give Congress until May 15 to come up with other options. We're not optimistic that will happen.
MLive: U.S. Sen. Carl Levin has sent a letter to the postmaster general about plans to close the Jackson mail processing center and six others in Michigan. Levin, D-Michigan, is asking for details about the plans by the U.S. Postal Service.
The Motley Fool: The U.S. Postal Service is in crisis, which means hard decisions have to be made. So, if you could save the USPS by accepting slower service, and perhaps a few fewer days of getting mail delivered to your mailbox, would you do it? Or would you prefer to pay a few more cents for a postage stamp as a way to shore up the USPS's failing revenue stream? Opinions may differ on which solution is best. Lucky for us, we don't have to choose. The Post Office has already made its decision for us. So that's the USPS solution in a nutshell: Give the customers worse service, and charge them more for it.
February 24, 2012
Post & Parcel: New Zealand Post downplayed a surge in its profits as it released its latest financial results today, warning that it still has some way to go in facing up to declining mail volumes. The group more than doubled its net profit after tax in the six months up to the end of December, compared to the same period in 2010, from $15.8m to $35.4m. But group chief executive Brian Roche said the performance was not a case of "turning the corner" after the $35.6m loss seen in the year ended June 2011. He said that plans are now being finalised to address society's ongoing move towards digital communications.
Worchester Telegram & Gazette: U.S. Sen. Scott Brown today wrote a letter to the postmaster general demanding an explanation for proposals to close five mail processing and distribution centers in the state, including the one on Main Street. In the letter to Postmaster General Patrick R. Donahoe, the senator acknowledges the agency's dire financial problems and significant changes that may be required to put it on a viable fiscal path. But he said he is disappointed and concerned with the process used to make the decision announced yesterday to eliminate operations at plants in Shrewsbury, Waltham, Wareham and Lowell, and significantly reduce operations at the facility in North Reading. USPS also announced in December that the Springfield facility will close.
In response to the release of the list of Area Mail Processing plant closures today, Rep. Darrell Issa, R-Calif., Chairman of the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee, Rep. Dennis Ross, R-Fla., Chairman of the OGR Subcommittee on the Federal Workforce, U.S. Postal Service, and Labor Policy, and Rep. Justin Amash, R-Mich., Vice-Chairman of the OGR Subcommittee on the Federal Workforce, U.S. Postal Service, and Labor Policy offered the following statement: "Rightsizing is essential to solving the Postal Service's financial crisis. If USPS leadership actually goes through with a realignment, instead of caving to political pressure again, it will be an acknowledgment that no budget gimmick is going to restore the Postal Service to solvency. Keeping your head in the sand and hoping for a taxpayer bailout is simply irresponsible."
DMM Advisory: IMb™ Services Update
- Reminder – PostalOne!® Patch Release 29.0.4 Maintenance – On Sunday, February 26, 2012, during the scheduled maintenance window from 4 a.m. to 8 a.m. CST, the PostalOne!® application will deploy a software patch release in a rolling fashion with no planned outages. This patch release (29.0.4) will correct known issues in Release 29.0. Users should not experience system availability or performance issues during the deployment.
- Reminder – FAST® Release 19.2 Deployment: – Facility Access and Shipment Tracking (FAST®) Release 19.2 will be deployed to the Production environment on Sunday, February 26, 2012, from 4 a.m. to 8 a.m. CST. During the deployment, the FAST Online Application will remain available, but FAST Web Services messaging will not be available. All FAST Web Services messages received during the outage will be queued and processed after FAST Release 19.2 deployment is completed.
Reuters: The White House proposed on Thursday a "privacy bill of rights" that would give consumers more control over their data but relies heavily for now on voluntary commitments by Internet companies like Google Inc and Facebook. The plan comes amid growing consumer concern about their lack of control over the collection and trade in vast amounts of detailed information about their online activities and real-life identities. As part of the announcement, an online advertising coalition associated with Google Inc, Yahoo Inc and Microsoft Corp said its members agreed to placing "Do Not Track" technology in Web browsers, something the Federal Trade Commission has been advocating since 2010.
Reuters: The line between publisher and retailer is blurring as companies partner up to try and capture more of the e-commerce pie.
