Mailing/Fulfillment - Postal Trends

WASHINGTON, DC—Commercial printers who thrive on mailing must hope that the Senate and House of Representatives can quickly find common ground in order to send meaningful postal reform to President Bush. Other-wise, the United States Postal Service (USPS) has proposed an 8.5 percent rate increase that would likely take effect next May. Still, it might be too late to head off this most recent postal rise, which comes on the heels of a 5.4 percent increase that took effect in January. The recent USPS request would cost mailers just over 11 percent more to mail a magazine, while package services and special services would see

MAILING HAS been rapidly evolving from being seen as an opportunity for diversification and differentiation to a standard offering of full-service print providers. This is particularly true for shops that have moved into digital printing and variable data marketing services. Variable data and mailing are a natural fit for obvious reasons. For one, the same database that drives the variable content of a direct marketing piece is also used for the mailing information. Controlling both stages of the process gives the printer advantages in terms of on-time delivery of mailed pieces. Being able to apply mailing expertise at the production stages also puts a

IT’S HARD not to think that elements of the DME strategy sound like clichés—customer focused, team approach, people are its biggest asset, and so on. There’s no doubting the results, though. The organization has grown from a small traditional print/direct mail shop (Direct Mail Express started in 1982 with seven employees) into a direct marketing powerhouse with more than $100 million in annual sales and 650 team members. Management definitely walks its talk. Focusing on customers’ needs, for example, led DME to install three Xerox iGen3 digital color production presses in 2004 and add a fourth in 2005. It also has taken the

WASHINGTON, DC—Postal reform cleared another hurdle last month when the U.S. Senate passed its version of the bill by a voice vote. A conference committee will work to hammer out the differences between this bill and the House of Representatives version that passed last July. Michael Makin, president of the PIA/GATF, hailed lawmakers for taking a major step towards modernizing the U.S. postal system. “Senate passage of postal reform is a huge victory in the printing industry’s long quest for a major legislative overhaul of this country’s postal laws,” Makin said in a statement. “Large corporations and small, family firms, along with printing employees, customers and

SPRINGFIELD, IL—Direct mail could take a hit in the state of Illinois with a proposed law aimed at placing restrictions on so-called "junk mail." The state's general assembly has introduced house bill 4539, the Restricted Mailing Registry Act. Like the "Do Not Call" registry, the proposed legislation would create an opt-out list for those who do not wish to receive literature through the mail. Exceptions would be granted for current customers, nonprofits and real estate companies, among others. The registry, which would be established and operated by the state's commerce commission, would levy fines to those companies that break the law. However, the law would

The prospects for passage of postal reform legislation in 2006 have been clouded by three issues. First is the pressure on the federal budget. Although the USPS is funded entirely by postage, it is still part of the unified federal budget. Thus, pension and retiree medical insurance obligations of the postal service are obligations of the federal treasury. Secondly, the USPS has serious misgivings about key provisions of the legislation. Third, the Senate is caught in a disagreement between large-volume mailers and small-volume (and single-piece) mailers over a proposed amendment. Failing to pass the legislation may mean that no bill would pass for years. If

WASHINGTON, DC--February 9, 2006--The Printing Industries of America/Graphic Arts Technical Foundation (PIA/GATF) today praised passage of postal reform and modernization legislation in the U.S. Senate. The bill (S. 662, the Postal Accountability and Enhancement Act) was a PIA/GATF "priority vote" and passed the Senate under Unanimous Consent. "Senate passage of postal reform is a huge victory in the printing industry's long quest for a major legislative overhaul of this country's postal laws. Large corporations and small, family firms, along with printing employees, customers, and stakeholders, will benefit from this desperately needed modernization of the U.S. Postal Service," said Michael Makin, President and CEO of

Unless someone pulled a rabbit out of a hat in the final days, the first session of the 109th Congress ended without completion of postal reform legislation, which has been stalled in the Senate. It has been delayed because of a dispute between Senators Susan Collins (R-ME) and Kit Bond (R-MO) over a proposed amendment to include a requirement that rates be "fair and equitable." While the language is identical to that in the House-passed bill, Collins, as well as the Postal Service, object to the amendment. Ironically, the legal impact of the amendment is unclear one way or the other. While there are those

WASHINGTON, DC--Congress left town for the Thanksgiving break without passing postal reform. At the center of the debate is an amendment being offered by Senator Kit Bond (R-MO) to add language similar to a provision in the House-passed bill to require that postage rates be "fair and equitable." The U.S. Postal Service, as well as Senator Susan Collins (R-ME), the chief sponsor of the bill, is adamantly opposed to the amendment. Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist (R-TN) offered to allow a vote on the Senate floor to include debate and a vote on the amendment. While Senator Collins agreed to that strategy, Senator Bond did

Many printing companies are running profitable mailing and fulfillment operations as part of their evolution into full-service graphic communications solutions providers. The printers who are still evaluating whether these service offerings make sense for their organizations, however, may need a little guidance in making that all-important assessment, notes National Association of Printing Leadership (NAPL) associate consultant Clint Bolte, president of Clint Bolte & Associates and author of the NAPL book How Fulfillment Services Drive Print Volume. "When done correctly, mailing and fulfillment can be a lucrative profit center for printers," Bolte advises. "However, these are areas where customers' tolerance for missteps is extremely