PRNewswire: If they try it, they'll buy it. That's the message the U.S. Postal Service is sending to consumer packaged goods companies and other marketers with its Product Samples mail promotion. Designed to re-invigorate product sampling through the mail, the Product Samples promotion — running Aug.1 – Sept. 30, 2013 — gives marketers a 5-percent upfront postage discount on qualified mailings of product samples. Qualified samples must be trial-sized. Registration for the Product Samples mail promotion is now open.

The Reporter: On Saturday, the nation's 175,000 letter carriers will collect food donations left at the mailboxes of Americans in more than 10,000 communities and deliver them to food banks and other hunger relief organizations. To participate in the Helping Stamp Out Hunger drive, residents should leave a bag of nonperishable food by their mailbox on Saturday. Examples of non-perishable items include peanut butter, canned soup, canned meats and fish, canned vegetables, fruits and juices, boxed goods (such as cereal), and pasta and rice.

WWAY: As the US Postal Service continues to face significant financial problems, several area post offices will scale back hours.

Rewired Hollywood Reporter: Oscar de la Renta has dressed the likes of Cameron Diaz, Emma Watson, Jessica Chastain and Oprah. Now the Dominican designer is putting his polished and feminine fashion touch on paper with an exclusive runway-inspired collection for Paperless Post. Launching with 50 original designs, the collaboration draws from de la Renta's abode in Punta Cana as well as his fall 2013 bridal and ready-to-wear collections -- including a vivid pink silk faille ball gown with gold bullion embroidery that stunned New York Fashion Week. The design team at Paperless Post utilized fabric samples, embroideries and de la Renta's Chantilly, Alençon and Guipure laces to create the cards and stationary, all available as e-cards and through traditional methods like engraving, flat printing, letterpress and thermography. [EdNote: Now I ask you. Do you really give a hoot?]

Government Executive: Sequestration cuts and a dramatic uptick in U.S. Postal Service departures have slowed progress in clearing the backlog of federal retirement claims, officials said at a congressional hearing Thursday. Ken Zawodny, associate director for retirement services at the Office of Personnel Management, said the across-the-board spending cuts have forced a ban on overtime for employees in his office. Overtime has played a critical role in reducing the backlog, Zawodny said. Additionally, an unexpected number of Postal Service employees have retired due to buyouts and other attrition tactics to reduce the USPS workforce. These retirements have added to the burden for OPM workers. OPM had previously set the goal of processing 90 percent of all retirement claims within 60 days by July 2013, an objective Zawodny no longer expects to reach.

May 9, 2013 

 
The latest issue of the PostCom Bulletin is available online. In this issue:

• The Postal Service has responded to the Postal Regulatory Commission Chairman's Information Request (CHIR) in the Technology Credit Promotion filing before the Commission. These responses reflect what is currently on the record.
• According to William Holden, President & CEO of Holdenart, "it's essential to improve the customer's experience in any business when revenue is down. In the case of the USPS, that means providing more convenience and perfect delivery service. There is one thing that currently keeps this objective impossible: the address system. Even though an address is necessary to find a location, it's inconvenient to use and inefficient for actually contacting someone. Writing an address by hand is equivalent to calling a landline from a rotary phone. Mail Forwarding is similar to having a phone call rerouted from one landline to another. There are better ways to call and contact someone. The USPS has an opportunity to lead in a time when many believe it is becoming obsolete."
• Lawyer: USPS board members risked ‘removal' over ending Saturday mail delivery. USPS reports on gift card market test. Fight against Valassis/USPS deal going to Capital Hill. The plight of the Postal Service. Last of a breed: postal workers who decipher bad addresses. Service standards changes last July cause additional delays for non-local mail copies. Rep. Bonamici tells carriers of need for postal service reform. USPS submits letter in GameFly complaint to PRC. USPS backs off from price-hike gambit. No Sample Showcase activity for USPS.
• Updates from the Federal Register that affect the mailing industry.
• Updates from the Domestic Mail Manual.
• An update from the USPS Office of Inspector General.
• Postal previews.

The PostCom Bulletin is distributed via NetGram

Post & Parcel: Royal Mail has welcomed new safeguards on the number of postboxes it must provide across the UK. Ahead of possible privatisation over the next 12 months, the company agreed with regulators that the current minimum requirements for postbox provision was "not fit for purpose". Ofcom proposed back in March that Royal Mail should be required to ensure 98% of all households across the country are within half a mile of a post box. Royal Mail, which is expected to see some kind of privatisation within the next 12 months, will have to comply with its regulated service quality standards – including the proposed post box standards – under any change of ownership. Its standards also include requirements that 99.9% of delivery routes are completed each day, and that 99.9% of access points are served each day. The UK also has requirements in place for Post Office Ltd to provide a post office within a mile of 93.1% of the UK population, and within three miles of 99.7% of the population. [EdNote: While the wisdom of crafting a written universal service obligation should be self-evident, apparently we here in the United States prefer a more loosey-goosey approach. It's a recipe for disaster, particularly amidst an ongoing search for alternative postal business models.]

Yellow Advertiser: Council leaders have hit out at Royal Mail for closing five of its delivery offices in Southend and Castlepoint. Royal Mail announced on Tuesday, April 30, it would be closing down delivery offices and centralising them to the Southend delivery office, in Short Street, as part of its £1.5 million modernisation plans. The postal firm had already shut down the Great Wakering delivery office in March this year but announced further closures to Shoeburyness, Leigh, Canewdon and Rochford last week.

Times of Malta: Maltapost has reported a pre-tax profit of €1 million for the six months up to March 31, an increase of 27.5 per cent over the same period in the previous year.

Wall Street Journal: United Parcel Service Inc. is rolling out a social networking platform that will allow many of its workers to discuss work-related safety and health issues. The system is intended to help truckers, packers and management post questions and comments on health and safety concerns. Workers will also be able to bring safety hazards to the attention of supervisors and discuss best practices for avoiding health and safety issues such as repetitive stress injuries and driver fatigue. Workers will be encouraged to offer criticism–feedback that the company refers to as "constructive dissatisfaction," UPS CIO Dave Barnes told CIO Journal. While it's commonplace for companies to introduce internal social media platforms to foster greater collaboration and efficiency, UPS is attempting to use the technology to help improve dialogue between workers and managers. Getting employees to use enterprise social networks has proven difficult in many companies, but it may be even more challenging for UPS to get employees to adopt the tool broadly because of earlier tension between management and labor on safety issues. The company plans to roll out the network to the company's health and safety managers first, and make it more broadly available across the company over the two months. "We're going to have an open platform so we can hear the best ideas and [have] an honest conversation amongst UPSers who have issues and concerns to address," said Mr. Barnes. The platform "builds off what we have today in terms of improving site

May 8, 2013 

Sky News: Some of the biggest banks in the City face being frozen out of the privatisation of Royal Mail amid demands from institutional investors to minimise the number of firms working on the deal.

PRNewswire: Cenveo, Inc. today announced results for the three months ended March 30, 2013. The Company generated net sales of $432.3 million for the three months ended March 30, 2013, compared to $455.6 million for the same period last year. The decrease in net sales was primarily due to lower sales in our print and envelope segment as a result of decreased volumes from our primary print customers due to timing of current year production schedules versus the prior year, a journal plant closure that occurred in the first quarter of the prior year and lower office product envelope sales due to the transition of low margin accounts out of our operating platform. These decreases were partially offset by higher sales from our direct envelope customers due to our initiatives to increase market share. Net sales from our label and packaging segment were relatively flat for the first quarter of 2013 due to our decision to exit low margin business within our packaging platform along with a disruption due to a temporary loss of a press as a result of a fire in one of our packaging facilities, which has been offset largely by our e-commerce initiatives and new account wins in our label business.

