Mailing/Fulfillment - Postal Trends

The exigency rate increase on the price of postage, recently approved by the Postal Regulatory Commission, amounts to little more than a short-term stopgap measure. Even worse, it will ultimately cause further damage to the long-term viability of the Postal Service.

Under the law, the Postal Service is not allowed to raise prices above the rate of inflation unless there are serious exigent circumstances. These increases are meant to create better business in times of need, but unfortunately, this increase is not the silver bullet the Postal Service’s budget requires. It won’t solve the financial crisis, nor will it create a

This week Structural Graphics highlights a Christmas card that it produced for Swedish company Iggesund Paperboard. Structural Graphics also recently took part in an event in New York City, A Night with Invercote, hosted by Iggesund showcasing remarkable design in print from top designers around the world.

Joe Schick wasn't surprised by the lumps of coal left in mailers' stockings by the Postal Regulatory Commission on Christmas Eve. He'd hoped a reduced number might be put into play by the PRC, but he didn't blink when he learned that the PRC went for the full 4.3 percent increase. Instead, Quad/Graphics' long-time director of postal affairs had the resigned attitude of a man whose wife had run off with his best friend and stole his car to do it.

The fact that the PRC limited the exigency to two years or the collection of $2.8 billion in added revenues

The U.S. Postal Service hoped to boost deliveries per work hour from 41.0 to 42.7 during FY2013, but the annual report said it fell short partly because so many new employees had to be brought up to speed. Having more mail volume than anticipated (a decline of less than 1 percent, versus 5 percent the previous year) also hurt productivity, despite improving USPS’s finances, the report noted.

The report does not discuss another productivity measure—mail pieces delivered per work hour—but that appears to have changed little during the year.

Downsizing of the workforce, consolidation of facilities and carrier routes, and greater automation

This week Structural Graphics is featuring a dimensional folder from UC Riverside that it used to send out information about its different colleges to prospective students. The piece starts off as a seemingly flat printed folder, but when you open it up, an intricate pop-up immediately rises from the center.

A proposed compromise toward ending Saturday U.S. mail delivery is falling flat with unions while getting the support of a Senate committee chairman leading a push to advance stalled postal legislation.

The idea is meeting resistance from postal unions, which want to keep Saturday delivery and the jobs that go with it. Legislation that would relieve the money-losing service of billions of dollars in annual health-care and pension obligations and allow other changes is stalled in both chambers of Congress.

There’s always next year. Such has become the refrain for the often discussed, much sought after prize of overhauling the U.S. Postal Service. Lawmakers were again set to deliver postal reform in 2013, and at various points of the year set goals of March, August and Thanksgiving for passage.

But after the latest in a series of setbacks, the window for acting on legislation in 2013 has closed, and reformers will have to renew their fight after New Year’s.

What the Postal Service needs is mostly in the hands of Congress, which structured USPS in the pre-internet days to be a cash cow for the federal government. Times have changed, and the cash cow has been milked so dry it can’t replace 25-year-old delivery vehicles that are held together with duct tape and rubber bands.

But the laws and practices that drained the Postal Service of billions of dollars remain unchanged. And, more than ever, USPS needs less not-in-my district Congressional interference that stymies reasonable downsizing of its distribution network.

This week Structural Graphics is featuring a new advertising medium called variable media mail that combines variable voice and video messaging with variable data print to create a memorable connection with an audience.

Are you ready for waves of changes in 2014? Jeffrey Peoples of Window Book explains why now may be more important than ever to implement Intelligent Mail Full-service.