Postal News for December 31, 2006

For an alternative perspective on the day's postal news, you might want to check out the PostalNews.com web site. For additional coverage on the international scene, check out the PostInsight web site.

As Business Week has noted, "Every holiday season, UPS Inc. and FedEx Corp. bank on booking fat profits as people buy and ship holiday gifts, and while this year the delivery companies appear to have withstood a moderating economy, they still had to contend with a fair bit of meddling from Mother Nature."

The Review & Observer has reported that "small businesses fear changes to the Royal Mail's postal system will cost them more money, according to a survey of nearly 200 firms carried out by the Forum of Private Business (FPB). While the current system is based purely on the weight of your items, the new system will be based on both the size, weight and thickness of the item. Prices will be based on three size formats - letter, large letter and packet."

ETNA has reported that "The number of SMS messages sent on December 31 and January 1 is expected to increase five-fold to 70 million messages while the number of e-cards sent during the same period would rise by 30-40 per cent. The majority of electronic well-wishers are aged from 20 to 29, while young people below age 20 are the second largest group using SMS and e-cards. Unsurprisingly, older people rely more on traditional postal communication to deliver their New Year wishes to friends and families."

One writer for the Tallahassee Democrat reported that "This year, as the holidays loomed, I decided not to automatically dump the catalogs in the recycle bin. Instead, I held on to each one and kept a running count. Between Nov. 9 and Christmas Eve, exactly 100 catalogs were lugged over to my house by the overworked U.S. Postal Service. I'm not exaggerating the number. It was 100 on the nose. Bundled together, they weighed 26.2 pounds. It would cost $67 to mail them to myself via Express Mail. Wasn't the Internet supposed to make all of this obsolete?

According to The Chronicle, "As the only company contracted by the U.S. Postal Service to collect and deliver mail to four coastal islands, Griffing is responsible for transporting the mail from Port Clinton to each island once a day. Delivering mail is one of the first ways that pilots prove they have the aptitude to tackle the challenges that come with flight, and it is often the first rung on a professional pilot’s ladder."

The Stamford Advocate has noted that "Pitney Bowes CEO celebrates a decade of leadership and change."

The New York Times has reported that "when Congress approved the Postal Accountability and Enhancement Act this month, Pitney’s future brightened even more. Michael J. Critelli, Pitney’s chief executive and a longtime proponent of postal reform, recently elaborated on the future of mail — and of Pitney."

Postal News for December 30, 2006

In the opinion of the Battle Creek Enquirer, "While you are unlikely to notice any difference in the mail coming to your home, some changes signed into law last week for the U.S. Postal Service could have a long-term impact on helping to stabilize postal rates and operations. The new legislation represents the first major changes in postal operations in decades, and advocates say the changes are necessary and should help to reduce or delay future rate increases."

The Denver Post has reported that if you're "looking for a package from United Parcel Service. Be prepared to sit tight. The private mail carrier was struggling to deliver hundreds of thousands of packages waylaid by last week's blizzard when the latest storm hit Thursday. The company said it wouldn't decide until early today whether to halt operations temporarily, leaving still more hundreds of thousands of packages in limbo."

The BBC has reported that "Postal services in Stoke-on-Trent have been disrupted after sorting staff staged an unofficial walkout. Workers at the Burslem delivery office walked out early on Friday in protest over a colleague's suspension for alleged "aggressive behaviour". A Royal Mail spokesman said the action meant no deliveries would be made on Friday in the ST6 postcode area." [Aren't wildcat strikes fun?]

The Eagle Tribune has noted that "Salem, N.H., resident Bill Fournier is glad his Social Security check is directly deposited into his bank account. If it wasn't, he'd be without his monthly income at least until Wednesday. The delivery of regular mail will be halted after today until Jan. 3, because President George Bush declared Tuesday a federal holiday in remembrance of former President Gerald Ford, who died at age 93 earlier this week. Wil Carpenter, vice president of the Merrimack Valley Chamber of Commerce, said the timing of the federal holiday could be bad news for some businesses."

The Associated Press has reported that "Wisconsin's revenue agency said Friday that it sent as many as 170,000 forms to taxpayers with mailing labels mistakenly printed with their Social Security numbers. The state Department of Revenue was scrambling to alert taxpayers to be on the lookout for the mailings." [And folks are worrying about mail order firms disclosing private information...???]

According to Multichannel Merchant, "The U.S. Postal Service's proposed rate changes and new guidelines from just about every other major parcel carrier mean that no matter what type of product you ship or which carrier you're using to deliver goods to your customers, you can expect to pay more to ship your parcels in 2007."

Postal News for December 29, 2006

The following reports posted on the U.S. Postal Service Office of Inspector General website today.  If you have additional questions concerning the report, please contact Agapi Doulaveris at 703.248.2286. 

• FT-AR-07-002 - Audit Report - Opinion on the Postal Service's Special-Purpose Financial Statement dated November 17, 2006 http://www.uspsoig.gov/FOIA_files/FT-AR-07-002.pdf
• DR-MA-07-002 - Management Advisory - Delivery Confirmation for Inbound International Mail dated November 21, 2006 http://www.uspsoig.gov/FOIA_files/DR-MA-07-002.pdf

The Financial Times has reported that:

• One year after the introduction of full competition in the country's postal market, everyone appears to be a winner. Customers are benefiting from record levels of service and big business mailers are enjoying substantial savings in costs. Eighteen new postal operators have been licensed and have seized a bigger share of the market than the regulator expected, handling more than 10 per cent of the mail. Royal Mail remains the dominant force in the industry despite losing its monopoly. Its competitors hand over most of the mail to the state-owned operator for final delivery, leaving it with 97 per cent of postal revenues.

• Orange-clad postal workers are expected to hit the streets next year, putting the state-owned Royal Mail under pressure. TNT, a subsidiary of the privatised Dutch postal group, says it wants to send postmen and women wearing orange uniforms - TNT's corporate colour - out to deliver mail to homes and workplaces in selected cities. The company already handles more than 5 per cent of UK mail, through contracts with business customers to collect and sort their post before handing it overfor delivery by Royal Mail under so-called "downstream access" arrangements. 

Iceland Review has reported that "Employees of postal service Íslandspóstur are busy locking all outdoor mailboxes in Reykjavík and nearby towns to prevent sabotage on New Year’s Eve. Experience has shown that some people like stuffing live fireworks into mailboxes on New Year’s Eve to get an extra explosion, damaging the mailboxes in the process. The mailboxes will not be unlocked until mid-January."

According to Forbes, "More than ever this holiday season, U.S. shoppers left the driving to the delivery guys, opting to make their gift purchases online and trusting to shipping companies to get the goods to their destinations on time. Online retailers seem to have had a better season than more traditional merchants."

From PR Newswire: "comScore Networks, a leader in measuring the digital age, today released its estimates of consumer online non-travel (retail) spending at U.S. sites for the 2006 holiday season through Tuesday, December 26."

According to The Guardian, "Royal Mail's letters business is a conundrum. A state-owned organisation operating in a free market. Charged with making profits but obliged to offer a universal service delivering to 27m addresses six days a week. The competition wants to dig deep into its market share and for a year has had the freedom to do so. Top management wants to open up the share capital to the workforce - a proposal that leaves the government facing a judgment that would stretch Solomon."

As the Greeley Tribune has noted, "Just when it seemed like holiday mail was caught up after last week's blizzard crippled transportation in the state, mail carriers are preparing for the second wave of snowfall expected to hit today."

It's winter, folks. Be sure to check the Postal Service's National Mail Service Updates to get the latest information on the impact of winter weather on mail service.

Postalnews.com has noted that the National League of Postmasters has acknowledged that "There has been considerable controversy regarding mitigating factors over the last few weeks, and especially during this last week."

Aftenposten has reported that "a test of Norway's postal service Posten revealed that their service falls far short of requirements."

According to the Associated Press, "the postal service prepares for new Potter." [Nooooo. Not Jack....Harry!]

NewIndPress has reported that "The New Year is knocking the doors and it’s time now for sending cards to greet the near and dear and all those who matter. And the postal department has come up with e-greeting facility. Under this new initiative, the customer can choose from a set of designs and designate the address to which the greeting has to be sent. The postal department would deliver the greetings for New Year, Eid and season’s greetings that are uploaded on the e-post site quickly. The cost of this e-post is just Rs 10." See also the Hindustan Times.

Economic Times has reported that "The Department of Posts (DoP) and the government-owned Bharat Sanchar Nigam (BSNL) will jointly put ATMs in rural areas across the country. In rural areas, post offices will be used as sites for providing towers. BSNL will also use services of postmen for collecting telephone bills in the remote areas."

Postal News for December 28, 2006

A copy of the Winter issue of the International Mailers Advisory Committee (IMAG) Cross-Border Report and a Special Issue of the Cross-Border Report has been posted on the IMAG web site.

The most recent copy of the Quebecor World Logistics newsletter, LogisticSolutions- Issue #47 has been posted on this site.

According to MediaWeek, "The Internet is coming into its own as a shopping destination, new figures released Wednesday show. The findings come from the Top 40 Online Retail Satisfaction Index produced by research company ForeSee Results of Ann Arbor, Mich. As expected, online perennial favorites, including Amazon, Netflix, LL Bean and QVC, held their top positions as shoppers’ favorites."

The U.K. Postal Services Commission (Postcomm) "has hailed the first year of full competition as a promising start but warned there are more challenging times ahead for postal operators."

Die Welt has reported that "Deutsche Post, the German postal service operator, has reached an agreement with the services sector union Ver.di regarding working hours, thereby warding off the threat of strike action. Under the agreement, Deutsche Post employees with civil servant status, numbering around 60,000, will continue to work only 38.5 hours per week in the next six months, rather than 41 hours as originally envisaged."

NewKerala.com has reported that "Mail Business Units (MBU), aimed at avoiding delay in bulk delivery of mails to corporate customers, will be launched at post-offices in four districts under the Vijayawada region from January 5, a senior postal department official said."

According to the American Spectator, "There is a place in Miami where you can get first-class service, push the envelope, get priority treatment and express your innermost desires, all for about twenty bucks. The name of this treasure? The United States Postal Service."

The Citizen has reported that "while it is generally accepted an army marches on its stomach, the men of 11 Field Postal Unit (11FPU) work on the dictum that mail boosts morale. With this as motivation the 11 unit members who work out of AFB Waterkloof in Centurion literally move mountains to ensure South African soldiers on peacekeeping and peace support missions in Burundi, the DRC and Sudan regularly receive mail and parcels from family and loved ones. And soldiers in these African countries make full use of the postal service offered by this Reserve Force unit."

As the Lakeland Ledger has noted, "The idea of postal councils started in the 1960s when the U.S. Postal Service wanted to get input from its customers on mailing issues."

Postal and logistics guru Alan Robinson has noted that "in reading a biography of Andrew Jackson and it turned out that “postal reform” became a major conflict between secularist reformers and religious conservatives. Here is the quote: “The chief danger to the purity of the Sabbath, according to the General Union for Promoting the Observance of the Christian Sabbath, lay in the transportation of mail on that day. In 1810, postmasters had been ordered to keep their offices open for one hour on Sundays after the arrival of mail. Remonstrances against this practice drifted into Congress during the next few years but to no effect. In 1825 post offices which received mail on Sunday were required to be kept open all day. It was this deed of profanation which the sabatarians now determined to undo.” At some point the religious conservatives won out and Sunday delivery was stopped. So now we know the issue was not 6 or 5 days per week delivery but 6 or 7 days per week delivery."