DMM Advisory: Deferred Implementation Date for CASS™/MASS™ Cycle O The implementation date for CASS™/MASS™ Cycle O is being deferred to August 1, 2015. CASS and MASS certifications obtained during Cycle N will be valid through July 31, 2015. New certificates will not be sent; however, the Products Guide https://ribbs.usps.gov/files/vendors/ will reflect the new certification expiration date.

The Guardian: Desperate to reassure the public that selling this successful public-sector enterprise will be in our interest, the government, in the shape of Michael Fallon, the industry minister, has used all the powers he has at his disposal to "protect" what is called the universal service provided by Royal Mail. But those protections are not enough and will certainly not endure. Despite the promises, it will not be possible to guarantee a privately owned business will want to (or be able to) maintain six-days-a-week collection and delivery services throughout the country. With the cost of most stamps now deregulated, the only restraint on rocketing prices is the vague argument of "market forces". One just needs to look at their energy bill to see how the impact of those market forces is working in that regard.

PRNewswire: Valassis, a leader in intelligent media delivery, announced today that our Board of Directors approved an increase to our stock repurchase program authorization by 6.0 million shares of our common stock. As of March 31, 2013, we had approximately 1.6 million shares available for repurchase under the prior authorization.

Federal Times: Members of the U.S. Postal Service's board of governors risked losing their jobs if the agency persevered with ending Saturday mail delivery following passage of a final fiscal 2013 spending bill. That was the warning delivered by an outside law firm April 5–four days before the board pulled the plug on the plan. Proceeding with five-day mail delivery "would entail a number of risks," Jeffrey Bucholtz, a partner with King & Spalding, wrote in a 17-page opinion prepared for the Postal Service's legal department.

Initiatives To Improve Employee Availability – 13RG016DP000. In 2011, the Postal Service implemented the Delivering Results, Innovation, Value, and Efficiency (DRIVE) management process to improve business strategies. Accordingly, the Postal Service established 24 initiatives to improve Postal Service operations. One DRIVE initiative is to improve employee availability. This would reduce labor costs by returning employees to work from injuries and illnesses occurring in the workplace and improving attendance by reducing employee accidents and unscheduled sick leave. Additionally, the Postal Service is seeking a more cost effective worker's compensation program. The objective of this audit is to determine the effectiveness of the Postal Service's initiative to improve employee availability. What can the Postal Service do to ensure the success of this DRIVE initiative? Do you know of steps other companies or industries have taken to achieve similar goals?

Dead Tree Edition: According to D. Eadward Tree, "The U.S. Postal Service is apparently backing away from an attempt to use one-time payments to mailers as justification for permanent price increases."

CEP News (Courier-Express-Postal), published by the MRU Consultancy, has reported that:

The new service for digital communication between high-volume mailers and their customers, which was announced by Pitney Bowes more than two years ago, is apparently turning into a damp squib.
Good news for bpost: Last week, the EU-Commission approved annual subsidies for the provision of the universal service in the hundreds of millions for the period from 2013 to 2015. The state aid is primarily granted for the distribution of newspapers and magazines and the provision of financial services.
e-boks, the Danish post's e-service portal, remained on its growth track last year.
PostNord announced the takeover of two document management companies last week.
New Zealand Post now increased the pressure on the government in the negotiations about reducing the delivery frequency.
One of ten invoices in the B2C segment was sent electronically in Europe in 2012. E-invoices have the highest market penetration in the Nordics.
UPS wants to expand its presence in small cities and rural areas in the USA with a modified franchise model. The integrator's goal is to increase the number of UPS Stores outside of agglomerations considerably. A changed franchise model should help to reach this goal. According to the announcement, interested parties would have to pay up to 80,000 U.S. dollars less compared to franchisees in cities. One third of the U.S. population lives in rural areas according to the last census.
The Canadian government plans to restrict collective bargaining rights at state owned companies.
The Irish post lost its licence as the operator of the National Lottery after 26 years.
 

The MRU, founded in 1992, is the only consultancy in Europe, which has specialised in the market of courier-, express- and parcel services. For large-scale shippers and CEP-services in particular, the MRU provides interdisciplinary advice for all major questions of the market, as there are for example market entry, product design, organisation, and EDP.To learn more about the stories reported above, contact CEP News. (We appreciate the courtesy extended by CEP News to help whet your appetite for more of what CEP offers.)

Reuters: A group of senior Republican and Democratic senators proposed a new law on Tuesday to combat computer espionage and the theft of valuable commercial data from U.S. companies. The four powerful senators - Democrats Carl Levin and Jay Rockefeller and Republicans John McCain and Tom Coburn - joined together to launch the Deter Cyber Theft Act. The proposed law aims to combat the theft of intellectual property from U.S. companies, which spend billions in research and development only to be targeted by foreign firms and countries that illegally access their data and use it to compete against them. General Keith Alexander, head of the U.S. National Security Agency and commander of the U.S. Cyber Command, has called the growing problem the "greatest transfer of wealth in history." A divided U.S. Congress has not approved much legislation in recent years, given a string of partisan fiscal battles. But with lawmakers on both sides of the political aisle acknowledging that cyber security is a rising concern, this bipartisan measure - sponsored by leading senators - will likely draw plenty of interest.

News Times: The recently installed CEO of Pitney Bowes, the iconic Stamford-based mail technology and communications firm, has been on the job for five months, and he has big plans for the business. To show his belief in its future, he is investing $1 million of his personal fortune in the company. "It demonstrates my incredible belief in the company, and I'm putting my money where my mouth is," Marc Lautenbach, who took over the top job at Pitney Bowes after a 28-year career at IBM, said in an interview last week. In the short time that Lautenbach has been on board, he has identified areas that need improvement and made personnel changes, said Shannon Cross, an analyst with Cross Research. "He has definitely shaken up Services Management, replacing one-third of senior management. He's continuing to reduce costs and streamline business on the mail meter side," she said, commenting that there is an increased focus on acquisitions the company has made in software services, including MapInfo. "It's going to be all about execution to outrun any declining returns on the meter side." The decision to hire Lautenbach reflects Pitney Bowes' increased emphasis on promoting technology beyond mail services, said Christopher Bruhl, president of the Business Council of Fairfield County. "That's definitely where they are headed," Bruhl said.

eCommerceBytes: eBay Canada warned sellers that the Canada Post Tracked Packet service was temporarily unavailable on PayPal. Canadian sellers have been dealing with problems since PayPal Canada launched the services on its label printing flow on April 9, 2013, reporting that they were overcharged for postage when using PayPal to print their shipping labels. eBay confirmed the billing errors last month. The Canadian postal service introduced new services this spring. Canada Post retired the Small Packet - USA Ground service and introduced two trackable services for U.S. and International shipments: Tracked Packet - USA and Tracked Packet - International.

Brand Republic: Parcelforce Worldwide has appointed Proximity London to handle its CRM account, following a competitive process.