National Postal Mailhandliers Union: Last year, on September 15, 2011, the Postal Service issued a list of 252 mail processing facilities that it planned to study for possible closing and consolidation. The alleged justification for this process was to ensure that the Postal Service would be able to reduce the number of its mail processing facilities to the extent necessary to deal with a drop in mail volume. There certainly has been an unprecedented drop in mail volume during the past few years, and to the extent that the volume is not expected to return, some reduction in the number of mail processing facilities might be justified. But now the Postal Service has made the closing and consolidation of more than two hundred facilities part and parcel of its destructive plans to downsize the Postal Service and threaten universal service by cutting service standards, reducing the days of residential delivery, and otherwise threatening the historic role of the Postal Service in America. |
This is what we need. |
Editor's Note: Forget Greece . . . . It would seem these days that when it comes to things congressional and postal, Washington, DC is taking on the character of "Dysfunction Junction." Even the EU seems to address their most pressing problems more promisingly. If America's postal infrastructure is meant to serve as a platform for national economic development, then it must work!
It must FACILITATE businesses' use of mail for communication and commerce, not IMPEDE it. |
This is what we're getting. |
Tredyffrin-Easttown Patch: U.S. Rep. Patrick Meehan (R-PA7) is calling for an independent review of the United States Postal Service (USPS) decision to consolidate the Southeastern Pennsylvania Processing and Distribution Center. The center, located in Wayne, Tredyffrin Township is now slated to close later this spring. The mail that is currently handled in Wayne would be moved to the USPS processing and distribution facility near the Philadelphia Airport.
Washington Post: At least 223 mail processing facilities operated by the U.S. Postal Service could close or merge with nearby locations in the next year as part of a three-year, $15 billion cost-cutting plan.
Transport Intelligence: The acquisition of TNT by UPS has thrown up what could evolve into a highly ironic situation. TNT has a wholly owned airline, TNT Airways SA, which is based at its European hub in Liege and which exists to provide TNT Express with an air freight network connecting all its locations throughout the world. However, a change of ownership could have serious implications for the airline. TNT Airways SA is incorporated in Belgium and qualifies as a Belgian and EU carrier. This brings a number of privileges that include the company's use of Liege Airport, routings and reciprocal landing rights and trade arrangements.
For those inquiring minds that need to know, you can find the following on the Postal Service's website:
The latest issue of the PostCom Bulletin is available online. In this issue:
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In keeping with that commitment, the results of the Area Mail Processing (AMP) facility studies announced last September are now available at http://usps.com/ourfuturenetwork. This website provides information on the decision made in each study, including whether each facility will be closed or consolidated, remain open, or have its study placed on hold. For those facilities facing a change, the name of the "gaining site"— the facility where mail processing operations will be relocated — also is included.
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This report updates the analysis in the 2009 white paper and, with the prospect that the Postal Service will continue to be affected by national budget issues, explains how budget enforcement mechanisms such as scoring work and how they can be addressed.
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The Association for Postal Commerce Board of Directors has approved the following resolution creating a new technology working group under its Postal Operations Committee.
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USPS posts info on Mobile Barcode Promo. New postal website. The honor of your postage is requested. USPS may resort of buyouts, early retirements in aggressive downsizing. USPS five-year plan: doomed to fail. Postal Service's future, opinion. Bill downsizing USPS is far from perfect. USPS is Escher's mystery new customer. TNT rejects $6.4B bid from UPS for its Express unit. Premium forwarding service debuts on usps.com. Senator Carper requests travel docs from PRC Chair. New CPI figure. USPS files mobile barcode promo with PRC. Carper: USPS can take page from auto industry in fixing finances. Voluntary do not track. Postal Service set to announce facility closures. Senator Casey requests independent review of USPS consolidation. Move to competitive street addressing for PO Boxes. PostCom's newest member.
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Updates from the Domestic Mail Manual.
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Updates from the Federal Register that affect the mailing industry.
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An update from the USPS Office of Inspector General.
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A review of postal news from around the world.
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Postal previews.
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Courier, Express, and Postal Observer: Posted on the Courier, Express, and Postal Observer site is a dialogue with Congressman Dennis Ross via Twitter regarding the Postal Service's plant consolidation announcements.