The BBC has reported that "Managers at the Royal Mail say they are beginning to plan their strategy for delivering the final Harry Potter book to UK fans, once it is published."

NetworkWorld has reported that "USPS has one of the largest networks in the world, connecting 38,000 locations nationwide and supporting 335,000 users. It spends around $180 million per year on its network infrastructure. USPS overhauled its data and voice networks in 2006. The independent federal agency renegotiated and expanded its primary data network contract, while using a secondary contract to upgrade 3,000 sites. The outsourced network is being upgraded to support T-1 and above connections at all of its sites."

According to the Daily Item, "with Christmas over, postal workload will increase with catalogs, tax forms."

According to Market Watch, "This may be the year bricks-and-mortar retailers are finally forced to take the Internet seriously, as Christmas e-tail sales may now be seriously impacting storefront sales. And this writer sees an entirely new seasonal pattern emerging."

Postal News for December 27, 2006

The Columbo Page has reported that "Sri Lanka's post offices are looking forward to the arrival of 7.5 million new stamps by air cargo tonight as they do not have stocks to issue to the customers seeking stamps to mail piles of greeting cards."

The Wall Street Journal has noted that "Retailers posted a disappointing 1.7% increase in comparable sales for the week ended Dec. 23, putting holiday sales on track to hit the low end of expectations, according to the International Council of Shopping Centers." [Now the question is: How did mail order merchants make out?]

According to the Washington Post, "For some of the nation's newspapers, Google's offer was too good to pass up. This fall, the search-engine company proposed to show how it could help newspapers sell print advertising to the hundreds of thousands of small merchants who buy Internet ads from Google. Advertisers would go online and bid on the excess ad inventory of daily newspapers, giving them a much-needed revenue boost. Now, two months into a test with 100 advertisers and 66 newspapers, Google executives say that its pilot program has exceeded their expectations and that they will roll out an expanded version in the coming months. The top five participating newspapers are getting several bids a week from advertisers, the company said."

The Irish Independent has reported that "A private members motion was recently put forward in Dail Eireann by the Fine Gael party to address the following issues: The appalling low level of pay to a substantial number of post masters who effectively have subsidised the service by providing premises and working at a rate below the minimum wage and in some cases, below the poverty line. Provide for the computerisation, modernisation and upgrading of the entire network of post offices and sub post offices with a view to providing a reliable, efficient and cost effective next day delivery service, throughout the entire country."

The Hindu has reported that "The Permanent Lok Adalat has directed the Post Master General, Kerala Circle, to pay Rs.25,000 as compensation to a Master of Computer Applications (MCA) graduate for default in delivering the admit card sent to the candidate by a company based in Bangalore for the recruitment of graduate-trainees."

The Syracuse Post-Standard has reported that "A proposal that would let New York hospitals deny new financial protections to patients unless they live in certain ZIP codes is being criticized by a consumer group. Richard Kirsch, executive director of Citizen Action, said the proposed rule would penalize patients referred to hospitals far from home and give hospitals a way to turn people away or overcharge them. "A hospital's service area has to be based on geography and community, not by postal delivery routes," Kirsch said."

Gulf Times has reported that "the Chinese postal authorities have sought the co-operation of the Q-Post in developing a customer-friendly plan with which they felt could win visitors during the Olympic Games 2008 to be held in Beijing, and the Asian Games (in 2010)."

According to the Rocky Mountain News, "Post offices in Colorado and Wyoming Tuesday were dealing with a headache expected to hit 90 million packages, letters and magazines this week. The approximately six-day backlog was brought on by last week's blizzard that compounded the normal holiday rush."

The Center for Media Research has reported that "Bob Jordan, president of International Demographics, Inc., notes that "The media habits of the affluent empty nesters are dominated by newspapers and the Internet." According to the report, more than 27 percent spend an hour or more each day reading a newspaper (index 159) and 38.7 percent spend 430 minutes or more each week on the Internet (index 107). Radio, television and direct mail all index at less than 100 with the affluent empty nesters."

From PR Newswire: "Cenveo, Inc. announced today the signing of a definitive merger agreement pursuant to which Cenveo will acquire all of the shares of Cadmus Communications Corporation. Headquartered in Richmond, Virginia, Cadmus, with 3,300 employees, is the world's largest provider of content management and production services to scientific, technical and medical journal publishers, the fifth largest periodicals printer in North America, and a leading provider of specialty packaging and promotional printing services."

Media Daily News has reported that "Futurist consultant Faith Popcorn says 2007 promises a new identity: the "networked self." It is characterized by a mind-set that is more ecologically aware and possesses a greater sense of personal responsibility. For brand marketing, the message is: Don't be static. Aim your products to the right person at the right time. But companies are also expected to reduce clutter and act socially responsible."

The International Herald Tribune has reported that "Portuguese postal workers staged a nationwide strike Wednesday to protest the handling of their work by subcontractors. The strike was expected to affect the transportation, distribution and handling of mail across the country."

Postal News for December 26, 2006

The Business Standard has reported that "Fund houses’ tie-ups with the postal department for marketing their schemes through post offices are yet to take off in a bigger way. UTI MF, Principal PNB AMC, Prudential ICICI and SBI Mutual Fund have such arrangements with the department."

The Wall Street Journal has queried, "What if Congress voted to reform a huge government service, and nobody cared? Well, lawmakers did just that with the U.S. Postal Service in the dying days of the 109th Congress -- by voice vote, no less -- and the action attracted nary a whit of attention. Twenty years ago such an effort would have meant a brutal public brawl, but President Bush signed the measure with little fanfare last week. There's a lesson here about the luck of technology in transcending otherwise immovable government monopolies."

Gulf Times has reported that "most major postal corporations of the world stand to gain considerably from the Universal Postal Union's (UPU) guidelines on giving postal franchisees to private operators, said Q-Post chairman and chief executive Ali Mohamed al-Ali yesterday. Speaking to journalists on the sidelines of the ceremony where Qtel and Q-Post signed an agreement to facilitate the sale of Qtel's pre-paid cards through post office branches, Ali said the UPU, the apex body of postal corporations worldwide had instructed its affiliates to cut down overheads wherever it was possible."

Postal News for December 25, 2006

As the New York Times has noted, "Everybody’s excited about online advertising, but the rates keep going up and up and up. Online advertising revenues are expected to grow by 31 percent to $16.4 billion this year."

The Associated Press has reported that "An army of 1,500 mail carriers fanned out across Colorado and Wyoming on Christmas Eve, making rare Sunday deliveries in a bid to get hundreds of thousands of blizzard-delayed packages to their destinations on time. Normally, about 100 carriers would be working on Sunday, Postal Service spokesman Al DeSarro said. The extra workers all volunteered for the additional duty, he said."

Uni Asia & Pacific has reported that "UNI-Apro Postal Committee held its meeting in Gold Coast, Australia, 12-13 Dec 2006. The UNI-Apro Postal committee agrees to initiate various activities forthcoming year such as organising private courier, express, parcel and logistic companies as well as atypical workers in the post offices."

Postal News for December 24, 2006

The Sunday Mirror has reported that "customers were left facing waits of up to an hour and a half as they tried to meet the Christmas delivery deadline, a Sunday Mirror survey found. And in some cases the long waits may well have been in vain, with both Royal Mail workers and customers still baffled by the new pricing scheme. A Sunday Mirror investigation last month revealed how the system, which prices packages by size as well as weight, is proving difficult. For an identical item, our reporters were quoted £1.27, 44p and 32p postal charges."

The Times has reported that "the chairman of J Sainsbury, Britain’s second-biggest food retailer, has been approached to become deputy chairman of Royal Mail, making him a potential successor to Allan Leighton as head of the postal group."

Postal News for December 23, 2006

According to the Washington Post, personalized postage stamps provide "A Tiny Canvas for Holiday Mirth."

Dow Jones has reported that "FedEx Corp. said Friday it got a formal information request in connection with an ongoing anti-competitive investigation by the Directorate General for Competition of the European Commission. The investigation involves possible anti-competitive practices in air freight transport services in the European Union/European Economic Area, the Memphis freight transportation company said in a Securities and Exchange Commission filing. The filing didn't say what type of information European authorities requested. The European investigation is in addition to an ongoing probe by the U.S. Justice Department's antitrust division, the filing said."

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

• The new postal reform law is expected to have a significant and positive impact on the Postal Service’s financial footing. In an interview, Postmaster General Jack Potter told the PostCom Bulletin the bill sets the USPS on a path to fully fund its long-term liabilities, a move that benefits the organization, its customers, its employees and retirees.

• The Association for Postal Commerce and the Mailing & Fulfillment Service Association this week filed a brief in the R2006-1 rate case charging the Postal Service with failure to adhere to the Postal Rate Commission’s established position that worksharing discounts should fully reflect efficient component pricing.

• The Postal Rate Commission this week endorsed the USPS objectives for its Evolutionary Network Development program – enhancement of operational flexibility and efficiency, capture of resulting cost savings, and preservation of current service standards. The PRC said the goals are “fully consistent with the policies and criteria of the Postal Reorganization Act.”

• The U.S. Postal Service this week filed a notice in the Federal Register proposing changes to international postage rates and rate design, to take effect in May 2007. That’s the same time the USPS plans to implement new domestic rates. In addition to international rate increases, the USPS proposed a “major redesign” of its international products.

• Potter names Brennan VP, Area Operations, Eastern Area. New study shows direct mail spending jumped 7.5 percent in 2006. Trucking firms warn of slowing U.S. economy. FedEx buys ANC, will serve U.K. market.

• U.K. post office cuts tied to lack of customers. Deutsche Post to cut jobs. Sagawa Express, China Postal Bureau in deal for delivery service. Irish ComReg gets hearings after An Post seeks 15 percent price hike.

• Mailer FAQs On The “Postal Accountability And Enhancement Act”

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.
 

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Air Cargo World has reported that "UPS is undergoing changes at the top as it heads into the new year. The company promoted Chief Financial Officer Scott Davis to vice chairman, the immediate No. 2 position behind Chairman Mike Eskew and putting Davis in line as a potential successor to Eskew."

Direct Traffic has reported that "The majority of US shoppers who visit retail websites first are more likely to spend more and shop more in local stores, a new study reveals. A poll of 37,500 people by multi-channel shopping services website ShopLocal claims that frequent internet usage by consumers also drives traffic into stores, with 95 per cent of those checking deals online each week visiting a retailer's store at least once a month. More than two thirds (69 per cent) of respondents claimed to have gathered information on products via online advertising circulars before buying products in stores and a quarter (27 per cent) of those quizzed had purchased items on the internet after viewing online marketing and advertising material."

From Business Wire: "As the December 31st deadline for Phase III of the USPS-mandated postage meter migration draws near, Pitney Bowes Inc. PBI encourages U.S. businesses to use this transition to achieve better overall mailstream management. The latest migration is Phase III of the USPS's Plan for Secure Postage Meter Technology, which began in 1995, and is designed to help prevent tampering and misuse. USPS has granted limited exceptions for certain lease customers"

Postal News for December 22, 2006

The latest copy of the National Association of Postmasters of the U.S. electronic governmental affairs newsletter is available on the NAPUS web site.