Columbia Missourian: The enactment of the 2006 Postal Accountability and Enhancement Act, designed to reform the postal laws of the United States, created a shift in the financial health of the U.S. Postal Service. The total number of domestic mail pieces delivered by U.S. Postal Service significantly decreased beginning in 2006. The enactment of the act, increased use of email and greater competition from private delivery services all led to a drop in the total number of domestic mail pieces delivered by the U.S. Postal Service. [EdNote: Man, that's the first time I've ever seen anyone try to tie the drop in mail volume to the enactment of PAEA. Correlation is NOT causation. Basic Stat 101]

PRWeb: Globally, postal services play a key role in providing access to basic communication and transaction services. The worldwide postal infrastructure has been shrinking for over two decades, in terms of both outlets and numbers of full-time staff. At the end of 2011, the total number of post offices stood at 662,701, of which 439,376 were staffed by officials of the designated operator and 223,325 were managed by people from outside the designated operator. The traditional letter post service is under pressure from new technology, including the internet and (increasingly mobile) telephone services. Rising numbers of consumers and businesses are sending and receiving bills and invoices via the internet and making payments online or by telephone, instead of using post office services. The substitution of paper-based bills and statements, and bill payments by check, has been a key phenomenon for over 10 years. With the decline in mail volume, post offices are looking at opportunities to support themselves and compete with other operators, both in the postal and financial sectors. Operators are becoming increasingly involved in providing or expanding their range of financial services, either to increase revenue or due to pressure from governments to increase access to basic financial services. With millions of people regularly visiting and using post offices, postal operators are looking to make additional use of their extensive retail presence and trusted brands. In 2011, financial services accounted for 11.7% of postal operators' total income. 

WOKV: Crooks could be using your mailbox to get into your bank account. Private investigator David Hodges says thieves are temporarily forwarding mail from victims' homes to their own homes and canceling the request after getting their hands on bank statements. Hodges recently uncovered a huge identity theft ring with hundreds of victims and federal charges on suspects as far away as Boston and Atlanta. [EdNote: It's time to go to more secure clusterboxes instead of curbside mail boxes.]

National Association of Postmasters of the U.S.: Prior to leaving the U.S. Capitol for a one-week recess, Rep. David Camp (R-MI), chair of the House Ways and Means Committee, introduced a bill that would devastate the Federal Employees Health Benefits Program (FEHBP). H.R. 1780 would force the entire federal workforce out of the FEHBP and into coverage offered by the Affordable Care Act (aka ObamaCare). It is unclear if this congressional attempt to dismantle the FEHBP will have any impact on the USPS' legislative advocacy for its own health plan, or on the White House's FY 2014 budget proposal to modify certain FEHBP options.

The Palm Beach Post: It's a post office, not a ‘pot' office, woman learns after getting busted for allegedly trafficking in drugs in Riviera Beach.

Standart News: The Bulgarian Postal Service is launching a small loans business. As of today, the Bulgarians may apply for loans of 100 to 3,000 levs at the desks of 238 post offices in 130 tons, cities and villages across the country. The monthly installments on the loan are paid at the same desk. This new service is called Postal Easy Credit. The application procedure takes about 60 minutes and can be carried out on the phone as well. After they are approved, the applicants can withdraw the money from the nearest office of Bulgarian Post against an ID. The loans will be serviced by Easy Credit.

DMM Advisory:  May DMM Update. Postal Explorer® (pe.usps.com) is your source for up-to-date mailing standards. The Domestic Mail Manual (DMM®) is fully searchable on Postal Explorer and features fly-out menus, cross-reference links, and an extensive subject index. On May 6 we updated our mailing standards to include the following changes:

• Clarification of Picture Permit Imprint Promotion Eligibility. We revised 709.3.3.4 to clarify the eligibility of residual pieces for the promotional discount for Picture Permit imprint mailings. We published this information in the May 2, 2013, Postal Bulletin.
• Folded Self-Mailer Clarifications. Based on mailer feedback, we revised 201.3.0 to clarify standards for folded self-mailers. We will publish this information in the May 16, 2013, Postal Bulletin.

  At the Postal Regulatory Commission:  Docket No. R2013–6 "Notice Of Price Adjustment (Technology Credit Promotion)" RESPONSES OF THE UNITED STATES POSTAL SERVICE TO CHAIRMAN'S INFORMATION REQUEST NO. 1 (May 7, 2013)

USPS New Proposed Priority Mail Enhanced Insurance Coverage The Postal Service will soon file a request with the Postal Regulatory Commission (PRC) to provide enhanced insurance coverage with Priority Mail. The goal of this change is to improve the competitiveness of our Priority Mail product. If the enhanced insurance proposal is approved, insurance coverage will be provided free of charge at a level of either $100 or $50 (depending on the method of payment used). Additional insurance coverage may still be purchased above these amounts. This change will not impact our other package offerings, including Express Mail or our International services. Since the Postal Service will be decreasing the price of insurance for most Priority Mail items, this change will have minor price cap implications for the Special Services class of mail which will be set forth in our filing

May 7, 2013 

Asbury Park Press: DataUniverse Local, State and Federal information at your fingertips - US Postal Service Employees, 2013 [EdNote: Let's you know who makes what.]

Caixin Online: The Ministry of Finance and the State Post Bureau last year issued a draft guideline for starting a general postal service fund, an idea that had been discussed for three years. The proposal would see delivery companies pay a levy to fund unprofitable postal services in remote regions and could generate as much as 1 billion yuan in 2013. The draft is being reviewed by the State Council. However, the proposal departs from the reform direction set out by the new government. In the government reform plan issued by the State Council in March, the cabinet vowed to "reduce transfer payments and charges." The plan required government agencies to "improve the non-tax government revenue system by abolishing improper administrative fees and government fund projects, as well as reducing charges." China's massive government fund system is in urgent need of reform. Such funds now are the second largest contributor to government revenue, trailing only taxation. In 2011, there were nearly 500 such funds, but less than 50 of them were included in government budgets. The rest have a vague status. Their collection, management and spending lack transparency and supervision, thus creating room for corruption.

In an article provided to the PostCom Bulletin, Holdenart CEO William Holden wrote: When conversation comes up about the USPS, it often seems negative. Likely, it's the nature of the business and the fact that we're living in a technologically advancing time like no other in history. We take it somewhat for granted that we can text and get email on smartphones.   Customers expect mail and package delivery and are never surprised when it happens, but they tend not to forget when it doesn't. It can be a thankless service, but it's a little more complex than that. Talk to anyone who's moved and they rarely say that Mail Forwarding worked great. Even the occasional error hurts US Postal's reputation. The Mail customer could have a better experience in the age of technology and convenience."

Brand Republic: Royal Mail is offering clients the ability to enable direct mail recipients to link to a website through a smartphone using a digital watermarking system instead of quick response codes. The system allows rich media to complement direct mail without using embedded chips or quick response codes, but instead using triggers contained within mail art and design. It was developed by the Royal Mail's Door to Door Unit and digital agency Digital Space.

Brand Republic: In an age of information overload, digital marketers could learn a lot from the personalisation and value pursued by direct mailers, writes Kim Benjamin. Hardly a month goes by without some development in digital being hailed as the next big thing in marketing innovation. In an era of information overload, however, digital channels - and in particular mass email marketing - are in danger of alienating, rather than attracting, consumers. Mail volumes, however, have been falling year on year, and developments in the medium, from behavioural targeting to improved personalisation, suggest that direct mail is now at the forefront of customer relationship management (CRM).

GMA News: As snail mail continues to decline, Philippine Postal Corporation (PhilPost) has diversified its services from mail delivery to logistics through a partnership with DHL Express Philippines. ‘We are transforming the postal work to logistics services from mail delivery," PhilPost chairman Cesar Sarino said during the DHL-PhilPost Partnership press conference held in Makati City. "The traditional mail is declining," said PhilPost CEO and postmaster general Josefina dela Cruz. According to PhilPost data, it delivered 156,165,480 pieces of mail in 2011, down 34 percent from 206,107,210 in 2010, while data is not yet available for 2012. "We are now a logistics company. You send, we deliver. We deliver your mail, we deliver your goods, we deliver your money," dela Cruz said.

