Mailing/Fulfillment - Postal Trends

What carriers learn about problem addresses is supposed to be captured in the Postal Service's address-management database, but it's an imperfect process. Because of greater use of “transitional” employees instead of career carriers to deliver the mail, it’s becoming increasingly likely that a poorly addressed letter will end up in the hands of a carrier who doesn’t know how to deliver it, a postal official acknowledged.

Such recent hires are paid less than career carriers, and their hours can be adjusted more to match the peaks and valleys of mail volume.

This week, Structural Graphics features a new a Gladiator Magic X-Ray Viewer that was mailed to TED Conference attendees and carried a VIP membership access code for recipients to receive special pricing on Gladiator, KitchenAid, Whirlpool, Maytag, and Amana products.

The Postal Regulatory Commission's advisory opinion on the Postal Service's load-leveling plan is to take a step back and do a more thorough job of assessing the implications for mailers before putting it into play. USPS had hoped to enforce the plan beginning today. It can still choose to do so, or wait and take the PRC's opinion under advisement.

Under the new load-leveling plan, Standard Mail accepted on Friday will not be delivered until Tuesday, and mail accepted on Saturday will have a promised delivery day of Wednesday.

If you believe Democratic politicians and their allies in the labor movement, Postmaster General Patrick Donahoe has a barely concealed agenda to privatize the U.S. Postal Service. Donahoe “can say whatever he wants,” Montana Senator Jon Tester told The Washington Post, “but I think he wants to privatize.”

Why else would Donahoe be so eager to cut costs at the USPS? He’s trying to push the post office to the brink of collapse so there will be no choice but to sell the 238-year-old government mail service. Or so goes the theory.

But this line of thinking doesn’t make sense.

This week, Structrural Graphics features a launch kit it designed for home appliance manufacturer Maytag. The company wanted an innovative and engaging Point of Sale piece to distribute to its consumer base.

If the U.S. Postal Service were truly a free-market player in American business, it would most likely be in bankruptcy court about now, according to a detailed analysis of the Post Office's 2013 financial results released today by the Postal Regulatory Commission (PRC).

"In response to the many concerns and questions regarding the financial position of the United States Postal Service, my colleagues and I have determined that our analysis...should be published separately to provide greater clarity, transparency, and accountability," wrote PRC Chairman Ruth Goldway in an introductory letter to the report.

The National Association of Letter Carriers, the American Postal Workers Union, the National Postal Mailhandlers and the National Rural Letter Carriers’ Association issued a proclamation earlier this month forming a “Postal Union Alliance.”

The proclamation stated that USPS was under “unprecedented attack” from a crisis it claimed was manufactured by the US Congress—a reference to the Congressionally-mandated payments USPS must make to the federal government to cover liabilities such as future retiree healthcare benefits.

Together, the unions said they would push for the protection of six-day-per-week mail delivery, the restoration of mail service standards and mail processing facilities and the provision of

Chief Human Resources Officer and Executive Vice President Jeffrey Williamson testified before the United States House of Representatives Subcommittee yesterday on Federal Workforce, U.S. Postal Service and the Census during a hearing titled "At a Crossroads: The Postal Service’s $100 Billion in Unfunded Liabilities." "The enactment of comprehensive postal reform legislation cannot wait," said Williamson. "The Postal Service has exhausted its borrowing authority, faces unnecessary and artificial costs that it cannot afford, and is constrained by law from correcting the problem...

You probably think you’ve heard it before. The nation’s top postal official wants to end Saturday delivery because he thinks it’s no longer cost-effective. He’s closing government post offices and opening up new ones in stores, insisting this will save money and provide more convenience to customers.

Yes, U.S. Postmaster General Patrick Donahoe is calling for these things. But so is Norway Post CEO Dag Mejdell. Norway Post isn’t doing as badly as the USPS, which lost $5 billion in 2013.

Ultimately, the USPS needs to start digitizing the mail stream as Norway Post has done. It has tried to move

This week, Structrural Graphics shows a gift card packaging concept it developed for client Victoria's Secret. When the recipient pulls on the right hand-side, another panel, carrying the gift card, automatically extends out to the left, presenting the recipient with their gift.