The UK's Postcomm (the Postal Services Commission) has published for consultation its draft business plan for 2007-2008. Comments should go to Matthew.Ward@psc.gov.uk by 20 March 2007.

World Mail & Express conference series organisers Triangle are currently putting together the programme for the 2007 European event in London on 22-23 May next year. The theme of the conference will be ''Today and Tomorrow'', looking at both current and future issues in the international post and parcel industries. The internationally-recognised World Mail & Express series of conferences has been held around the world since 1988 and in recent years has operated regionally, with events focused on Asia Pacific, the Americas, Middle East and Africa as well as Europe. It provides a unique market place for the public and private sectors to meet and discuss the broader industry issues, seek partners and listen to customers. 

From PR Web: "Julie Rios, Executive Director, Energy Initiatives, USPS will present an industry evaluation and report about the lessons learned from managing the largest alternative fuel vehicle fleet in the USA at the Miami Radisson Hotel, February 20-21, 2007. This keynote presentation will discuss the challenges and solutions to operating and maintaining a fleet of 37,000 alternative-fuel vehicles and evaluate the various kinds of alternative fuels, including biodiesel, electric vehicles and compressed natural gas and ethanol, which USPS utilizes within its fleet."

Coastweek has reported that "Postal Corporation of Kenya (PCK) has finalized distribution of over one million tourism stamps valued at Sh 25 million throughout its 500 outlets countrywide."

Postal News for December 21, 2006

As MediaBuyerPlanner has noted, "The Postal Accountability and Enhancement Act, which President Bush signed into law yesterday (Tuesday) resolves many issues of importance to direct mailers, while leaving some unanswered questions. Transparency and accountability within the USPS are the main areas that need work, according to Gene Del Polito, president of the Association for Postal Commerce, writes DM News."

The Association for Postal Commerce has filed jointly with the Mailing Fulfillment Service Association an initial brief in the matter of Docket No. R2006-1. A synopsis can be found on this site.

The Guernsey Press and Star has reported that "Guernsey Post intends to make savings of £1.2m. over the next three years to keep stamp prices to a minimum. The Office of Utility Regulation yesterday said that the cost of a local stamp would rise to 32p next year, with UK ones at 37p. Guernsey Post interim chief executive Steve Hannon said price rises were never welcome, but the island’s charges still remained among the cheapest for postage in Europe. ‘We have worked hard to improve our service, while pegging increases to RPI or below whenever possible,’ he said. Savings made would be passed on to customers through reduced price increases.

Take a look at the Postal Rate Commission website....It didn't take long to start changing some of the signs on the doors.

The government of Ecuador is soliciting proposals for a 15 year postal system concession. [In Spanish.]

The U.S. Postal Service is proposing changes to make its International Mail products easier to use. The changes will introduce the most familiar and trusted USPS domestic product names — First-Class Mail, Priority Mail and Express Mail — into the International product portfolio, making it easier for customers to mail cards, letters and packages worldwide. “Whether it’s a retailer shipping products to another country or an individual keeping in touch with loved ones, customers will be able to connect with their friends and relatives around the world through an array of International Mail product choices,” said Postmaster General John E. Potter. “Simplifying our International offerings by using the familiar domestic product names that people know and trust will give customers the ‘Quick, Easy, Convenient’ choices they need.” The proposal will reorganize eight International Mail products now offered at postal outlets and online at usps.com into four simplified groupings: Global Express Guaranteed, Express Mail International, Priority Mail International and First-Class Mail International."

According to DM News, "Dan Gregory Blair began his five-year term as chair of the Postal Rate Commission on Dec. 20. Mr. Blair replaces George Omas, the well-liked head of the PRC who was designated Chairman of the PRC by President Bush on Nov. 30, 2001."

As Steve Barr at the Washington Post has noted, "For almost 12 years, Rep. John M. McHugh (R-N.Y.) has championed legislation to overhaul the U.S. Postal Service. It has been a long and sometimes lonely journey. McHugh has worked to balance the competing interests of postal management, postal competitors, unions and companies, including Hallmark Cards, L.L. Bean and American Express, that rely on the post office. Yesterday, he was among a small group from Capitol Hill that saw President Bush sign the Postal Accountability and Enhancement Act, the first change to the Postal Service since President Richard M. Nixon agreed to replace the old Post Office Department with a self-sustaining government corporation."

As USA Today has noted, "The motto goes that "neither rain nor snow nor sleet nor hail" shall keep postal carriers from delivering the mail — but what if the snow comes amid a blizzard warning? Apparently, it doesn't matter."

According to the Western Catholic Reporter, "Canada Post has restored its contribution to a federal government postal subsidy to Canadian newspapers and magazines for the next two years. The restoration means that the WCR no longer faces an $80,000 increase in its costs for mailing the newspaper to its more than 35,000 subscribers."

MediaPost has reported that "e-mail played a less important role in the mid-term elections than in last year's presidential race, with just 12% of American adults receiving political messages in their inbox this year, compared with 15% in 2004. That's according to a new report by the Pew Internet & American Life Project. The organization, which surveyed 2,562 adults last month, also reported that registered Republicans were the most likely recipients of e-mail ads, with 16% reporting such messages, followed by Democrats (12%) and Independents (11%). While e-mail use appeared to dwindle this year, direct U.S. postal mailings increased. Sixty-one percent of respondents said they received snail mail from candidates, up from 49% two years ago."

The latest research paper in the E-substitution series, “Review of the Models on Price Elasticity of Postal Product” has just been uploaded onto www.postinsight.com Price elasticity estimates have long been part of volume forecasts. Measures are available for many postal administrations and for a range of postal products. This paper provides an overview of the main issues relevant for understanding how actual market conditions affect price elasticity. The paper looks at 45 studies that present price elasticity estimates for postal operators in six countries. The paper is the 22nd in a series of papers on E-substitution and the mailstream and was written by Allan Robinson, President of Direct Communications Group. Past papers in the E-substitution series can also be found on www.postinsight.com

Postal News for December 20, 2006

From left to right standing behind President George W. Bush:  PMG Jack Potter, Sen. Thomas Carper, Rep. Tom Davis; Sen. Susan Collins; Postal Board Chairman James Miller; Rep. Danny Davis; Rep. John McHugh.

See the President's statement on his signing the postal reform law.

From the U.S. Congress:

President Bush signed into law today historic postal reform legislation that would modernize the United States Postal Service and make it viable for the 21^st century.  The bill passed the House and Senate in the final hours of the 109^th Congress after key negotiators -- Sens. Susan Collins, R-ME, and Tom Carper, D-DE, and Reps. Tom Davis, R-VA, and Henry A. Waxman, D-CA -- brokered an agreement.  The legislation, the first major overhaul of the USPS since 1970, will help stabilize mail volume and stamp prices.

 

“The U.S. Postal Service is the lynchpin of a $900 billion mailing industry, providing nine million jobs nationwide in fields as diverse as direct mailing, printing, catalog companies, paper manufacturing, and financial services. But under its current business model, which has not been updated in decades, the financial future of the Postal Service is not viable,” said Senator Collins.  “The only way to avoid what the Government Accountability Office refers to as a ‘death spiral’ – of excessive and unpredictable rate increases which lead to further reductions in mail volume – is through the comprehensive reform that we accomplished here today.”

 

 “This legislation will help us avoid disastrous future postal rate hikes and put the Postal Service on firm financial footing for the 21^st century,” said Senator Carper. “The bill would give the Postal Service the tools it needs to survive at a time when more and more people communicate and do business through faxes, email and electronic bill-pay rather than hard-copy mail.  My thanks to Senator Collins and Congressmen Davis and Waxman for coming together to craft this compromise.  The legislation will go a long way toward making sure the Postal Service has the flexibility it needs to compete in the new economy.”

 

"This is the culmination of more than a decade of hard work and study, not to mention a great deal of bipartisan negotiation and cooperation," Government Reform Committee Chairman Tom Davis said. "The landmark legislation solves the structural, legal, and financial constraints that have brought the Postal Service to the brink of utter breakdown.  This compromise will reverse the 'death spiral' at the Postal Service and bring it into the 21^st century.  It's a huge win for everyone who uses stamps."

 

“My colleagues and I have been working for nearly a decade to reach a bipartisan, bicameral compromise on postal reform legislation,” said Rep. Waxman.  “This is a historic accomplishment and will help one of the most revered institutions in America survive and prosper in the electronic age.”

As the Associated Press has noted, "New postal reform legislation that passed Congress calls for the first major changes in decades on how the post office works. Few Americans are likely to notice the difference. While the measure affects the spending of billions of dollars, the mail will keep flowing, the letter carriers will keep making their rounds and the price of stamps, like just about everything else, will keep rising, but perhaps more slowly. The bill is scheduled for signing by President Bush on Wednesday. The public will notice little immediate impact, Postmaster General John Potter said in an interview."

Welcome to PostCom Radio Postal Podcast Number 6 Join PostCom President Gene Del Polito and PostCom General Counsel Ian Volner in a discussion of some of the key provisions of the new Postal Accountability and Enhancement Act (H.R. 6407)

From the PR Newswire: "R.R. Donnelley & Sons Company announced today that it has signed a definitive agreement to acquire Perry Judd's Holdings Incorporated, a privately-owned printer of magazines and catalogs, for a purchase price of $176 million, of which approximately $47 million is for the purchase of the company's common stock and the remainder is for the purchase of the company's preferred stock and the assumption of debt. RR Donnelley expects to repay the debt at or shortly following the closing. The all cash deal is expected to close in the first quarter of 2007. Headquartered in Waterloo, Wisconsin, Perry Judd's long- and short-run capabilities for producing consumer and business-to-business catalogs as well as consumer, trade, and association magazines will complement RR Donnelley's Publishing, Catalog and Retail Services platform."

From the U.S. Postal Service:

• President George W. Bush today signed into law new postal legislation that will benefit both residential and business customers by ensuring predictable price increases tied to the rate of inflation. The Postal Accountability and Enhancement Act is the first major change to the Postal Service since 1971. The law enables the organization to continue its transformation efforts and cost-cutting measures. “This new law could not have come at a better time. The Postal Service has never been stronger and this law enables us to build on our successes,” said Postmaster General John E. Potter who attended today’s White House signing ceremony. The Postal Service has ended a fourth consecutive year with positive retained earnings, a seventh consecutive year of improved productivity, and has benefited from record service and customer satisfaction scores that are independently measured.

• The Postal Service's audio news release in .mp3 format.

The News Journal has reported that "A city councilman blamed the U.S. Postal Service on Tuesday for the city having to make payments to residents whose property was destroyed. Second Ward Councilman Dave Robinson said the residents never received code violation notices."

As Reuters has noted, "Package delivery company FedEx Corp. reported higher quarterly earnings on Wednesday, citing rising revenue in its international, ground delivery and freight units. Shares of package delivery company FedEx Corp. dropped more than 3 percent before the bell on Wednesday as investors's took a dim view of the company's outlook."

