Mailing/Fulfillment - Postal Trends

Don’t look now, but a key piece of the U.S. Postal Service’s downsizing drive this year is at risk of getting smoked before it even gets started. It’s the piece that involves closing or consolidating 48 mail processing plants in July and August.

As part of that effort, the Postal Service is seeking a legally required advisory opinion from the Postal Regulatory Commission on a related proposal to revamp first-class mail delivery standards.

In a 29-page complaint filed last week, the (American Postal Workers) union called on the PRC to bar the Postal Service from proceeding until the opinion comes out.

Brown Printing has strengthened its distribution offerings by adding Fairrington Transportation’s co-mail capabilities to its network. Brown will also continue its long-standing relationships with Print and Mailing Solutions (PAMS) and Clark Distribution Systems for comprehensive and efficient mail and newsstand consolidation.

Chastising the Postal Regulatory Commission for taking 12 months to issue an opinion on ending Saturday delivery, Sen. Thomas Carper (D-DE) is asking the panel to work faster on other proposals to streamline the U.S. Postal Service. A drawn-out process for considering such changes would “run the risk that the Postal Service could be forced to act on its proposal before the Commission has had a chance to share its thoughts and findings,” Carper wrote.

That could result in USPS making “serious mistakes in implementing a service change that might have been avoided had postal managers had the benefit of

Last month, Postmaster General Pat Donahoe announced the launch of a “digital solutions group” intended to sniff out potential money-makers in the online sphere. More recently, the USPS inspector general has singled out one in particular: Putting the agency in the digital authentication business.

In a nutshell, the idea is to let the Postal Service verify that people and businesses are who they say they are online. Lest you start imagining Big Brother in a blue uniform, let’s note that—at least in the IG’s conception–the use of any such service would be voluntary, accompanied by “clear, comprehensive and concise” privacy guidelines.

New York Congressman Brian Higgins sent a letter to the U.S. Postal Service (USPS) Board of Governors Chairman Thurgood Marshall, Jr. asking the board to take immediate action to replace Postmaster General Patrick Donahoe. “Under the Postmaster General’s leadership, the USPS displayed a complete lack of transparency and accountability throughout the process, which casts serious doubt that the current leadership is up to the task of leading the Postal Service through these challenging times.”

Sprint Nextel is switching to a two-in-one reusable envelope, the ecoEnvelope, which allows customers to receive and remit payment using the same envelope—making bill payment easier, minimizing mail costs, reducing paper use, and the lowering environmental impact of bill paying

For every dollar it spends on delivering newspapers and magazines, USPS claims it only receives 75 cents in postage. Meanwhile, notes the Columbia Journalism Review, magazine publishers are growing worried about the increase in customer complaints regarding lost, damaged and late issue. They fear coming changes will only make matters worse.

Maybe the Postal Service would be better off loosening its grip on the mailbox monopoly by granting an exception for periodicals. (After all, whoever heard of a money-losing monopoly?) Not only would the agency lose unprofitable customers, it could actually charge the publishers a fee for each mailbox they use.

During July and August, the Postal Service is offering a 2-percent discount on Standard Mail and First-Class Mail that includes a two-dimensional barcode or other print/mobile technology. Mailers must register for the Mobile Commerce and Personalization Promotion by Aug. 30.

The U.S. Postal Service ended its second quarter with a net loss of $3.2 billion, compared to a net loss of $2.2 billion for the same period last year. The quarter also saw a decline in Standard Mail, attributable to a drop in direct mail advertising spending across a number of sectors as sales prospecting slowed in certain sectors, advertisers used more selective targeting methods and competition from electronic advertising media increased.

Welcome to my everything-is-backward, what-are-we-coming-to, bizarro blog this week. Ever since the Senate passed the postal reform bill that delays elimination of Saturday delivery by two years and slows the shutdown of mail processing facilities, it seems like everything is the exact opposite of what I would think.