Reuters: Dutch delivery firm TNT Express is not expecting U.S. rival FedEx to trump a 4.9 billion euros ($6.5 billion) takeover bid from United Parcel Services (UPS.N), a source close to TNT said on Thursday. TNT last week rejected a 9 euros per share cash offer from UPS, the world's largest package delivery company, but is still in talks with its U.S. suitor.
February 23, 2012
Press Release: Cleanlist.ca (a division of Interact Direct) is pleased to announce its new proprietary API (application programming interface) to provide automated access to Canada Post's NCOA database. The first API clients went live in January, 2012.
paidContent.org: Two business information publishers are reporting improving fortunes after pushing their print media portfolio toward digital subscription operation.
Eye for Transport: The retail industry is obviously one of the biggest economic drivers, however the european sector is still struggling. The recent retail supply chain report we have just released clearly shows 44% of executives are not expecting any growth in their retail business this year. You can read about all the other concerns facing retail supply chain execs here
FLASH!! Area Mail Processing study decision 2/23/12:
From the USPS to business mailers:
Last September, the Postal Service proposed changes relating to service standards and network operations, and made a commitment to you, our PCC members and customers, to maintain open communications on these proposed changes. In keeping with that commitment, the results of the Area Mail Processing (AMP) facility studies announced last September are now available at http://usps.com/ourfuturenetwork. This website provides information on the decision made in each study, including whether each facility will be closed or consolidated, remain open, or have its study placed on hold. For those facilities facing a change, the name of the “gaining site”— the facility where mail processing operations will be relocated — also is included.
Implementation of any consolidation or closure, however, is contingent upon the outcome of proposed revisions to existing service standards. In addition, no network changes will be implemented prior to May 15 of this year, in keeping with a moratorium on closing or consolidating postal facilities intended to give Congress and the Administration the opportunity to enact an alternative plan. There will be no changes at this time to retail services and business mail acceptance located at any of the facilities involved in these studies. See the following additional commitments:
• No immediate changes to business acceptance locations or hours of operation
• Deliberate timing of operational moves to limit customer impact
• Continuation of Destination Sectional Center Facility (DSCF) discounts at affected Bulk Mail Entry Units (BMEUs).
• Expanded Drop Shipment Appointments will be available
• Continual communications
Many of you have asked about the impact of these actions on BMEUs. Again, there will be no changes to BMEU hours or locations. Should a BMEU need to be relocated in the future, all customers would receive 120 days notice of the intended move, and any new location would be in close proximity to the original. In addition, DSCF discounts will continue to be available for mailings entered at BMEUs that remain in impacted facilities. Mailers will be encouraged to align their preparation and entry to the new network. However, they will continue to receive drop-ship entry discounts for mail entered at impacted facilities based on 3-digit ZIP Codes currently allowed. There will be no major consolidations during the fall mailing season, nor during the election mailing period, and Facility Access and Shipment Tracking (FAST) appointments will be expanded to support shifting volumes across the network. In the very near future, our District Managers across the country will be inviting commercial mailers to meetings where they will share more detailed information and answer site-specific questions.
An Urgent Message from Senator Collins: "Senator Collins Blasts Postal Service Decision to Proceed with Hampden Plant Closure"
Post & Parcel: Scandinavian postal operator PostNord warned today that it will need further restructuring and is contemplating a possible IPO as it faces up to radical changes in the mail market. The company that is 40% owned by the Danish state and 60% owned by the Swedish state reported financial results for 2011 today, highlighting improved profits for the year. But while net profits were up 19% to SEK 1.03bn ($155m USD) thanks to cost-cutting efforts, PostNord's sales showed a 5% decline for the full year compared to 2010, to SEK 39.5bn ($5.9bn USD). The final quarter of 2011 was characterised by increasing competition from Internet communications and a weak Danish economy. |
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USPS 2012 Product Initiatives
Join us for a Webinar on March 20
Please join the Association for Postal Commerce for a free webinar on Tuesday, March 20 at 1:00 Eastern as Tom Foti, Manager, Direct Mail and Periodicals shares the USPS 2012 Product/Pricing Initiatives. Join the discussion to learn how you can take advantage of the concepts, develop your marketing strategies, and improve your overall success in the mail.” | |
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Post & Parcel: Russian Post said yesterday that preliminary financial results for 2011 show a 12% growth in its revenues compared to 2010, with operating income up 14% to 120bn rubles ($4.04bn USD). The company said net profit was expected to range between 700m to 750m rubles ($23.6m to $25.4m USD), also up on the previous year. For the first time in the past few years, Russian Post was unable to achieve growth in its letter mail, it said, with the backdrop of a global downturn in mail volumes. However, growth in the company's competitive services was expected to be around 22%, mainly thanks to surging parcel volumes, which have risen 10% from 2010 to 2011, from 47.8m items to 52.3m items.