From the PR Newswire: "Valassis and ADVO, Inc. have announced that the companies have amended the terms of their definitive merger agreement. Under the amended terms, Valassis will acquire all of the outstanding common shares of ADVO stock for $33 per share in cash, or an aggregate of approximately $1.2 billion (on a diluted basis), including approximately $125 million in existing ADVO long-term debt which Valassis expects to refinance. As part of the agreement, the companies have agreed to dismiss with prejudice their pending litigation in the Court of Chancery for New Castle County, Delaware."

Hunts Post has reported that "closure of little-used rural Post Offices should not be opposed, so long as villagers do not lose access to postal services, a watchdog believes. Postwatch East of England, which oversees postal services in Cambridgeshire, accepts that closures are inevitable to stem spiralling losses. The watchdog said it would be irresponsible to let the current succession of unplanned closures - often when a sub-postmaster retires or an associated retail business folds - continue."

The Postmaster General has announced the appointment of Megan Brennan as Vice President, Area Operations, Eastern Area (she replaces Al Lazaroff, the new Chief Postal Inspector) and Tim Haney as acting Vice President, Area Operations, Northeast Area..

Transport Intelligence has reported that "There is more worrying news from the US logistics market, indicating a slowdown in the US economy. Two major trucking companies, Yellow Roadway and USA Truck have both issued trading updates which warn of lower profits compared with the same time last year. In fact YRC Worldwide is now not talking about whether there will be a US slowdown, but the extent to which it will impact its business."

From the Federal Register: "The Postal Service is proposing a major redesign of its international products including changes in prices and mail classifications."

From the U.S. Postal Service: "In today's Federal Register we published for comment our proposal to simplify our international shipping options and make it easier for you to use our products for your international shipping needs. The changes align our international products with our well-known and trusted domestic products – Express Mail, Priority Mail, and First-Class Mail. The Federal Register notice is intended to provide you with the opportunity to comment on and make suggestions regarding the proposed changes. You have 30 days to make comments."

According to SiliconValley.com, "Of all the telephone text messages from the United States that Analiza Mostera receives in the Philippines, few can be more welcome than the ones that say, ``You will get your remittance.'' Developed by the Philippine wireless telecommunications giant Smart Communications, the system of using text messages to transfer cash now delivers at least $50 million a month to families in the Philippines, according to a report by Washington-based lender International Finance Corp. Much of that money is sent home by Filipino temporary contract workers in Hong Kong, Saudi Arabia, the United Kingdom and Singapore. But dozens of Bay Area Filipinos also use the service, which is quicker and cheaper than sending money through traditional international bank transfers or by Western Union."

The latest issue of eView from the National Association of Major Mail Users (Canada)  has been posted on this site. We thank NAMMU for the privilege and the courtesy.

Postal News for December 19, 2006

The Postal Rate Commission (PRC) has issued its "Advisory Opinion Concerning A Proposed Change In The Nature of Postal Services" (END) (Docket No. N2006-1). In it the PRC said:

"The United States Postal Service proposes a program — which it has designated the Evolutionary Network Development (END) strategy — to review and realign its mail processing and transportation networks for the purpose of adapting them to the current and anticipated future needs of the nation’s postal system. The program’s objectives include enhancement of operational flexibility and efficiency, capture of resulting cost savings, and preservation of current service standards. The Commission finds these goals to be fully consistent with the policies and criteria of the Postal Reorganization Act, and endorses them.

"The Commission has carefully considered the evidence presented by the Postal Service to explain how END is designed to achieve these goals, as well as the contributions of other participants in this proceeding. The Presiding Officer solicited supplemental evidence from the Postal Service through eight detailed information requests in order to further elucidate this program. The Commission finds that the resulting evidentiary record does not provide assurance that the proposed realignment program, as currently envisaged, will meet its declared goals. In particular, the record reflects flawed or absent information on certain crucial aspects of the Postal Service’s plan for network realignment. The Commission advises the Governors to obtain and integrate reliable information in these areas before proceeding with full implementation of the contemplated program."

  According to Marketing Sherpa, "President Bush is expected to sign the postal reform bill tomorrow. Because of this, marketers can look forward to smaller postage rate increases from the U.S. Postal Service in the coming years."

There's been a changing of the guard at the PRC. George Omas' farewell to his colleagues and staff has been posted on this site. Now, George wouldn't say this, so we will. We'll miss you, George. Under your tenure, we saw the Commission move quickly to approve rates under unanimous consent agreements. We saw the Commission open its minds and its doors to make negotiated service agreements possible. And we enjoyed the friendship of a gentleman, who brought dignity to his office. You may be gone from the PRC, but we know we'll be seein' you around.

UNI-Africa has reported that "African postal administrations have been urged to embrace new strategies to make post offices autonomous and profitable. Tanzania's minister of Labour, Employment and Youth, John Chiligati, told delegates attending the ILO/UPU tripartite seminar on Social Dialogue in the Postal Sector from 27-29 November in Bagamoyo, Tanzania that postal administrations should adopt new technological changes to sustain jobs."

MediaDailyNews has reported that "In a move that is part of a bigger trend suppressing the flow of public data about advertising sales results, the Radio Advertising Bureau Monday said it would discontinue reporting national and local radio advertising sales estimates on a monthly basis, and would begin reporting them quarterly effective with 2007. The change follows moves by the broadcast networks to discontinue reporting quarterly figures at all, and follows a post Sarbanes Oxley passage that has led to the suppression of other important advertising financial metrics by publicly traded companies, including estimated advertising billings by major ad agencies."

Lockheed Martin has completed the deployment of 74 Automated Package Processing Systems (APPS) to the U.S. Postal Service under a more than $300 million contract awarded in 2002. APPS provides the Postal Service with a fully integrated, end-to-end system capable of automatically sorting high volumes of First-Class packaged mail, Priority Mail envelopes and parcels, and bundled mail, such as magazines or catalogs, with greater efficiency and higher accuracy. The system is capable of processing more than 9,500 packages an hour while automatically reading machine printed or handwritten addresses.

According to Die Welt, "The planned merger of German national postal services provider Deutsche Post's mail and parcel dispatch divisions is expected to cost jobs, although there is uncertainty as to how many, with estimates ranging from 1,000 jobs to up 3,000 jobs."

The Financial Times has reported that "Royal Mail, the government-owned postal service, is to have its home telephone service investigated by regulators over allegations of mis-selling."

From Business Wire: "HP has been awarded a five-year contract extension by the United States Postal Service to deploy a breadth of products and services, including HP servers, desktops, notebooks, printers, and integration and warranty support services. This indefinite-delivery, indefinite-quantity contract that dates back to 1994 builds upon a long-term mutually successful relationship. HP has delivered more than $1.8 billion worth of products and services to the Postal Service from 1994-2006."

Gulf Times has reported that "Qatar and China would soon explore the possibility of enhancing co-operation between the two countries in the postal sector, a Q-Post communique said yesterday. This was decided after a meeting between the Chinese Ambassador to Qatar Li Jian Ying and Chairman of Q-Post Ali Mohamed al-Ali yesterday at the latter’s office."

The signing ceremony for the Postal Accountability and Enhancement Act at the White House will be tomorrow. Among those present will be PostCom Chairman Jim O'Brien.

Postal News for December 18, 2006

Check Out This RPF Proposed U.S. postal reform legislation will bring about significant changes to the USPS rates (classification, incentives, discounts, fees) and structure (facilities, sorting equipment, work sharing).  Postal reform will cause volume to migrate between end-use segments as well as promote a shift to electronic media. This will impact print demand and mailing preparation processes which will undoubtedly impact all firms in the print value chain. This study will evaluate the effects of U.S. postal reform and potential postage increases on the demand for print in the next three years.  It will evaluate the impact on various print markets and products produced such as periodicals, direct mail, catalogs, and financial/transactional printing. This study would identify the ‘trickle down’ effect postal changes have on the complete value chain of the printing industry. The study should also look at similar efforts taking place in Canada.

Geek.com has asked: "Looking for some superGeeky tech to wow your friends and family with this holiday season? How about using QR codes and a Windows Mobile QR code reader to code your Christmas gifts and remember what you have inside them? QR codes are apparently popular in Japan, but you can generate your own code for URLs, text, phone numbers, and SMS. Here is the QR code for Geek.com:



What other uses can you think of for the QR code?" [Joe Lubenow....This one's for you.]

TMCNet has reported that "AT&T just inked a year-long contract reportedly valued at $12 million which renews a partnership between the telecom and the United States Postal Service to provide local voice and networking services to 9,000 of the agency’s offices across a 13-state region. The project will be managed by AT&T’s Government Solutions unit."

Computer Weekly has reported that "IBM has announced new technology that more easily allows organisations securely share and analyse real-time data generated by radio frequency identification (RFID) tags."

Printing News has reported that "Despite rising postal rates, higher raw materials costs and the advent of numerous alternative channels, marketers continue to seek out the return on investment benefits of direct mail. spending $60.6 billion on the channel in 2006 - according to a white paper released today by Winterberry Group, a leading strategic consulting firm serving the marketing industry. The white paper, entitled Vertical Market Trends in Direct Mail and the Impact on Production Service Providers 2006, is the New York-based consulting firm’s third annual study of the direct mail production sector. Based upon feedback provided through hundreds of interviews with executives from throughout the direct mail industry, it explores macro trends affecting mailers and service providers, as well as unique developments specific to one or more vertical markets."

Reuters has reported that "Package delivery company FedEx Corp. said on Monday it has acquired express transportation company ANC Holdings Ltd. for $234 million (120 million pounds). The deal will allow FedEx Express, the express delivery unit of Memphis-based FedEx, to directly serve the British domestic market."

BtoB magazine has reported that "Direct mail is more effective than online marketing, according to Philadelphia-area marketing executives polled at a recent seminar hosted by W.A. Wilde Co., a direct marketing fulfillment company. When asked to name the most successful marketing tool used this year, 50% of the survey respondents cited traditional mail; Web-related marketing was cited as the second most successful, and e-mail marketing was ranked third. In addition, close to 50% of those surveyed said they plan to increase their marketing budgets next year."

As Steve Brock of the Envelope Manufacturers Association Foundation has noted, "Though business communications are constantly evolving to address what is newest, easiest and cheapest, the envelope and the mailstream continue to remain an unshakable pillar of commerce in the United States. The Envelope Manufacturers Association (EMA) Foundation has launched the “Open for Business” campaign. This fact-finding effort is aimed at discovering how major businesses use the envelope to reach out to different audiences, and how the paper-based communications industry can adjust to better compete with new media options."

Federal Business Opportunities has noted that "The U.S. Postal Service is conducting market research to identify companies with an interest and capability to provide a mail stowage and retrieval system for its delivery fleet of Long-Life Vehicles (LLV). This will be done in conjunction with implementation of a new Flats Sequencing System (FSS) program whereby large envelopes, magazines, catalogs and circulars will be sorted for letter carriers who must now manually sequence the mail before leaving the office for their routes. As the FSS program is implemented, the plan is to purchase mail stowage and retrieval systems for up to 18,000 LLVs. Deployment would start July 2008 with delivery completed by July 2010."

