Mailing/Fulfillment - Postal Trends

The whole “God helps those...” phrase came to mind when I saw the press release put out by the U.S. Postal Service. Seems Mr. ZIP is now hawking ancillary products to boost the ol‘ coffers. Just in time for Christmas, the USPS is offering a pair of last-minute stocking stuffers

Postal rates for the majority of mail are likely to rise about 1.8% early next year because the Postal Regulatory Commission has sided mostly with the U.S. Postal Service in a dispute over price caps. Determining exactly what will happen to First-Class, Standard, and Periodicals rates as a result of the PRC’s complex ruling, issued late Friday, is a bit difficult to discern.

The PRC ruled that the inflation-based price cap for the next round of price increases would be based on comparing the average Consumer Price Index for the most recent 12 months to that of the previous

Those who are urging Congress to reform the Postal Service's pension and retiree-benefits overpayments would do well to drop the word “give” and instead learn a new one: “invest.” The suspicion in Congress is that money given to the Postal Service (even if, as in these cases, it's money that rightfully belongs to USPS) would just be poured down a rathole. What Congressman will stick his neck out for something that could be mislabeled a “Postal Service bailout” if he’s afraid of having to explain in a few years why USPS is in trouble again?

From 2008 through 2010, work hours fell 14 percent to about 1.2 billion. But pay raises and other expenses cut into the savings, and total personnel costs fell only 6 percent, to $49 billion. USPS spokesman Greg Frey noted cost-of-living adjustments are required by union contracts. He also said payments aimed at encouraging employees to resign or retire early reduced savings.

“It’s very clear that addressing costs and labor costs and getting them in line with revenues are going to have to be part of fixing the deficit problem,” said Frederick Hill, spokesman for Rep. Darrell Issa, R-Calif.

Senator Susan Collins, R-ME, introduced a new bill aimed at helping the Postal Service regain its financial footing and upped the ante that some sort of bill to fix the Postal Service's legacy costs might pass in the New Year. The Senate now has two bills to reform the Postal Service to consider. Collins’ bill comes on the heels of a comprehensive postal reform bill introduced by Senator Thomas Carper (D-DE), and chairman of the the Senate Subcommittee on Federal Financial Management, Government Information, Federal Services and Information Technology.

The subcommittee held a hearing today to consider

The Postal Service lost $8.5 billion last year, despite deep cuts of more than 100,000 jobs and other reductions in recent years. The man leading the Postal Service through this tumultuous time is Postmaster General John Potter, who is retiring at the end of this week. But first he joined the Federal Drive for an exit interview.

Before he leaves, Potter has developed a 10-year plan for the future of USPS, including getting it out of the current financial crisis. Bringing the Postal Service back to black must begin, Potter said, with changing the way the pension system

Of the 290 business mailers surveyed by USPS’s Office of Inspector General, 58 percent said they did not use Full Service IMbs (Intelligent Mail barcodes) because of high start-up costs and software requirements. Only 23 percent of the surveyed mailers said they were using Full Service.

“The man hours that go into making a mailing Full Service compatible are not worth the postage discount,” said one large mail owner (more than 1 million pieces annually). Another estimated it would have to spend more than $100,000 on new print heads and software upgrades to be able to create Full

Because the Postal Service is seeking a ruling on how to calculate its rate cap, mailers will probably have to wait a few weeks before learning what rate increases are in store for next year.

USPS asked the Postal Regulatory Commission yesterday to determine “the amount of unused rate adjustment authority when rate adjustments are more than 12 months apart.” The issue is especially murky because the PRC’s rules for determining the inflation-based price cap on most postal rates (including First Class, Standard, and Periodicals) did not anticipate periods of deflation, as occurred in late 2008.

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To understand how Congressional leaders exert influence over the supposedly independent U.S. Postal Service, consider the agency’s mail-processing centers in West Virginia. As long as the late Sen. Robert C. Byrd, sometimes known as the Prince of Pork, ruled the Senate Finance Committee, the 11 mail-processing centers in his home state were safe. Though West Virginia had more such centers per capita than nearly any other state, the Postal Service’s efforts to consolidate its processing network somehow bypassed the Mountain State.

But all that has changed in the past five months, during which the Postal Service’s AMPS program