OIG Tweet: Have you been to our audit project pages lately? Looking for input on our newest project-USPS Accident Prevention Program
CNET: Google has agreed to build support for Do Not Track into Chrome so its Web browser can tell Web sites when users don't want advertisers scrutinizing their behavior.
Financial Times: When United Parcel Service, the logistics company, went public in 1999, top executives gave one overarching rationale for the wrenching change to its conservative, operations-focused corporate culture – large-scale acquisitions. More than a decade later UPS is finally making its move, taking advantage of its greater scale, financial strength and access to capital markets with a €4.9bn offer for TNT Express, the recently spun-off Dutch package delivery company. The bid comes as the leading express parcel groups are enjoying moderate if uneven growth amid the patchy economic recovery and have moved to tap into international trade flows and build out their global networks through a combination of capital investments and acquisitions.
Federal News RadioAs the Postal Service debuts new plans for cost-cutting, one of the key lawmakers involved in setting USPS on more sound financial footing said the agency should take a page from the auto industry. About three years ago, the auto industry was "going under," Carper said with some calling to let many of the car manufacturers go bankrupt. Instead, GM, Chrysler and Ford took a three-pronged approach: Retirement-age employees were incentivized to retire, some plants were closed and the carmakers unions' the United Auto Workers, took over managing employees' health-insurance plans. "And I think therein lies part of what we need to do with the Postal Service," Carper said. As with the car companies, USPS needs to "right-size the enterprise," he added. For example, provide incentives for those employees who are retirement-eligible and close some mail-processing centers, without impairing service. Carper said he's also urged the four major Postal unions, including the National Association of Letter Carriers, to take over managing Postal employees' health insurance.
Marketing Week: The price of large letter DM is set to rise between 4 and 7% but the postal operator insists that most increases will be below 5% and some under 1%. Royal Mail has changed the conditions of its Advertising Mail service, which offers companies financial incentives to use DM, in a bid to placate direct marketers bristling over rising costs.
The Times of India: The postal department has approached Goa government for delivery of driving licenses and registration certificate (RC) books through speed post. This, they believe, will ensure the fast delivery of vital documents at the door steps of the customers.
News briefs:
Mercury News: If you want your mail-in ballot to count in this year's elections, don't procrastinate, California's top elections official warned Wednesday: The U.S. Postal Service's downsizing plan could wind up leaving last-minute voters unheard.
Bloomberg: Traders are betting TNT Express NV is the most likely takeover target in Europe to get a higher offer, even after spurning the industry's richest proposal from United Parcel Service Inc.
Zacks: United Parcel Service (UPS) is still negotiating the acquisition of TNT Express, the Dutch package delivery company. United Parcel's preliminary bid of €9 per share, or €4.9 billion ($6.45 billion) in total, was rejected, but the company still hasn't given up hope on Europe's second-largest express delivery company. UPS made the proposal nine months after TNT spun off from PostNL and suffered persistent market share loss. If successful, the takeover will make UPS an undisputed leader in the emerging markets of Europe, China, Russia, Brazil and India. | |
THE ULTIMATE TEST OF ANY POSTAL REFORM MEASURE
(1) It must ensure the fiscal viability of the U.S. Postal Service,
(2) It must ensure the Postal Service is set up to operate on a self-sufficient basis, and
(3) It must ensure the ability of the Postal Service to satisfy the nation's postal needs.
ANY legislative proposal that cannot do this should go back to the drafting table.
"Do it once and do it nice, otherwise you'll do it twice." -- Sister Maria Cortilia
(Parochial School Teacher) | | | |