Forbes has reported that "UK postal service Royal Mail on Monday announced stamp price increases under a new pricing regime reflecting the size, as well as the weight, of letters. The state-owned postal group said the price of a first class stamp for a standard-sized letter weighing up to 100 grams will rise by 2 pence to 34 p from April 2 next year. The price of a large-sized 100 g letter will rise by 4 p to 48 p."

Stuff.co.uk has reported that "Freightways' DX Mail is buying the Pete's Post franchisor rights, effective from December 21. The purchase is expected to produce earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortisation of about $500,000 over the next year. "This acquisition is consistent with DX Mail's growth strategy to further develop its nationwide postal business," Freightways managing director Dean Bracewell said. The Pete's Post mail delivery business operates through franchises in Taranaki, Manawatu, Wanganui, Hawke's Bay and Bay of Plenty."

While everyone's running around giving high-fives over the passage of reform, let's not forget how the whole process began. Congressional Quarterly has published a nice piece that chronicles postal reform's legislative roots.

DM News has aptly noted that "If anything, the 109th Congress will be remembered for a rare act of bipartisanship in its waning hours: passing historic postal reform legislation to modernize the U.S. Postal Service and help its customers - the nation’s mailers, big and small, as well as consumers."

The Associated Press has noted that "When 2007 arrives, it will bring increases in rates at Fed-Ex Corp. and United Parcel Service Inc. and a possible jump in postal rates. Savvy small-business owners already know how they will deal with the escalating mailing and shipping costs."

China Post has reported that "The Sagawa Express Co. group, a Japanese delivery company, announced Monday that it has signed an agreement with a subsidiary of China Post to launch a parcel delivery service covering the entire Chinese market."

Postal News for December 17, 2006

The BBC has reported that "Christmas deliveries of mail are set to be affected after 800 postal workers in 11 delivery offices in Staffordshire went on strike. The action, set to continue on Monday, is over changing posts from full-time to part-time when they become vacant. Unions claim the changes breach a national agreement, which is denied by Royal Mail who said they were only made with the agreement of staff."

Kuwait Times has reported that "The Ministry of Telecommunications recently announced that all post offices would start working two shifts by January, reported Al-Watan. The ministry also noted that its plans include opening 18 new post offices, said the assistant undersecretary for postal affairs, Fahdel Abul Hassan adding that postal services would be privatised by January."

Auctionbytes.com has noted that "eBay Sellers are asking about forthcoming USPS shipping changes."

The Atlanta Business Journal has reported that "United Parcel Service Inc. has reached a labor agreement with the Greater Louisville Building and Construction Trades Council and local unions related to construction work on UPS' $1 billion expansion of the Worldport hub in Louisville, Ky. The agreement includes work rules for all construction activities and ensures that current operations at the hub are not disrupted."

Ahmedabad Newsline has reported that "To cut losses and increase its reach, the Department of Posts has recently unveiled plans for franchising postal services. For this, the Department will soon launch a pilot project in 100 cities across India. The franchises will be tested for financial viability, i.e., whether they can be self-supporting if not profit-generating, without affecting the Department’s existing network."

Postal News for December 16, 2006

The Yorkshire Press has reported that "dozens of Royal Mail workers walked out of the firm's York depot in protest at the suspension of a van driver. About 30 collection drivers and some other staff staged the wildcat strike at the firm's Leeman Road base, at about 3.10pm yesterday, to support their work-mate. The three-hour stoppage caused disruption to parcel collections from post offices and Royal Mail's business customers."

According to Liberation.fr, "the reserved field constitutes the best compromise between the objective of construction of the postal domestic market and a robust and perennial financing of the universal service."

The latest copy of the National Association of Postmasters of the U.S. electronic governmental affairs newsletter is available on the NAPUS web site.

American Postal Workers Union William Burrus told his members that "the APWU position in the 2006 contract negotiations was that we stand on the product that we produce in the negotiations process, without regard to what may or may not be achieved with the other postal unions. Unfortunately, some other postal unions do not adhere to these principles and routinely wait for the results of APWU bargaining to determine whether they can include in their contract those improvements we have achieved....This “me too” model of bargaining is not reflective of a union that can stand on its own efforts, but rather of an organization that resorts to waiting to see what others have achieved. At the very least, practitioners of “me too” bargaining owe APWU a public thank you for blazing trails and permitting them to provide improvements to their membership."

Agenzia Giornalistica Italia has reported that "For the fourth consecutive year, Poste Italiane SPA closes its financial year with a positive result and now, for the first time, in accordance with International Financial Recording Standards, the report on the examination by the Audits Court showed in relation to the financial management of Poste Italiane SPA, for the year 2005, in which government authorities are invited to make a careful evaluation of the implications linked to the liberalisation of the postal sector, in order to let the results of such reflections count before the competent European organisation." [That is one hummer of a run-on sentence. Let's hope it's the translation.]

As the St. Paul Pioneer Press has noted, "of the 383 pieces of legislation signed into law during the 109th Congress, a fourth of them were bills naming buildings, particularly post offices."

You can find posted on the U.S. Postal Service Office of Inspector General website the OIG's latest report concerning "Postal Service Officers' Travel and Representation Expenses for Fiscal Year 2006" (http://www.uspsoig.gov/FOIA_files/FT-AR-07-005.pdf). If you have additional questions concerning the report, please contact Agapi Doulaveris at 703.248.2286.

Postal News for December 15, 2006

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

• How does the new postal reform legislation affect the current rate case? What does it mean to mailers? Will there be one more rate case? When does the bill take effect? Read on for answers to these and other questions.

• Direct marketing consultant Don Libey predicts 2007 will mark the beginning of a sea change for catalogs. Photography, space, copy and message will undergo major transformations resulting in catalogs that will look very different from those of today.

• Analyst Chrystal Szeto examines the greeting card and postcard market as yet another potential form of electronic substitution for mail in this series of occasional papers for a Pitney Bowes research project.

• USPS, NPMHU reach tentative contract agreement. Lazaroff to lead Postal Inspection Service. Must be New Year’s; shipping prices going up. UPS offers voluntary separation package to 650 workers. FedEx, UPS CEOs team on energy action. DHL can increase Polar Air shareholding.

• Canadian postal workers lose NAFTA appeal. Royal Mail to axe 2,500 post offices. Opposition still brewing to EU 2009 postal liberalization. German postal union plans protest strikes. Austrian Post, union strike wage deal. Swiss Post gets agreement on pension funds. Australia Post’s public service act criticized.

• A list of upcoming postal-related events.

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.
 

Who handles the distribution of the PostCom Bulletin?
 Why, it's NETGRAM, of course. Read more about it.

The Guardian has reported that "The government yesterday unveiled plans to close 2,500 rural and urban post offices over 18 months - the fastest closure programme in the history of the network. The cuts, which are expected to start next summer after national and local consultations, will slash the network to about 11,700 branches, fewer than half the peak of 25,000 in the 1960s. They came after widespread opposition, with a petition containing 4 million signatures presented to the prime minister in October."

Network World has reported that "The U.S. Postal Service has quietly terminated an 18-year, multibillion-dollar network services contract with Lockheed Martin that was to provide all of its data, voice, video and wireless services. Dubbed Universal Computing Connectivity (UCC), the contract was awarded to Lockheed Martin with much fanfare in October 2004. UCC had an estimated value of between $3 billion and $6 billion. USPS terminated the UCC contract in July 2006. Here’s all USPS will say about its change of heart: “Due to changing business objectives/conditions, USPS and LM have agreed that the UCC contract cancellation is in their mutual best interests, and that it will not preclude the two parties from entering into other contracts in the future.” Lockheed Martin has no comment on the UCC contract cancellation."

Navy Times has reported that "The Military Postal Service Agency and the U.S. Postal Service awarded a new contract for military mail this year, “greatly improving mail delivery to these areas where previous arrangements left mail-delivery frequency up to the discretion of the air carrier,” said Lt. Col. Kevin Arata, Army Human Resources Command spokesman."

From the U.S. Postal Service: "We’ve been asked if the recently passed Postal Reform legislation will have any effect on the current proposed pricing change. It will not. We are still on target for a May 2007 implementation of new prices and mailing standards. We’ll have our revised mailing standards Federal Register published in early January 2007.

DigiStamp has withdrawn the complaint it had filed with the Postal Rate Commission.

FinFacts has reported that "The Commission for Communications Regulation (ComReg) has today launched a public consultation following An Post’s recent application for an interim price increase in the price of the basic stamp. ComReg is the National Regulatory Authority for the postal sector in Ireland and its prior approval is required for postal rate changes in the reserved area."

From Postalnewsblog.com: "BroadRamp Inc. today announced they have been awarded a contract with the United States Postal Service (USPS) to provide encoding, hosting, and streaming services on the USPS.com website utilizing BroadRamp’s innovative CDS™ content delivery platform. The effort is part of a comprehensive strategy intended to attract a larger audience to USPS’s increasing number of online services and engage a demographic that may not be familiar with Postal Service products and services."

PostCom Members: Posted on this site is a list of "frequently asked questions" on the new postal reform bill. Still not a PostCom member? You should really see what you've been missing.

Ralph Nader’s Center for Study of Responsive Law has released a new book on the U.S. Postal Service (USPS). Preserving the People’s Post Office by Christopher W. Shaw exposes how numerous forces are intent on undermining an essential government agency’s public service commitment. “The book demonstrates the crucial importance of the Postal Service’s historic role as the one universal means of communication,” said Consumer Advocate Ralph Nader. “The Postal Service also fulfills other functions vital to our society,” Nader added. Christopher Shaw the book’s author said, “Through preferential postage rates for nonprofits the Postal Service facilitates civic involvement and a healthy democracy.” Nader also noted, “Postal employees are fairly remunerated in an increasingly low-wage, low benefit ‘Wal-Mart’ economy.” According to Nader, “Post offices serve as the heart of community life in neighborhoods and towns nationwide and the presence of postal workers on community streets make them safer, as the many beneficiaries of their frequently heroic efforts attest.” “The lack of citizen-consumers’ involvement in the recently passed postal reform legislation has highlighted the need for a public dialogue about the future of our postal system. The book provides a starting point for that conversation,” stated Nader. [A day late and a dollar short....]

According to the Financial Times, "The Post Office risks losing a £200m-a-year government contract to offer basic banking services, ministers ad-mitted yesterday, as they unveiled a five-year rescue plan for the ailing network. Despite committing £1.7bn of taxpayers' money, the government said the estimates of losses were only "fluid".

Mosnews.com has reported that "Russian Post has started delivering 4.5 tonnes of letters and parcels that were sent from the United States in 1999, Reuters news agency reports. The state-owned postal service said the delay was not its fault — a shipping container with the mail inside had languished at a port in Finland for years. The container finally reached Russia on December 8. “The loss of mail usually happens because of force majeure circumstances, such as natural disasters, traffic and other accidents,” Russian Post told Reuters via e-mail. “All of the mail has been very well preserved because the container was hermetically sealed.”

According to Network World, "The United States Postal Service is promoting its online Click-N-Ship service by sending spam to customers -- in apparent violation of its loophole-ridden privacy policy and certainly the spirit of federal law -- according to a pair of longtime anti-spam activists who say they themselves have received the unsolicited e-mail."

