Mailing/Fulfillment - Postal Trends

Regardless of what happens in the Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia, the appeal is likely to be a winner in the court that really matters for the Postal Service—Congress. Win, lose or draw, there’s not enough money at stake in the exigency case (“only” $2.3 billion) to fix the Postal Service’s finances.

The only potential solutions big enough to stanch the bleeding seem to be reforming retirement-benefits payments that shift money from USPS to the federal government, reducing days of delivery, or some kind of radical downsizing. Congress is the key,

Postage rates are likely to increase about 1.7% in January as a result of a letter that the Postal Regulatory Commission's chief lawyer issued today. When the PRC established its rate-making rules, "little attention was given to the possibility that during periods of deflation, the Postal Service might accrue negative rate authority," PRC General Counsel Stephen L. Sharfman acknowledged in a letter to his counterpart at the U.S. Postal Service. That's why the Postal Service sought Sharfman's advice in how to interpret the law and regulations that limit increases in most postal rates to changes in the Consumer Price Index.

The U.S. Postal Service is teetering on the brink of financial collapse and is very close to running out of money. Its fate appeared sealed on Tuesday when Congress decided not to give USPS about $4 billion in financial relief as part of the temporary spending measure it will pass before the recess.

So what does this mean for mail customers only concerned about sending and receiving mail? It means the possibility of delayed mail deliveries if the Postal Service runs low on cash and has to furlough workers.

The U.S. Postal Service’s cost to deliver a magazine or newspaper has been rising twice as fast as inflation for more than two decades, but don’t blame employee pay levels. The real culprit is declining productivity, the Postal Service’s own numbers indicate.

“The tendency of Periodicals costs to increase much faster than inflation...has continued with few interruptions since FY1986,” postal expert Halstein Stralberg wrote recently. As a result, the Postal Service has repeatedly hit the Periodicals class with rate increases that exceed both inflation and those for most other classes, as it is trying to do again in the

By Sen. Susan Collins. This postal rate hike, far beyond the inflation rate, is inconsistent with the law. The 2006 postal reform act was intended to produce pricing predictability and stability, allowing the Postal Service to raise rates up to the consumer price index without going through a litigious, expensive process.

As the principal author of that law, I know, however, that the Postal Service has the authority to increase rates above the inflation rate only if it demonstrates “extraordinary or exceptional circumstances.”

Postal officials set out recently to justify big rate increases for catalogs and publications, but all they proved was that they have been mismanaging the handling of flat mail for more than a decade.

Arguing that Periodicals (magazines and newspapers) and Standard flats (mostly catalogs) are money-losing products, the U.S. Postal Service’s exigent rate request includes above-average hikes for Standard flats and Periodicals – 9% for some magazines.

But if those products are indeed losing money, an industry coalition responded recently, it’s only because of “the extraordinary inefficiency and lack of economy of the Postal Service’s handling flat-shaped...

When it comes to mailing, there are two essential types of software: presort and post-presort. Mailers who use presort software alone do not realize the tremendous advantages that can be achieved by combining presort and post-presort software.

Presort (or “pre-sort”) software focuses on mailing list maintenance, address verification, address quality, and mail sortation.

Post-presort software specializes in managing data describing the mailing (piece weight, thickness, entry point, etc.), reports, and automating the process of transmitting the data to PostalOne! for Intelligent Mail Full-Service, FAST, mail verification, distribution, and postage accounting.

Depending on the type of consumer you are, you may do different things with the familiar blue Valpak envelope you receive in the mail every four weeks. Either you toss it as junk mail, use a pizza coupon here and there, or go on a shopping spree with the discounts you just unearthed. The $14.8 billion company, started by former Wisconsinite and entrepreneur, Terry Loebel, is betting you at least give its offers a good, hard look.

And if you don't open that envelope, Valpak is hoping to hit you online or through your mobile device.

The final phase of the Move Update rollout was completed in January, and the USPS is now assessing penalties on all mail that does not comply with the Move Update standards.

The Postal Service has decided to liberalize the “ride-along” rules that have  prevented product samples and certain other advertising gimmicks from running in U.S. magazines, sources said today.

The new regulations would reduce the postal cost of many of those advertising pieces by 90% or more.