U.S. Postal Service Office of Inspector General Audit Reports Update

• Click-N-Ship For Business (Report Number DP-AR-13-005)
• Domestic Negotiated Service Agreements (Report Number MS-AR-13-007)

\ YLE: Postal services across Finland will be affected by a walkout at a sorting office in Helsinki. Workers are angry over plans to outsource sorting operations to the Dutch postal firm Post NL Shore.

MyFinances.co.uk: The government has been criticised by the Labour Party for its proposed sale and privatisation of Royal Mail. Shadow business secretary, Chuka Umunna claimed that the coalition is using the proposed £3 billion sale to help improve the UK's public finances and that the standard of services could be negatively affected. Mr Umunna said that the Post Office's universal service is at risk: "The Tory-led government is putting party politics ahead of the interests of taxpayers by rushing to sell off Royal Mail on the cheap. "There are many questions, very few answers and so far little justification has been given for doing this fire sale now. The Government has failed to demonstrate why a sale this year will deliver best value for the tax payer." added Mr Umunna. The sale is expected to go ahead despite opposition from postal workers and the unions.

Dutch News: PostNL booked a €410m loss in the first quarter due to a large write-off on its interest in courier company TNT Express. The postal company wrote off a total €440m on its 30% interest in TNT Express following the collapse earlier this year of a takeover deal with American peer UPS following objections from Brussels. The collapse led TNT's share price to plunge 50% on the Amsterdam stock exchange. PostNL's shares were down 34%. The Dutch postal market continued to shrink in the first quarter and was down 9.5%, the company said in a statement.

BBC: Staff at some of the UK's largest post offices are taking industrial action in a growing dispute over closures, franchising, jobs and pay. The day-long strike on Tuesday will cover about 370 Crown Post Offices - 70 of which are due to be franchised or partnered with a retailer. Crown Post Offices are the bigger branches found on high streets. The Post Office said the action was extremely disappointing and that the strike would affect 3% of branches. The network is losing £40m a year, so officials plan to close a handful of Crown Post Offices and have begun the process of looking for retailers to run 70 more.

The Star Press: Hundreds of Delaware County residents — or as many as a couple of thousand — didn't receive spring property tax bills through some still-unexplained snafu. Much of the problem seems centered on Hamilton Township north of Muncie, where 2,617 tax bills were mailed to property owners but few were delivered.

The Chief: About 50 postal workers and their supporters May 1 marched from Washington Square Park to the Peter Stuyvesant Post Office in the East Village to protest the planned closing of the station, one of five the USPS plans to shutter in Manhattan and the Bronx.

The Journal: Rural mail services are set to be safeguarded with a new Ofcom proposal on public access to post boxes. The postal regulator is seeking a new requirement that 98% of all households across the UK should be within half a mile of a post box. Current stipulations cover less than half of the nation's 121 postcode areas and only 15% of its geographic area. And Royal Mail last night welcomed the Ofcom proposals, which it says will protect postal services in rural communities.

Long Beach Business Journal: Businesses in Greater Long Beach, specifically those near the Los Angeles and Orange county line, could see delays in destinating mail processing as United States Postal Service (USPS) operations are scheduled for relocation from the Long Beach facility to Los Angeles starting July 1.

May 6, 2013 

  At the Postal Regulatory Commission:  

• Docket No. C2009-1R - COMPLAINT OF GAMEFLY, INC. "Consistent with the Commission's "expect[ation] that [the Postal Service and GameFly] will make the most of this opportunity to fashion a remedy [to the PRC Docket No. C2009-1 Complaint] acceptable to both without the unnecessary use of time or resources,"1 today the Postal Service files a letter it submitted to GameFly. This letter, dated May 3, 2013, "describes the Postal Service's position regarding the processing of GameFly's DVD mail, if it were to be submitted as letters eligible for the First-Class Mail one-ounce letter rate." More specifically, it states that "[t]o the extent possible and practicable, the Postal Service is prepared to process GameFly letters using methods that avoid letter machine processing to substantially the same degree experienced by DVD mail submitted by other mailers who present mail with similar packaging that qualifies for the letter rate." This letter is not a settlement offer and was submitted outside the scope of the settlement process."
• Docket No. C2009-1R - COMPLAINT OF GAMEFLY, INC.  "Report Of Settlement Coordinator"

Daily Astorian: Before a packed room Friday, U.S. Rep. Suzanne Bonamici, D-Ore., told the state convention of the Oregon State Association of Letter Carriers that Congress needed to do more to reform problems with the U.S. Postal Service. "Congress has really delayed some significant changes that need to be made on the postal issues," she said. "Some at the post office have tried to eliminate the six-day delivery, talking about voiding layoff protections in the labor contracts, working on outsourcing delivery service. "Enough is enough. Congress, the letter carriers, we all need to be working together to help rebuild this vital link between people and communities."

Wall Street Journal: A bill that effectively would end tax-free online shopping appears to be sailing smoothly toward Senate passage Monday but will hit choppier waters in the Republican-controlled House, where antitax sentiment is stronger. Opponents portray the bill as a tax increase and say it would burden small online businesses with complex tax-collection responsibilities. Supporters say the bill would enable states to collect sales taxes that already are owed, not create a new tax or raise tax rates.

Courier, Express, and Postal Observer: Cloud Computing Journal reported today that "After more than two years of promising the imminent arrival of Volly, Pitney Bowes … has failed to materialize the cloud that was supposed to replace postal mail, especially posted bills." According to the story, Pitney Bowes has pushed back the launch in North America until no earlier than late in 2013 after first announcing Volly's launch in September of 2011. Currently Pitney Bowes appears to be focusing on getting Volly up and running as a product of Australia Post. Australia Post was supposed to implement Volly in October 2012 but the system is still not operational when the Cloud Computing Journal was written.

TMC News: GrayHair Software, Inc., a provider of services for business mailers, announced that it is adding a Global Address Quality service to its new Global Solutions package. According to a release, the Global AQ application is part of GrayHair's mailing service platform, SelectSolutions, which provides on-demand access to mission critical needs for business mailers. The application uses full postal code databases taken directly from the postal authority in each country allowing mailers the benefits of improved deliverability and lower costs. For those companies looking to reduce their global footprints, these enhanced address hygiene techniques reduce the waste associated with returned mail.

Cornwall Free News: The announcement this week by Tony Clement, Canada's capable Treasury Board President, that representatives of his department would attend collective bargaining sessions at Crown corporations, is entirely welcome. The entities he singled out for careful examination in search of budgetary economies were Canada Post, Via Rail and the CBC. These all present different administrative challenges, but the idea is a first positive step in the long-overdue overhaul of this entire process. The largest problem here, and doubtless the last one that will be tackled, is that there simply should not be any collective bargaining at all in the public sector. Former Quebec premier Maurice Duplessis was correct when he said 65 years ago: "The right to strike against the public interest does not exist." For many years, the often explicit understanding was that public employees would be less well-paid than those in the private sector, but would have greater job security and, in general, less challenging employment. The unionization of the public service consigned that rule of thumb to the proverbial dust-bin of history, and public-service unions began leading organized labour in militancy, while feasting on the weakness and cowardice of political employers.

AMEInfo: Emirates Post Group and Somalia have signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) under which Dubai will act as the hub for mail forwarding, as the strife-torn African nation prepares to resume postal services after a gap of 23 years.