The Evening Standard has reported that "Labour 'sounded the death knell' for the Post Office network with plans to axe 2,500 branches over the next two years. It means the Government will have shut nearly 40 per cent of Britain's Post Offices since it came to power in 1997."

Union Network International has reported that "the Botswana Postal Services Workers' Union (BPSWU) has expressed concern over the limiting of freedom of association by Botswana Post management.

According to the Budapest Business Journal, "In postal market deregulation, the government aims to improve services, minimise layoffs."

PostCom Members: Posted on this site you can find a chart showing the percentage rate changes over rate cases from R90-1 to R2005-1.

The Center for Media Research has reported that "American Business Media (ABM, the association of business information providers, recently released data on September year-to-date print ad pages showing that pages and revenue have seen stable performance through 2006, with an increase of 1.11% and .9%, respectively."

Transport Intelligence has reported that "UPS has for the second time in six months announced a substantial number of redundancies in its Supply Chain Services business. In a brief statement released at the beginning of the week it stated that it had created a "special voluntary separation opportunity to approximately 650 employees as part of the company's ongoing effort to eliminate redundant positions". This is apparently aimed at workers over fifty with longer work records at the company. These redundancies are in addition to the 1200 job losses announced at SCS in October."

Postalnews.com has posted a link to a summary of the tentative agreement between the USPS and the Mail Handlers Union.

OpEdNews has reported that "According to CNN, there were more than 15,000 anthrax hoaxes between September 2001 and August 2002. Previously, the Center for Nonproliferation Studies counted more than 400 anthrax hoaxes between 1998 and September 2001. In late 1998, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) reported seven anthrax threats; another thirty-five threats were made during February 1999. A subsequent article in the Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists (July/ August 1999) suggested anthrax hoaxes were fast replacing telephoned bomb threats as the favorite sport of the disturbed, the disgruntled, and the just plain stupid."

The Financial Times has reported that "Fred Smith, chief executive of FedEx, joined forces yesterday with rival Michael Eskew of UPS in a bid to "break the longstanding energy policy stalemate" in Washington. The two met White House officials and Congress members to lobby for an "aggressive campaign" to increase US energy security, Mr Smith said."

New Straits Times has reported that "The export parcel centre at the Kuala Lumpur International Airport (KLIA) has been seizing about 300 parcels of pirated DVDs and VCDs every day."

The Guardian has reported that "The government yesterday unveiled plans to close 2,500 rural and urban post offices over 18 months - the fastest closure programme in the history of the network. The cuts, which are expected to start next summer after national and local consultations, will slash the network to about 11,700 branches, fewer than half the peak of 25,000 in the 1960s. They came after widespread opposition, with a petition containing 4 million signatures presented to the prime minister in October."

According to the BBC, "Campaigners fear for rural communities, businesses and the vulnerable Small businesses have reacted angrily to the government's plans to shut 2,500 post offices due to rising losses."

According to Mad.co.uk, "Postal regulator Postcomm is probing Royal Mail's compensation schemes for loss, damage and delay - including compensation to bulk mail customers - following criticism that they are difficult to understand."

Postal News for December 14, 2006

PostCom Members: A latest PostCom Postal Issues Brief on the Postal Accountability and Enhancement Act has been posted on this site. Be sure to download a copy for use with your company colleagues and executives.

BizJournal.com has reported that "Shares of online DVD rental service Netflix Inc. dropped 71 cents Thursday after discouraging words from an analyst. An analyst has said that while Netflix is still the leading online movie rental service, ahead of rival Blockbuster Inc., he believes "the $40 million earmarked for 2007 could prove insufficient" and other costs could rise as the company ups its marketing and as postal rates increase.

The Anchorage Daily News has reported that "The federal law on air mail and passenger services to Alaska villages has been rewritten again, this time with congressional passage of a postal reform bill. The revision will relieve air carriers that fly smaller planes of a looming deadline to buy mid-size aircraft and to submit to greater federal inspection if they want to carry bypass mail."

Politics.co.uk has reported that "Postwatch, the independent watchdog for postal services, has said the Post Office network cannot sustain current levels of financial losses and closures are inevitable."

Reuters has reported that "Russian Post has started delivering 4.5 tonnes of letters and parcels that were sent from the United States in 1999. The state-owned postal service said the delay was not its fault -- a shipping container with the mail inside had languished at a port in Finland for years. The container finally reached Russia on December 8."

Postmaster General John E. Potter has appointed Alexander Lazaroff, vice president of Eastern Area Operations, to serve as Chief Postal Inspector of the United States Postal Inspection Service. Lazaroff, who becomes the 36th Chief Postal Inspector, will assume his new duties following the retirement of current Chief Postal Inspector Lee R. Heath at the end of this year.

The U.S. Postal Service offers Dinero Seguro (USPS.com/money/suremoney), providing customers with an affordable, convenient and safe method of transferring money internationally. Customers can send up to $2,000 per transaction per day, available at 2,800 participating Post Offices across the U.S. Identification is required for transfers exceeding $1,000.

The News Journal has reported that "The catchphrase "snail mail" -- shorthand for the U.S. Postal Service -- sums up its stiff competition from electronic communications and commercial couriers. For centuries the government service has provided universal mail and package delivery, yet these days its customers can comparison shop for price, speed and convenience. The Postal Service has to respond to survive, and finally Congress has passed operational changes to help its bottom line. Most notably, it should bring predictability and flexibility to rate increases by connecting prices to inflation over the next 10 years. That matters to mass mailers like Delaware's banks, magazine publishers and product distributors. The overhaul also gets rid of outdated financial obligations, such as an excessive escrow fund, freeing up $3 billion annually at the Postal Service. This money is expected to be applied to keep down rates, prepay toward employees' retirement and health benefits, and eventual capital improvements." See also the Federal Times.

The Telegraph has reported that "Around 2,500 post offices are expected to close because of increasing losses and fewer people using the network, Alistair Darling, the Trade and Industry Secretary, has announced. Post offices 'face a long-term challenge' The cutback was blamed on mounting losses and fewer people using the network of 14,263 offices. Mr Darling said there had to be a reduction in the size of the network to reflect the dip in business and losses of £4 million a week, up from £2 million a year ago."

VNUNet has noted that "Demand for passive radio frequency identification (RFID) labels, particularly UHF labels, is being stymied by a vicious circle of high unit costs that can only be reduced if production volumes increase."

From CNW Telbec: "Magazines Canada welcomes the federal government's decision to safeguard the Publications Assistance Program by directing Canada Post to continue funding the program for the next two years. As a cornerstone of Canada's magazine policy, the PAP is a market-driven program that ensures that Canadians have access to Canadian-content magazines at affordable rates no matter where they live in Canada. It also addresses the significant challenges of distributing subscription-based magazines to individual addresses across Canada's huge landmass at an affordable price."

According to InTheNews.co.uk, "The future of 14,500 post offices nationwide will be announced by the government today." See also the BBC.

DM News has reported that:

• DHL is switching from a product-centric database model to a customer-centric one.

• There are vested interests on both sides of the debate. Printers, paper manufacturers and the U.S. Postal Service see the paper catalog as being invincible. Internet service providers, search firms and the Internet industry see the catalog as a relic of the pre-online era. 

Transport Intelligence has reported that:

• Deutsche Post World Net has held its latest Capital Markets day for analysts giving an insight into the latest developments and strategic focus of DHL's Logistics division. John Allen, who previously headed up Exel and is now CEO of DHL Logistics, chaired the meeting. One of the main themes of the meeting was that DHL had reached the second part of a three stage process. The first stage had been to 'build a global leader' which took place between 2000 and 2005. The second, to go from being the 'biggest to the best' is slated to be completed by 2010.

• DHL has announced what it calls 'significant progress' on its Route Optimization Initiative, a component of a programme announced earlier this year to enhance courier pick up and delivery efficiency. To date, DHL has improved pickup service, while decreasing vehicle usage and fuel consumption.

As the Bangor Daily News put it: "Three years after repeated previous failures to reform the $70 billion U.S. Postal Service, Sen. Susan Collins can claim victory on major legislation almost no one has heard of but that will affect nearly everyone. Her bill steers the Postal Service toward a more competitive, more stable future."

The San Jose Mercury News has reported that "When 2007 arrives, it will bring increases in rates at FedEx Corp. and United Parcel Service Inc. and a possible jump in postal rates. Savvy small business owners already know how they'll deal with their escalating mailing and shipping costs."

680News Radio has reported that "The Conservative government is ordering Canada Post to continue rural mail delivery and maintain a fund that subsidizes postage for Canadian magazines." See also Canada.com and CNN Matthews.

A copy of the presentation given to the Postal Rate Commission by Murray Buchanan, Head of International Policy and Deputy Director, Royal Mail on the “3rd European Postal Directive” has been posted on the PRC web site..

From Bolsamania: "SOLYSTIC, a subsidiary of Northrop Grumman and one of the main industrial players in postal automation, announced today the signature of two important contracts with La Poste (France) and the Royal Mail (England). As part of these contracts, SOLYSTIC will provide and install 40 TOP2000 high-performance machines, for the sorting of oversize mail. Each of these state-of-the-art machines will be capable of automatically sorting 38,000 flat objects an hour. Automation of postal sorting is a central issue for postal operators looking to 2009, the year when the European postal market is to be fully liberalised."

CBS2Chicago has reported that "Twins Eric and Evan Gilmore wrote out their letters to Santa Claus last week. Grandma put stamps on the letters and mailed them, as she has in years before -- To Santa: North Pole. However, grandma Nancy Teafoe was surprised when 4-year-old Eric's letter was returned Monday with the notation "Return to Sender, Insufficient Address, Unable to Forward."

According to the Financial Times, "If ever a business were crying out for privatisation, it is Royal Mail Group. The government’s dim-witted method of reforming the postal market has been to open it to competition while retaining ownership of the dominant operator. The group has to fight for long-term survival while burdened with ill-defined social duties, an inflated payroll and restricted access to finance."

Financial Times Deutschland has reported that "Deutsche Post, the German postal service operator, has indicated that it will pursue an aggressive pricing policy if it loses a substantial amount of market share with the deregulation of the late mail market at the beginning of 2008. The company expects greater leeway for pricing with deregulation, whereas, at present, the country's networks regulator (Bundesnetzagentur) must approve postage charges annually."

Postal News for December 13, 2006

Don't lose your chance to get an early-bird discount rate for your National Postal Forum reservation. The deadline's closing soon.

Fort Frances Times Online has reported that "Following word last week that the Publications Assistance Program will be cut by $15 million next year, Times’ publisher Jim Cumming warned political action must be taken now or subscription rates will go up. “The Publications Assistance Program is actually a subsidy to the subscribers of papers,” Cumming noted yesterday. “The money was supplied to reduce the mailing costs to receive subscriptions to community newspapers across Canada.

Forbes has reported that "Austria's Oesterreichische Post AG is set to gain a 10 pct stake in Bawag should the Cerberus bid for the troubled bank be successful, according to reports in the Austrian media."

The U.S. Postal Service and the National Postal Mail Handlers Union (NPMHU) have reached a tentative five-year contract agreement. Upon ratification by union members, the agreement will run through Nov. 20, 2011, and affect approximately 55,000 career employees who are engaged in bulk transfer, loading and unloading of mail. The Postal Service and NPMHU formally opened national contract negotiations on Aug. 21, 2006.

