Mailing/Fulfillment - Postal Trends

On Thursday, the Senate committee on homeland security and government affairs voted 9-1 to advance to the Senate floor the Postal Reform Act, a bill sponsored by chairman and ranking member Sens. Tom Carper (D-Del.) and Tom Coburn (R-Okla.). In its current form, the bill would make permanent the emergency rate increase and give the U.S. Postal Service carte blanche the authority to set future rates.

The number of options for the mailing industry to fight the postal hike are dwindling. Last month the mailing industry filed an appeal with the U.S. Court of Appeals, a process that could take months.

The U.S. Postal Service reported Friday that Postmaster General Pat Donahoe received total compensation of $436,540 last year. Some people will see that as a shocking amount for a government employee.

But here’s the real shocker: The CEOs of the Postal Service’s two chief rivals, FedEx and United Parcel Service, at last report each earned more than 27 times what Donahoe made.

The most highly compensated postal employee in Fiscal Year 2013 was actually Ellis A. Burgoyne, the chief information officer and executive vice president. His $230,000 salary, $233,000 pension gain, and $7,000 in other compensation gave him a total package of

Leaders of the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee were scheduled to approve a wide-ranging postal reform bill. But an amendment from Sen. Tammy Baldwin (D-Wis.), backed by the powerful mailing industry, to strike a plan allowing higher postal rates appeared to be gaining support.

The committee tabled its deliberations at midday. Aides said the Baldwin amendment, along with another proposal from Sen. Rand Paul (R-Ky.) to remove a federal ban on guns in post offices, would require more study.

The delay underscores the challenges lawmakers continue to face as they try to satisfy businesses, labor unions, rural and urban

Unions representing U.S. Postal Service employees offered a stark rebuke of an updated, bipartisan postal reform measure, which now includes a provision to remove USPS workers from the federal employee health care system.

Sens. Tom Carper, D-Del., and Tom Coburn, R-Okla., the respective chairman and ranking member of the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee, introduced a substitute amendment to replace the 2013 Postal Reform Act they originally put forward in August, ahead of a committee markup scheduled for Wednesday.

The revised language would require the Office of Personnel Management to create a Postal Service Health Benefits Program, and to

The price of first-class U.S. postage stamps jumps from 46 cents to 49 cents today, the largest rate increase in 11 years. But two lawsuits; one to stop it, one to extend it, have already been filed in federal court.

The U.S. Postal Service requested the increase last year as way to help the sort-of agency recover from its staggering financial losses during the recent recession. On December 24, 2013, the Postal Regulatory Commission approved the request, but added a condition that it must phased out by 2016.

Arguing that "temporary" just won't cut

This week Structural Graphics features a loyalty campaign it created for Chase and a short Flipagram video highlighting Structural Graphics best moments and coolest projects of 2013.

Structural Graphics worked directly with the Staples team to produce a brochure with video capability for Staples Advantage B2B program.

The price of a First Class stamp will rise from 46 cents to 49 cents next Sunday, January 26. Someone who buys a Forever Stamp this week, for 46 cents, and uses it a month later in place of a normal First Class stamp will save 3 cents and have an annualized return on investment of 113 percent.

Next Sunday’s price increase for First Class letters has two parts. One cent of the increase is the usual, annual inflation-based postage hike. The other two cents are from a temporary “exigent” price increase that is slated to expire within two years.

This week Structural Graphics is featuring a New Year's card which it designed and mailed out to its clients. It uses Structural Graphics' brand new (patent pending) "Magic X-Ray Viewer" that was created by the company's paper engineer Rob Kelly.

On December 24, 2013, the Postal Regulatory Commission approved an exigent increase that shot postal rates up 6 percent and sent direct mail marketers and their accountants back to their strategic models and financial forecasts to remake plans for 2014. Mailers had hoped the PRC would soften the blow with a lower percentage increase and were disappointed by the Commission's ultimate decision to give USPS the rate it asked for.

To learn more about what was behind the PRC's decision, Direct Marketing News spoke with Commission Chairman Ruth Goldway.