National Newspaper Association: Accelerated plant closures will create more disparity The U.S. Postal Service last month announced that it would move up 55 plant consolidations scheduled for 2014 into 2013, creating many more changes in service standards that have bedeviled newspapers. That will bring the total number of plant consolidations to 166 by year-end, a recipe for disaster with so much change in one year. Closings further complicate life for newspaper publishers, who find that each plant closure subjects a larger share of subscribers within their region or state to additional delays under so-called "Modern Service Standards" placed into effect July 2012. The consolidations, resulting in partial or full closure of some processing plants serving even larger SCFs (Sectional Center Facilities) than ever before, are drastic actions in response to worsening finances of USPS.

The Guardian: Labour has accused the government of desperately pushing ahead with the £3bn "fire sale" of Royal Mail in order to "raise funds to cover the gaping hole in George Osborne's failed economic plan". Chuka Umunna, the shadow business secretary, said there was a "distinct whiff of desperation" surrounding the privatisation of the world's oldest postal service. He accused the government of rushing into a saleout of a desire to quickly reduce a £245bn overshoot in government borrowing. He warned that a rushed sell-off could lead to "sub-standard services and people being ripped-off".

The Globe and Mail: Canadian retailers who have delayed launching a robust e-commerce website are running out of time and face "their last wake-up call," suggests a new report on the state of online shopping in Canada. The report by the U.S.-based Forrester Research, funded in part by Canada Post and Shop.ca, is based on surveys with 1,103 Canadian online shoppers and concludes that U.S. e-tailers are becoming better positioned to steal web revenues from homegrown companies.

Express: Thousands of boxes in remote and countryside areas currently have no protection from removal. It means people living outside towns and cities are at risk of being left with no access to postal services. Some parts of the UK are covered by regulations requiring a post box to be within half a mile of 98 per cent of homes and delivery points. Royal Mail must provide "other means" of access to postal services for the remaining two per cent. But these rules do not apply to 61 of 121 postcode areas of the country. Under new regulations set out by regulator Ofcom, protected status would be extended to these areas.

Singapore Business Review: As domestic mail volume plummets again. Singapore Post Limited (SingPost) has announced its unaudited results for the fourth quarter and full year ended 31 March 2013, revealing rising costs amidst 6th consecutive quarter of decline in domestic mail volume. SingPost though said it has seen some promising revenue growth from the consolidation of new subsidiaries and Group-wide e-commerce related activities.

May 5, 2013 

New York Post: Postmen are too scared to deliver letters and packages to one of Brooklyn's most crime-ravaged neighborhoods, a US Postal Service worker told The Post yesterday. "The neighborhood is bad," the worker said outside the Brownsville Station Post Office on Bristol Street. "I wouldn't want to go into those buildings." Snail mail that goes undelivered finds its way back to the post office, where it can stew for several days until a carrier decides to deliver it — or residents are forced to come pick it up. "Have you seen this neighborhood? It's on the news every day," the terrified employee said. About 50 angry residents — organized by the neighborhood chapter of New York Communities for Change — gathered in front of the post office yesterday to protest the epidemic of late mail and parcels that never arrive. Letter-starved residents acknowledged their nabe — rife with gang violence — is frightening but said that's no excuse for them to miss out on their mail.

May 4, 2013 

New York Times: Improved scanning technology now allows machines to "read" virtually all of the 160 billion pieces of mail that moved through the system last year. When mail-sorting machines around the country encounter addresses they cannot read, an electronic image of the bad handwriting or faded address is transmitted to operators here who view them and try to fill in the missing information by typing in a letter or a number. Once corrected, the information is returned to the processing plant where the mail is sent on to a local post office, ultimately ending up where it is supposed to go. Over the years, the Postal Service has become the world leader in optical character recognition — software capable of reading computer-generated lettering and handwriting — sinking millions of dollars into equipment that can read nearly 98 percent of all hand-addressed mail and 99.5 percent of machine-addressed pieces.

From the Federal Register:

Postal Regulatory Commission
NOTICES
New Competitive Products ,
26404–26405 [2013–10583]		[TEXT] [PDF]
New Postal Products ,
26405–26406 [2013–10585]		[TEXT] [PDF]
Postal Service
NOTICES
Product Changes:
	Parcel Return Service Negotiated Service Agreement ,
	26406 [2013–10587]	[TEXT] [PDF]
	Priority Mail Negotiated Service Agreement ,
	26406 [2013–10603]	[TEXT] [PDF]

  NBCWashington: Montgomery County police are investigating the rape of a postal worker in Silver Spring, Md., Thursday afternoon.

Huffington Post: Ralph Nader -- The United States Postal Service is in a freefall due to poor management, a starkly shortsighted, paralyzed Congressional leadership, and the steady march of right wing ideologues. Corporate competitors who advance corporatization have severely eroded the historic institution created by Benjamin Franklin; one that currently delivers over 150 billion pieces of mail a year and walks and drives all neighborhoods.

Bloomberg Businessweek: U.S. Postmaster General Donahoe: Judy Woodruff

Inland Press: With the postal regulatory battle lost, newspapers are looking to Congress and the courts to stop the discount deal the United States Postal Service (USPS) struck with the big direct mailer Valassis. The National Newspaper Association (NNA) is organizing a summit in March with postal experts and policy makers—including Postmaster General Patrick R. Donohoe—plus an afternoon of lobbying on Capital Hill to try to roll back the so-called Negotiated Service Agreement with Valassis, or at least prevent future NSAs that put newspapers at a competitive disadvantage.

OIG Audit: Government Travel Card – 13RG017DP000

"The Government Travel Card System is a program offered by the Postal Service in which an individual government travel card, with automatic teller machine (ATM) privileges, is issued to designated employees for use while on official travel. In accordance with Postal Service Handbook F-15, Travel and Relocation, this travel card must not be used for personal business. The Postal Service assigns each postal District a travel card coordinator who is responsible for answering traveler questions, enrolling travelers in the travel card system, and monitoring traveler transactions. We are initiating an audit survey to review the Government Travel Card System. Our objective is to determine whether Postal Service employees are using their travel card in accordance with Postal Service policy. This survey is designed to identify travel card transactions which indicate employee misuse; specifically, purchases or ATM / cash withdrawals while not on official travel. We believe this is an opportune time for us to help the Postal Service enhance controls over travel card usage. However, your input is the key to our success. Are there any features, options, or controls that would be effective in preventing employee travel card misuse? Do travel card coordinators have the time and resources necessary to monitor employee travel card transactions?"

  At the Postal Regulatory Commission:

• MT2011-2 Data Collection Report for Gift Cards - FY13, Q1-2
  http://www.prc.gov/docs/86/86901/Data Coll Rpt FY13 Q1-2 final.pdf
• R2013-6 Motion of ABM, The Association of Business and Media Companies, Supporting the United States Postal Service Response to Order Extending Deadline for Comments http://www.prc.gov/docs/86/86904/Docket%20No.%20R2013-6.docx
  http://www.prc.gov/docs/86/86904/Docket No. R2013-6.
• R2013-6 Joint Motion of the NAPM, AMEE, NNA, MMA, NPPC and Idealliance Supporting Respones to Order Extending Deadline for Comments  http://www.prc.gov/docs/86/86905/R2013-6 Motion.pdf

May 3, 2013 

DMM Advisory: IMb™ Services Update

• Reminder: PostalOne!® Release 34.0.1 — A release to repair known issues in PostalOne! ® Release 34.0.1 will be deployed during the scheduled maintenance window from 4 a.m. through 8 a.m. CDT on Sunday, May 5, 2013. This will be done in a rolling fashion and there will be no planned outage during the software deployment. There is no new Mail.dat® client with this release. This release will address known issues including display and reporting issues. Additional details will be posted on RIBBS under Major/Minor Releases/2013 Releases/April 2013.