The National Association of Major Mail Users has told its members that "The USPS business decision to restrict access to US address data to organizations within the boundaries of the United States and its Territories as of August 2007, impacts mailers, International software vendors, VAM (Value Add Mailers), Call Centres – any business operation that needs to validate and update addresses in the United States. All the software vendors are restricted from sending the address data updates to off-shore mailers, including Canadian mailers and service providers." NAMMU has launched a plan of action to counter this move by the USPS.

The latest in postal patent apps:

• A mail system including a tracking and reporting system that is adapted to integrate address information together with a unique code on at least one mailpiece, wherein the address information and code are linked, an in-process tracking and archiving system that is adapted to track the mailpiece as the address information and code are printed on the mailpiece and during a mailpiece insertion process to verify that the at least one mailpiece is inserted into a mailer and store an electronic copy of the mailpiece with the address information and code in an archive, an in-bound data capture of return mail system that scans the unique code and automatically links the mailpiece to account information stored in an account database and an postal address update and management system that is linked to a postal service database for verifying address information and correcting address errors.

• A method for providing mailpiece notification to a mailpiece recipient prior to delivery of the mailpiece from a postal carrier system in which a database is accessible by the postal carrier system that contains a recipient's prescribed mailpiece address information and preferred communication channel for receiving the advanced notification regarding impending delivery of the mailpiece. A postal carrier system receives information relating to at least the subject matter and addressee information for the mailpiece being processed in the postal carrier mailpiece delivery system and then determines whether the addressee information present on the deposited mailpiece matches a recipient's addressee information prescribed in the database. When a match is determined an electronic notification is sent to the mailpiece recipient via the prescribed at least one communication channel notifying the mailpiece recipient of the subject matter for the mailpiece currently deposited with the postal carrier system for delivery to the recipient.

• Systems and methods for electronically correcting uncoded addresses include collecting uncoded addresses in an uncoded address database, sorting uncoded addresses by postal code, automatically emailing delivery personnel to notify them they have records to resolve, limiting personnel's access to various postal codes, correcting and/or adjusting the address, determining whether the corrected address delivery point validates, and if no match can be made after correcting and/or adjusting the address, sending the address to a delivery unit with Delivery Force Knowledge.TM. to correct the address and return the correction for delivery point validation.

Dow Jones has reported that "The European Commission on Wednesday approved Austria's Osterreichische Post to buy a controlling stake in German logistics services provider Trans-O-Flex."

Delaware's News-Journal has reported that "A landmark postal reform bill was approved by Congress in its rush to adjournment over the weekend, and Democrat Tom Carper, Delaware's junior senator, is being widely credited as a key player in 11th-hour negotiations that made it possible."

Direct has reported that "While traditional catalogers are no longer the e-commerce naysayers they were in the late nineties, print is still king, according to the Direct Marketing Association's Multichannel Marketing in the Catalog Industry report. However, the report, which was released yesterday, also contains some significant milestones indicating the traditional catalog the industry has truly embraced multichannel marketing."

According to AMEInfo, "The Saudi government has also indicated it plans to reorganise the postal service and sell 49% of some operations."

IPPMedia has reported that "Development in Information and Communication Technology (ICT), particularly the use of internet and mobile phones, has drastically reduced the number of customers using postal services. Tanzania Postal Corporation Mail Business Manager Protas Mwangeni said in Dar es Salaam yesterday that the postal industry worldwide, also in Africa, was going through a period of great trials."

As the Morning-Sentinel put it, "Last week, Congress finally managed to put an end to the decade of wrangling and passed a House-Senate compromise bill authored by Sen. Susan Collins. It hasn't been a high-profile crusade for the senator but somebody had to do it and Collins should be commended for the effort she put into making reform happen."

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

The French Minister for Industry Francois Loos said in Brussels on Monday that France would insist on keeping certain services, e.g. press distribution, in the public hand. Mr Loos said 2009 should be seen as an indicative date, not a definitive deadline.
Market observers still reckon, however, that EU ministers will be able to reach consen- sus in the matter. The universal service and its design and scope could prove crucial. The French, Italian, Greek and Luxembourgian ministerssaid they were doubtful as to whether it would be possible to maintain a uniform pricing system as well as running the universal service five days a week.
The German trade union Ver.di has announced nationwide warning strikes against Deutsche Post in January.
The Association of Swiss Postal Agencies is demanding at least 10,000 CHF - approx. 6,300 euros - per agency and year to keep up agency operations.
The 850 employees of Gabon Poste have been on strike since 31 October. The strike was triggered by the winding-up proceedings concerning the government-owned post company.
The French La Poste improved its mail delivery quality last year but remains way behind competitors in other countries.
Since Monday, residence permit applications for Italy can be submitted to the post office.
Osterreichische Post and the trade union have reached a new wage agreement.
An agreement reached last week between Schweizerische Post and trade unions Kommunikation and tranfair has secured the future of the posts pension fund.
Germanys Pin Group AG is taking the German regulatory authority to court. Owned by publishers Axel Springer, Georg von Holtzbrinck and WAZ as well as holding company Rosalia, mail service provider Pin Group wants the regulatory authority to revoke its decision concerning remuneration for mail delivery contracts, which the company said represented a "massive distortion of competition."
Australia Post has come under suspicion of intentionally having failed to deliver consignments sent by the Liberal Party. The accusations were put forward by Liberal Senator Mitch Fifield, according to Sydney Morning Herald.
Yamato Dialog & Media is the name of the new mail delivery system in Japan. The system was introduced at the beginning of this year by Deutsche Post and is running very well.
DHL Express has fallen behind growth targets in key markets. Board member John Mullen told New York analysts last week the tendency was apparent in Europe, apart from the well-known problems in the USA. Domestic business in Germany in particular appears to have become a problem child.
TNT Express is making a big effort to enter the global parcel market.
French trade unions CFDT, CGT, FO and CFTC have called for an unlimited strike against La Poste subsidiary Coliposte.

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.

According to The Guardian, "As hallowed centres of British community life post offices are a bit like churches. Most of us like the idea more than we actually use them. What can still be done to save the local counter from extinction at the hands of heartlessly efficient new technologies that don't worry much about community spirit?"

The Daily News has reported that "alternative means of communication are not a serious threat to postal mail services, participants at a one-day workshop on 'quality of service continuous testing', held in Dar es Salaam, concurred yesterday. They said that, the other options of communication, such as mobile phones and e-mail services, which are cheaper and faster, have only affected personal mails while business mails have increased. The workshop was organised by Universal Postal Union (UPU) aiming at training participants from Zambia, Lesotho, Swaziland, Namibia, Sudan, Seychelles, Ethiopia and the hosts Tanzania, on the use of continuous testing with the goal of improving postal services quality."

Postal News for December 12, 2006

The Postal History Symposium, the second national conference sponsored by the American Philatelic Society and the Smithsonian National Postal Museum, provides a forum in which philatelists, academic scholars of postal organizations and systems, public historians, and the interested public discuss and present research integrating philately and the history of postal operations within the broader context of American history.

The Associated Press has reported that "A union representing 50,000 postal workers, which has ties to union that broke away from the AFL-CIO in a dispute earlier this year, has rejoined the giant federation. The National Postal Mail Handlers Union renewed its ties to the federation on Tuesday. The group is part of the Laborers union, which severed ties to the AFL-CIO in May. Seven breakaway unions are part of the Change To Win coalition, which broke from the federation in a dispute over money and priorities."

Union Network International has reported that "UNI-Europa Postal affiliates have made various protests and visits to embassies of their countries to hand over their UNI-Europa Postal's position paper on the Commission's proposal to totally liberalise the Postal Services in Europe in 2009. Letters were handed to Finnish embassies too, as they hold the presidency of the European Parliament."

According to DNA Money, "Thirty-three members of Congress are demanding that the F-B-I provide an update on their investigation of the anthrax attacks that killed two postal workers and shut down the Hart Senate Office Building for several months more than five years ago."

WVVA-TV has reported that "Thirty-three members of Congress are demanding that the F-B-I provide an update on their investigation of the anthrax attacks that killed two postal workers and shut down the Hart Senate Office Building for several months more than five years ago."

VNUnet has reported that "This year's expected rise in take-up of radio frequency identification (RFID) technology within the retail industry has failed to materialise, according to analyst IDTechEX. Chief executive Raghu Das says its research into the progress of RFID in 2006 found limited pallet and case tagging due to technical problems and price issues. But he says other sectors, including the airline industry and government institutions, expect to be among the biggest RFID users in the next few years."

The Fitchburg Sentinel & Enterprise has reported that "The local postal workers union is alleging Postmaster Scot Florio has caused a "hostile work environment" at the post office downtown, and is scheduled to hold an "informational picket" today. John Flattery, president of the American Postal Workers Union-Central Ma. Area Local 4553 AFL-CIO, charged Florio is "pushing everyone to their limits."

ABC7Chicago has reported that "Chicagoans who want to send Christmas cards might be better off sending them from the suburbs. The latest U.S. Postal Service survey shows Chicago has a lower rate of timely mail delivery than the suburbs and many cities, including Los Angeles and New York."

The International Herald Tribune has reported that "German postal service provider Deutsche Post AG said Tuesday it reached a deal with its main union to merge its domestic mail and parcel delivery operations."

Die Welt has reported that "PIN, a rival of German postal service operator Deutsche Post, has lodged a complaint with the administrative court of Cologne against the prices that Deutsche Post has been permitted to charge for formal deliveries, which include, for example, notification of court or administrative decisions, as of January 2007. PIN says that Deutsche Post's prices are too low and that this contravenes the German postal laws and could hinder competitors."

According to Traffic World, "Next year will be a special year for UPS as Big Brown turns 100 on Aug. 28. However, it is the other events that could occur in 2007 that will make it an important year for the company and the transportation industry and thus provide a strong incentive for the UPS management and Teamsters leadership to cooperate in an unprecedented manner in the interest of the customers, investors, employees and management."

Brazzil Magazine has reported that "The design of national products has already won the foreign market, international awards and now, the postal stamps in letters sent by Brazilians."

From the PR Newswire: "Stamps.com(R), a provider of Internet-based postage services, has announced the launch of NASCAR licensed PhotoStamps(R) featuring postage with unique designs of three legendary NASCAR drivers: Jeff Gordon, Dale Earnhardt and Dale Earnhardt, Jr. A total of nine designs are currently available, three designs for each NASCAR driver. Individuals who order NASCAR PhotoStamps by January 10, 2007 will also receive a unique collectible first-release insignia on their sheet to mark the first-ever release of PhotoStamps featuring NASCAR drivers."

PostCom Members: A summary of some of the key provisions of the postal reform bill recently passed by Congress has been posted on this site.

As the Las Vegas Review-Journal has noted, "Former Nevada Rep. Jim Bilbray was confirmed by the Senate over the weekend to serve on the board of governors of the U.S. Postal Service until the end of 2015. Bilbray, 68, was nominated in August by President Bush to complete the remainder of a term that expired Dec. 8, and then serve a new nine-year term. Advertisement The Senate confirmed Bilbray's appointment as Congress closed this year's session."