• Reminder: Full-Service System Upgrade — The Full-Service application will undergo a major system upgrade from midnight Saturday, May 4, through midnight CT, Tuesday, May 7, 2013. During this period, Full-Service mailers will not receive or have access to new data (ACS Feedback Reports; Container, Tray, and Bundle Visibility reports; Mail Data Quality reports). Starting Tuesday, May 7, 2013, Full-Service mailers will begin to receive and have access to new data, but the data will not be current until Tuesday, May 14, 2013. Access to existing data will not be affected during the upgrade period.

 
The latest issue of the PostCom Bulletin is available online. In this issue:

• Folded Self-Mailers: Review Your Understanding Reserve your Webinar seat now at: https://www1.gotomeeting.com/register/147180689
• In a move to comply with the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (PPACA), the U.S. Postal Service today awarded UnitedHealthcare a contract to support a Postal Service health plan for all eligible non-career employees.
• The Postal Regulatory Commission has seen lots of activity this past week that is worth nothing.
• According to postal commenter, Gene Del Polito, "despite the fact that the Postal Service has made great strides in reducing its workforce complement and reorganizing its network and services to produce services that adequately and more cost-efficiently meet the nation's continuing postal needs, much of what needs doing can only be undertaken if Congress does its part in re-fitting the nation's postal laws."
• PostCom continues its coverage from last week's Postal Vision 2020 3.0 conference held in Washington, DC. The third annual Postal Vision 2020 conference, it focused on the challenges faced for a 21 century Postal Service in a rapidly st evolving technology environment. PostCom completes its conference coverage this week, focusing on postal-digital initiatives already underway in the U.S. and abroad, as well as e-government developments, entrepreneurial forays, and more.
• In addition to providing an incubator for policy discussions on postal-digital topics, last week's PostalVision 2020 conference featured an interesting collection of entrepreneurs who shared some of their ideas and innovations. Here are highlights from some of the entrepreneurial participants.
• This year's PostalVision 2020 conference also included presentations on a variety of e-government initiatives, an area the USPS already will play a role in through its FCCX pilot.
• Another new feature of last week's PostalVision 2020 conference was a panel comprised of 18-24 year olds representing the next generation, who discussed their communication needs and what they think the Postal Service needs to do to meet those needs.
• USPS Board to meet in open session. USPS awards air cargo network contract to FedEx. Fed Reserve Banks announces new study to examine nation's payment usage. UPS averts teamsters strike risk with new 5-yr contract. DeLauro angered over USPS' early closing of processing center. Pitney Bowes boss seeks more changes, after grim first quarter. Microsoft promo turns Forbes Mag into a free Wi-Fi hotspot. Quad/Graphics invests in Pixability to tackle online video market. USPS: The next Amtrak? Union challenges POStPlan, demands jobs.
• Updates from the Federal Register that affect the mailing industry.
• Updates from the Domestic Mail Manual.
• An update from the USPS Office of Inspector General.
• Postal previews

Hey! You've not been getting the weekly PostCom Bulletin--the best postal newsletter anywhere...bar none?  Send us by email your name, company, company title, postal and email address. Get a chance to see what you've been missing.

The PostCom Bulletin is distributed via NetGram

CNET: Text messaging in the U.S. is on the decline, according to a survey (PDF) released Thursday by CTIA-The Wireless Association. The numbers of SMS text messages sent and received nationally dropped from 2.3 trillion in 2011 to 2.19 trillion in 2012. While 2.19 trillion may seem like a colossal number and not much less than 2.3 trillion, it is still nearly a 5 percent drop. According to a report released last week by research firm Informa, one of the reasons that texting may be declining is because several chat applications -- such as Apple's iMessage, WhatsApp, Viber, and BlackBerry Messenger -- are becoming users preferred method of communication.

The Baltic Course: Estonian state-owned postal concern Eesti Post posted a turnover of 12.6 million euros in the first quarter of the year 2013, a growth by 9% in a year.

Fox Business News: U.S. employment growth likely picked up in April, but probably not by enough to counter other signs that suggest the economy has lost a step in recent weeks. Nonfarm payrolls are expected to have increased by 145,000 jobs, according to a Reuters survey of economists, after braking to a nine-month low of 88,000 in March. Taken together, the job creation pace over the past two months would still be far below the average of 200,000 for the first two months of this year. "That would be consistent with an economy that's losing growth momentum but hasn't fallen out of bed," said Millan Mulraine, a senior economist at TD Securities in New York.

WISN: Menomonee Falls residents are being told not to send out mail from their individual mailboxes, but to use secure U.S. Postal Service boxes instead. RELATED Women charged in formula theft Newborn baby's body found in cooler Madison police arrest Illinois fugitive... Shootout in West Milwaukee caught on... Waukesha man accused of sparking... The Police Department said three people have reported suspected fraud after their mail was taken between April 5 and April 16. Thieves have taken mail containing checks from curbside mailboxes and then use the victim's personal account information. Police said they have leads but have no one in custody.

Wellington Scoop: New Zealand Post is a vital public service and there is no justification for reducing mail delivery to three days a week, says the union for postal workers, the EPMU. The call follows claims from NZ Post that it would need Government subsidies unless it is allowed to slash mail delivery services in half. EPMU national industry organiser Joe Gallagher says there is no need for drastic cuts to delivery. "Any talk about subsidies at this stage is pure speculation and scaremongering. NZ Post is actually returning a profit and will continue to do so for some time even without any changes.

Inside Indiana Business: The small rural town of Greensboro in Henry County is a good place to live in these tough, economic times. Compared to the rest of the country, Greensboro's cost of living at 9.4 percent is lower than the U.S. average. And the town is growing — slightly. With a population of 143 people, Greensboro has grown 6 percent since 2000. All of these factors work well for expanding USPS services in the town. On Friday, May 3, 2013, the 41st Village Post Office in the Greater Indiana District will open at the Longhorn General Store, 210 N. High St., Greensboro, IN 47344. VPOs are operated by local businesses contracting with the Postal Service and offer a range of popular postal products and services including stamps and flat-rate packaging. Several VPOs are scheduled to open in the Greater Indiana District in the near future.

Bloomberg Washington Summit: Re the US Postal Service -- Cardin commented "I don't think outsourcing saves money for government." I would agree, but it means returning to a government with more bodies, paid less, and limiting the influence of lobbyists. It also means reducing complexity in laws and regulations. He also commented "I believe that the role of the Post Office is universal service and overnight delivery is part of that." One twitter commenter wrote: USPS Corbett is asked if we even need the postal service. Quick answer: Yes. Audience quietly whispers: "Dinosaur." USPS CFO thought there was a long-term solution. He wants regulatory changes, allowing delivery of alcohol, and other things prohibited now. He wants more independence from current regulations.

May 2, 2013 

  At the Postal Regulatory Commission:   Docket No. R2013–6: Notice Of Price Adjustment (Technology Credit Promotion) -- "The Postal Service respectfully recommends that the Commission extend the comment deadline to May 17th."

Air Cargo World: Economic growth is expected to continue in the U.S. throughout the remainder of 2013, say the nation's purchasing and supply executives in their spring 2013 Semiannual Economic Forecast. The forecast offers hope for improvement in the airfreight sector. Expectations for the remainder of 2013 continue to be positive in both the manufacturing and non-manufacturing sectors. These projections are part of the forecast issued this week by the Business Survey Committee of the Institute for Supply Management (ISM).

SBWire: 2020 Foresight Report: Post Office Financial Services New Market Study Published at MarketResearchReports.Biz

Radio Praha: With the volume of traditional mail severely undermined by electronic communication the Czech Republic's postal service, Česka Pošta, has seen its profits drop in recent years. Now, newly approved legislation liberalizing the country's postal services has made matters worse, putting ever greater pressure on Czech Post to expand into new areas of business or bow out.

Attention Postal One! Users:   Full-Service System Upgrade — The Full-Service application will undergo a major system upgrade from midnight Saturday, May 4, through midnight CT, Tuesday, May 7, 2013. During this period, Full-Service mailers will not receive or have access to new data (ACS Feedback Reports; Container, Tray, and Bundle Visibility reports; Mail Data Quality reports). Starting Tuesday, May 7, 2013, Full-Service mailers will begin to receive and have access to new data, but the data will not be current until Tuesday, May 14, 2013. Access to existing data will not be affected during the upgrade period.

Did you miss it? I mean, the PostCom webinar on "Accessing & Understanding Mail Quality Reporting"? If you did, you still can view the webinar recording and check out the slides.

Sowetan Live: The Post Office and labour have disagreed over converting 8000 casuals to permanent employees.

Washington Post: The Postal Service next year will offer healthcare coverage to its temporary employees to comply with the Affordable Care Act, also known as ObamaCare. The agency announced on Monday that it would pay United Healthcare an estimated $239 million annually to provide coverage for about 35,000 "non-career employees." In a new release, the Postal Service said the contract value "may vary significantly depending on actual non-career employee plan participation."

From the Federal Register:  Postal Service PROPOSED RULES Balloting Materials Postage , 25677–25678 [2013–10347] [TEXT] [PDF]

Bloomberg Businessweek: The U.S. Postal Service is projecting a loss of as much as a $6 billion for the year as it keeps pressure on Congress for help, Postmaster General Patrick Donahoe said. The government agency that's supposed to support itself through postage sales lost about $3 billion in the first half of its fiscal year, from Oct. 1 through March 31, Donahoe said in an interview airing this weekend on Bloomberg Television's "Conversations With Judy Woodruff." That decline is projected to double by the year's end, which is Sept. 30, he said.

American Postal Workers Union: The APWU challenged management's "POStPlan" at an arbitration hearing that began on May 1. The union charged that the plan, which resulted in a drastic reduction in the hours of operation at thousands of post offices, also deprives the APWU members of thousands of jobs, in violation of the 2010-2015 Collective Bargaining Agreement.

CBC News: The federal government has introduced legislation that gives it sweeping powers to intervene in the collective bargaining process of Crown corporations, and even in the scale of executive salaries. The provisions, which are part of the omnibus budget implementation bill tabled Monday, say that government ministers on the Treasury Board Secretariat will be able to impose "any requirement" on Crown corporations at the bargaining table. The new legislation also says employers at agencies such as the CBC, Canada Post, Via Rail and over 40 other Crown corporations must seek approval from Treasury Board before fixing working conditions for both unionized and non-unionized employees.

HQComoxValley: Adapt or die. That's the message for Canada Post, as they face massive financial losses if they stick with the current business model. "Unless we make changes, fundamental changes, the company stands to lose about a billion dollars a year, beginning in 2020" says Anick Lozier, spokesperson for Canada Post. "The mail is changing, because people are using it differently, because of the digital alternatives." Canada Post has been making minor changes to the way it delivers mail, as the number of letters they move continues to decline, and the cost of delivering those letters continues to increase. A recent Conference Board of Canada report outlined 6 options for Canada Post to move on, in order to secure its future. Now those options are available to the public to give feedback on.

Government Executive: Back in 2010, as the health care reform debate was raging on, Senate Republicans proposed legislative language requiring lawmakers to drop their insurance coverage in the Federal Employees Health Benefits Program and enter the newly created exchange market. The proposal was a political gambit, attempting to force Democrats to cast an embarrassing vote to opt out of one of the Affordable Care Act's major provisions. Democrats called the bluff, however, and the amendment passed easily. Three years later, members of Congress and their staffers are faced with the reality of losing FEHBP coverage.

Bronx News 12: The U.S. Postal Service has unveiled a new way for customers to ship and receive packages in Brooklyn. The service is called Go Post, and the only place it's currently available is at the Williamsburg Station Post Office on South 4th Street. Using the new service is easy. Packages are delivered directly to a Go Post locker. When the parcel is delivered, customers get an email saying it's ready for pick up. Customers can pick up the package directly from a locker. No waiting in line is necessary.

As PostCom President Gene Del Polito put it in a recent contribution to Mailing and Systems Technology magazine, "Over the past three years, I've written more articles and items on postal reform than even I can remember. Despite the repeated assurances from those on Capitol Hill who are supposed to handle such things, virtually nothing has been done to address some of the ills that are plaguing the nation's postal system and hampering the post's ability to function effectively as an engine for mail-based commerce."

May 1, 2013 

Fox News: Lance Armstrong is facing the federal government in a legal fight with tens of millions of dollars at stake. The cyclist's best chance at protecting his personal fortune likely rests in convincing a jury the government has already earned plenty from him. Armstrong is being sued by the Justice Department to recover at least the $40 million the U.S. Postal Service paid to sponsor his team. The government claims Armstrong was "unjustly enriched" by using drugs to win the Tour de France seven times. Armstrong's legal team say the contract was worth more than $100 million in worldwide exposure for the agency. Armstrong could still settle the case before going to trial, which likely would not start until 2014. Previous settlement talks broke down earlier this year. [EdNote: And this is the kind of mess an agency creates for itself when it does something that causes people to shake their heads, and then defends itself by spinning yarns about the oodles of benefits it's received.. It's called getting hoisted by your own petard.]

  At the Postal Regulatory Commission:

• R2013-6 Chairman's Information Request No. 1
  http://www.prc.gov/docs/86/86887/CHIR%20No.%201.pdf
  http://www.prc.gov/docs/86/86887/CHIR No. 1.docx

"To clarify the United States Postal Service Notice of Market-Dominant Price Adjustment (Technology Credit Promotion), filed April 16, 2013, the Postal Service is requested to provide written responses to the following questions. Answers should be provided to individual questions as soon as they are developed, but no later than May 7, 2013....." [EdNote: And there are lots of them.]

 Sacramento Bee: A Sacramento postal carrier has been fired for allegedly discarding mail in a large trash bin. The U.S. Postal Service Office of the Inspector General was notified Monday of the alleged dumping of mail in the parking lot garbage bin at an apartment complex in the 2700 block of Meadowview Road. The mail was recovered and was delivered.

Irish Times: An Post's most unprofitable business is its postal delivery service, the State company's incoming chairman told an Oireachtas committee today. The company last week revealed that it lost over €39 million last year, €17 million of which was directly attributable to its operations. Chairman designate, Christophe Mueller, told the Oireachtas Joint Committee on Transport and Communications today that the most unprofitable element of the business is the "last mile", that is, the final leg of its postal delivery service. He warned that the company has to tackle the problem of maintaining services such as this while keeping them affordable for its customers. Mr Mueller indicated that post codes could be part of the solution.

Hudson Valley Press: The following was submitted by the Mid-Hudson Area Local American Postal Workers Union: Recently the United States Postal Service notified the Mid-Hudson Processing Plant, located in Newburgh, NY, that they were beginning the process of moving mail 96 miles away to Albany to be worked. The latest notice says that the USPS will have this done by September, 30, 2013. In an attempt to save Mid-Hudson and the community in general, the local APWU has initiated a formal complaint to the Postal Regulatory Commission (PRC). We are seeking the PRC to enforce the Postal Accountability and Enhancement Act (PAEA) and make the USPS revise all Area Mail Processing (AMP) studies and give complete and un-redacted copies to the union. We are also requesting a new public hearing, as the AMP study for the Mid-Hudson P & DC is over 2 years old.

Office of the Inspector General:

• Report Number DP-AR-13-004(R): U.S. Postal Service Data Governance Audit Report

"The U.S. Postal Service operates one of the largest information technology infrastructures in the world and has an inventory of 795 computer applications. Data from many of those applications are collected into data repositories and shared widely within the Postal Service. Using those assets to make informed decisions is particularly important for the Postal Service, as declining revenue, the struggling national economy, and the increasingly digital nature of the world threaten its core business. One of its key strategies is to leverage its strengths by integrating data to improve business decisions. In fiscal year (FY) 2012, the U.S. Postal Service Office of Inspector General (OIG) conducted a series of audits related to how the Postal Service uses data to manage its operations. We also examined data governance, the process to ensure that data are managed and fully utilized, in six best-in class companies to identify best practices that the Postal Service might adopt to optimize resources and efforts. Our objective was to determine whether the Postal Service was effectively managing and using data in a manner that assists employees in achieving strategic and operational goals....."

• The sale of domestic and internal money orders represents over $100 million in revenue annually for the U.S. Postal Service. In fiscal year (FY) 2012, revenue generated from sales of these money orders was $129 million. As a control to identify errors, the Postal Service each month performs a reconciliation of the cashed amount and the face value of a sold money order. During FYs 2010 through 2012, reconciliation differences averaged $2.1 million annually. We initiated an audit to determine whether money order controls are sufficient to detect fraud in a timely manner....

Wall Street Journal: You're using a smartphone, and today that thin slab has roughly the same computing power as the powerful desktops of 2005. Economists can't quite find them. European Pressphoto Agency Facebook's Sheryl Sandberg, one of many smartphone power users. By that I mean they can't find how these mobile devices are improving worker productivity, which computers have been doing quite ruthlessly for the last 70 years. The official U.S. productivity numbers are low when compared with the stunning 3% yearly gains of the first Web era, roughly 1995 to 2004. In fact, annual productivity growth since 2004 is about 1.5%, below even the long-term average of 2.25%. It's as if a time-wasting flock of Angry Birds has buried productivity like a worm. [EdNote: The trouble today is "smart" phones aren't really being used as commerce enhancement tools. They're being used as personal entertainment devices. In time, humanity will entertain itself into extinction.]

Press Release: To better serve small business owners in all areas of the country, The UPS Store® introduced today its Main Street franchise model designed to support opening The UPS Stores into small towns and rural communities within the U.S. The new The UPS Store franchise model allows qualifying franchisees to save $20,000 in fees and an additional $40,000-$60,000 in other The UPS Store franchise costs compared to Franchisees in more urban locations. According to 2010 Census data, nearly one-third of U.S. residents live in rural areas. "We have heard firsthand from our small business customers how important it is for them to support their local communities," said Chris Adkins, vice president of franchise development at The UPS Store, Inc. "Our Main Street model can help make sure small businesses in rural locations have access to the products, services and support they need."

The Asahi Shimbun: Toshiba Corp. announced on May 1 that its wholly owned subsidiary, Toshiba Asia Pacific Ltd., has been awarded a contract to supply Singapore Post with a completely integrated automated postal system. Under the 3.6-billion-yen ($37 million) contract, the electronics company will supply a system that can sort and cancel letters and packages as well as recognize addresses and barcodes on mail. The contract follows Toshiba's success in winning a contract from Post Serbia in January.

Kam City: The Post Office has launched a search for retailers to run 70 Crown branches, a day after workers went on strike over the move. The company said it was expecting strong interest from independent and national retailers wanting to operate a Post Office branch from their premises. The Post Office said it had already received over 150 expressions of interest from potential retail partners who wanted to benefit from increased footfall into their store and the income they receive from selling and transacting postal products.

4-Traders: Quad/Graphics, Inc., a leading global printer and media channel integrator, has purchased a minority interest in Pixability, a YouTube-certified marketing and advertising company that works with brands, e-commerce firms and agencies to improve video marketing results. Leading brand marketers and publishers will have access to a powerful solution that allows them to easily and effectively incorporate online video with any of their marketing channels to engage prospects and customers - from awareness to action through to customer support.

Direct Marketing News: Concerning the future of the U.S. Postal Service (USPS), one thing is abundantly clear: It is going to change, sooner rather than later, and in significant fashion. "The postal service is a dinosaur," Postal Regulatory Commission (PRC) General Counsel Stephen Sharfman told marketers at the recent Direct Marketing Association 2013 DMA in DC Conference. "It's still roaming the earth, but the question is how long it will continue to do so and what role it will play." One way or another, direct mailers will have to get used to the notion of a scaled down Postal Service. "It is going to shrink, it has to shrink," Sharfman concluded. "As a model, what comes to mind is passenger rail service. It's preserved by Congress, important to some, but certainly not as important as it used to be."

Yakima Herald: Something has to give with the U.S. Postal Service, a self-supporting government agency that is struggling with digital competition and is handcuffed by externally imposed constraints.

CEP News (Courier-Express-Postal), published by the MRU Consultancy, has reported that:

A decline in the core business halved Itella's earnings in the first quarter of 2013.
Austrian Post's ambitious plans in the Hungarian letter market (CEP-News 16/13) suffered a setback. The regulatory authority NMHH has rejected the application of the post's low cost subsidiary Feibra for a licence.
Spain's competition authority Comisión de la Competencia (CNC) imposed a fine in the millions on the post once more
Posten Norge faced a hefty drop in profits on a slightly decreased turnover in the first quarter of 2013.
Poste Italiane apparently abused its dominant position on the market again. According to the authority, the post did not charge VAT on individually negotiated contracts with shippers.
A recently published study draws a bleak picture of Canada Post's future.
The Irish post plunged into the red on stagnating revenues in the last business year.
Canada Post pile on the legal conflict about the alleged copyright infringement of postal codes by company Geolytica.
The Brazilian post significantly improved revenues and earnings in 2012.
The French government plans to reduce the scope of the universal service. Apparently the government paves the way for a reduction of the funding and 'a downward adjustment of the tasks that are of public interest'.
PostNord further strengthened its market position in the Swedish logistics market.
The Thai post expects a rise in revenues and profit this year due to the booming e-commerce.
UPS is moving up a gear concerning the planned setup of its parcel shop network in Germany.
According to yet unconfirmed media reports, CTT Correios could obtain a banking licence in the short term.
Deutsche Post is entering the mobile payment market in co-operation with software specialist Valuephone.
The British postal union Communication Workers Union still clings to the boycott of Royal Mail's downstream access mail.
SingPost replaces all of its sorting equipment.
South Korea is going to adjust its address system to western standards.
The establishment of a new regulatory authority for the CEP market is becoming more and more likely in Pakistan.
 

The MRU, founded in 1992, is the only consultancy in Europe, which has specialised in the market of courier-, express- and parcel services. For large-scale shippers and CEP-services in particular, the MRU provides interdisciplinary advice for all major questions of the market, as there are for example market entry, product design, organisation, and EDP.To learn more about the stories reported above, contact CEP News. (We appreciate the courtesy extended by CEP News to help whet your appetite for more of what CEP offers.)

From the Federal Register:  Postal Service NOTICES Meetings; Sunshine Act , 25490 [2013–10344] [TEXT] [PDF]

PC World: "E-signatures: The complete guide to paperless signing"

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