As the Minneapolis Star-Tribune has noted, "UPS has spent $600 million to automate package sorting and cut time, miles and cost. For drivers, it's a real help."

AMEInfo has reported that "A UPU-conducted workshop on philately, the first of its kind in the regin, hosted by Emirates Post, was inaugurated at the Emirates Post Training & Development Centre, with 19 countries from the Arab Permanent Postal Commission (APPC) taking part."

As Don Libey put it in a recent DM News article, "There are vested interests on both sides of the debate. Printers, paper manufacturers and the U.S. Postal Service see the paper catalog as being invincible. Internet service providers, search firms and the Internet industry see the catalog as a relic of the pre-online era. The truth: the debate will be decided by metrics. The problem: we don’t have the metrics. The coming year will advance those metrics and the logical answer will be that the catalog is losing influence and search is gaining influence."

According to the Portland Press Herald, "Congress has approved the first postal reform in 30 years in an effort to keep serving every rural address in America and stabilize postage for everyone, from individuals buying stamps to retailers such as L.L. Bean mailing 200 million catalogs per year. The crux of the compromise that Sen. Susan Collins, R-Maine, spent three years negotiating will cap postal rates at the increase in inflation for at least 10 years. Also, taxpayers, rather than postal customers, will pick up the pension costs for postal workers who served in the military. The financial agreements were aimed at maintaining universal service, which is increasingly costly as more addresses get added each year while customers turn toward other delivery methods such as FedEx and e-mail."

Transport Intelligence has reported that "TNT Logistics has announced it changed its name to CEVA Logistics. In connection with the name change, the company also unveiled its new corporate identity and will begin doing business under the new brand as of today."

Well, by now the celebrations over the passage of postal reform should be over. Now comes the hard part. Making it work.

EurActiv has reported that "In a lively debate on 11 December 2006, EU ministers held their first formal discussion on the Commission’s controversial proposal to subject postal markets to unrestricted competition by 2009. Despite the fact that the liberalisation process was initiated 15 years ago, a number of member states still feel they are not ready to surrender their part-monopolies for fear of thousands of job losses and weakening customer service. The main cause of concern for many countries and postal operators is that it will be impossible to maintain a universal service under the rules proposed by the Commission."

EUObserver has reported that "France and Italy have emerged as the strongest opponents of the European Commission's plan to open up the remaining bulk of postal services to competition, questioning both the 2009 deadline and the liberalisation of public services such as press and light-weight letters distribution. In countries where a public company still has a full or partial monopoly to deliver these services - such as France's La Poste or Italy's Poste Italiane, the liberalisation move could lead to considerable job losses."

InTheNews.co.uk has reported that "Postal service provision is "chronically poor" throughout many areas of Britain, the chairman of the public accounts committee (PAC) has said. Sir Edward Leigh made the critical comments as he attacked postal regulator Postcomm for its limited progress in encouraging competition within the UK postal market. Publishing its report into the progress of Postcomm since it enforced new regulatory guidelines on Royal Mail in March, the PAC says that while progress has been made, more is needed." See also the BBC and Channel 4 News.

Responding to the Public Accounts Committee report into Postcomm and the quality of mail services, Liberal Democrat Shadow Trade and Industry Secretary, Edward Davey MP has urged Ministers to take swift action to free up Royal Mail or see lower quality and mounting financial losses.

According to The Scotsman, "Royal Mail lost or damaged 15 million items of post this year, while the organisation's commitment to universal service was also in jeopardy."

The Financial Times has reported that "France rejected plans on Monday to open the European Union's €90bn (£61bn) postal services market to cross-border competition by 2009. In what is likely to mark the opening shot of a fierce legislative battle over the coming year, François Loos, the French industry minister, said the target date for full liberalisation should not be treated as fixed. He also raised the possibility of keeping postal monopolies in some markets – a direct challenge to the proposal made by the European Commission in October."

The latest National Association Of Postal Supervisors Legislative Update has been posted on this site.

The Postal Service has provided notice that it has withdrawn its request for a recommended decision on classifications, rates, and fees to implement a baseline negotiated service agreement (NSA) with Washington Mutual Bank.

UPS has offered a special voluntary separation opportunity to approximately 650 employees as part of the company's ongoing effort to eliminate redundant positions.

Postal News for December 11, 2006

From the PR Newswire: "PSI Group, the nation's leading provider of mail presort services, has been certified at its Reading, PA facility as a Quality Mail Partner under the United States Postal Service (USPS) Mail Preparation Total Quality Management (MPTQM) Program. MPTQM certification is a prevention-based quality system designed to help the USPS ensure the output of consistent, high-quality mail."

AFX has reported that "The European Commission's plans to liberalise postal services has met with a frosty reception from around half of EU member states, due to their concerns about the provision of basic postal service, particularly in remote areas. 'Guarantees must be stepped up,' said Italian communications minister Paolo Gentiloni, adding that it 'would be unacceptable that services gets worse because of liberalisation'."

According to the Miami Herald, "When money and time are tight, it's common in the corporate world to send holiday greetings using megabytes rather than mail carriers. Electronic greetings are more prevalent as each year passes, and marketing experts say deciding whether to lick or click can impact the company's relationships in the year ahead. Some local companies say it's smarter to send e-mail greetings to avoid hassles such as the cost of a personal design, timing the mailing just right and printing in two languages."

The latest copy of the National Association of Postmasters of the U.S. electronic governmental affairs newsletter is available on the NAPUS web site.

DM News has reported that "The European Postal Users Group will issue a rallying call to European Ministers today to back opening up Europe’s postal markets in 2009. The call came hours ahead of the first formal discussion by the Ministers of the European Commission’s recent proposal to lift the final element of monopoly in the postal market." See also the DM Bulletin.

EUPolitix.com has reported that "France led the opposition to European commission plans to liberalise EU postal services by 2009 at a meeting of EU ministers on Monday. Paris has openly criticised the commission’s plans, put forward by internal market chief Charlie McCreevy in October, in particular the proposal to change the way basic postal services are provided. In France, as in many other countries, these so-called universal services are currently carried out by a single operator, and are funded by ‘reserving’ part of the market for that company. Paris is concerned that the commission’s proposals to scrap reserved markets and to fund the universal service through different means such as compensation packages, state aid or public tenders would lead to an increased financial burden on national governments."

As Catalog Success put it: "Consider it a postal and legislative version of “Do you believe in miracles?” Late Friday night into early Saturday morning, the House and then the Senate passed a sweeping postal reform bill that will bring forth significant change in the way that postal rates are set. President Bush is expected to sign the bill into law sometime this coming week. The bill’s passage culminates 11 years of prior failures to get a postal reform bill through both chambers of Congress."

According to Direct Newsline, "NALC president William Young said in an e-mail newsletter to his union's members that passage of the postal reform gave him a "bittersweet feeling", because the bill preserves the union's collective bargaining rights but includes the three-day wait, which "really sticks in my craw." Young said he agreed on Friday not to oppose the bill, but said his union would now lobby to repeal the compensation waiting period." See Young's communique with this members.

Lusa has reported that "the post office of Portugal has announced the end of a partnership with the General Box of Depósitos (CGD) and will form a new postal bank."

The BBC Monitoring Service has reported that "A jar with dangerous liquid has broken at a post office in St Petersburg. The Emergencies Ministry's operatives went to the scene. The post office staff detected a suspicious package. Apparently, a jar with unknown substance had broken inside it. The liquid burnt through the package and its vapour made people in the office feel unwell. There is no information as yet about the number of people who were in the office when the incident occurred."

According to the Wall Street Journal, "The Postal Service generally will be barred from raising postage rates beyond the rate of inflation for the next decade under an overhaul passed by Congress. The new law -- the first major changes to the service in more than three decades -- aims to stabilize rates for households and bulk mailers and to help the service cope with the challenges of the Internet and compete against delivery companies such as FedEx Corp. and United Parcel Service Inc. The White House said President Bush would sign the bill."

From the Federal Register: "Time and Date: Thursday, December 14, 2006, at 10 a.m. Place: Commission conference room 901 New York Avenue, NW., Suite 200, Washington, DC 20268-0001. Status: Closed. Matters To Be Considered: Decision in Docket No. N2006-1, Evolutionary Network Realignment."

The DM Bulletin has reported that "Fewer than one in 10 pieces of direct mail are relevant to the people who receive them, new research has found. The survey reveals that 47% of direct mail that is sent to post boxes is addressed incorrectly. Data firm Informatica has undertaken the study to highlight the attention of inaccurate data being used in UK direct marketing campaigns. It blames poorly-used data for contributing to the 78,000 tonnes of landfill waste each year caused by unaddressed junk mail. Other findings were that 40% of respondents received more than five pieces of direct mail a week and a quarter of people said that less than 1% of all the direct marketing they received was relevant to them."

The Norwich Evening News has reported that "MPs are preparing to challenge a fresh round of post office closures feared to hit rural branches most, as the government finalised the level of financial support it will give the loss-making network. Opposition parties, sub-postmasters, and business and campaign groups urged ministers not to sanction wholesale closures among the 14,500 offices spread across the UK. But they look inevitable because of the scale of the losses, especially in rural areas where 1,600 offices have fewer than 100 customers each. The post office network is losing £4m a week, up from £2m last year following a series of decisions which have cost post offices valuable business, including pension and child benefit payments being made directly into bank accounts."

The Guardian has reported that "The leader of Britain's subpostmasters urged politicians not to turn the issue of post office closures into a political football yesterday. Ministers should deliver new proposals for funding the rural post office network and the replacement of a key government contract to form the basis of a sustainable network, said Colin Baker, secretary general of the National Federation of SubPostmasters."

According to Dow Jones, "German postal-services provider Deutsche Post AG Monday said it aims for an average growth in sales at its logistics business of between 7% and 9% by 2010."

As Traffic World has noted, "Another major airline cut its fuel surcharge on international freight for December, reflecting declines in jet fuel prices earlier this fall, but more recent price moves suggest the fees could level off or even rise from here. Cargo industry giant FedEx Express put its surcharge down to 50 cents per kilogram effective Dec. 4, from 55 cents in November and 60 cents from Aug. 1 through Nov. 5. Most other major cargo carriers -- including Lufthansa, UPS, Northwest, American and Continental airlines, and British Airways - were already down to the 50-cent fee level, but the FedEx price index adjusts at a different point from competitors. But fuel prices since early November have strengthened significantly for the first time since the price plunge began in August, and some of those carriers may soon see upward price pressure for a change on the indices that trip their surcharges."

According to the New York Times, "Both chairman and chief executive of United Parcel Service since 2002, Michael L. Eskew is known as a plain speaker. Yet Mr. Eskew, 57, is also a cautious speaker, who, when asked to compare his company with the competition — namely FedEx — demurs. “I’m not that kind of guy,” he says.

Postal News for December 10, 2006

The Associated Press has reported that "In this age of cell phones, text messages and computer keyboards, one Scottish school has returned to basics. It's teaching youngsters the neglected art of writing with a fountain pen."

The Hindustan Times has reported that the Indian "Postal Department has come up with a concept of Finance Mart, where the customers will get the financial services under one roof."

The Financial Times has reported that "The Federation of Small Businesses is calling for a shake-up of the service offered by Royal Mail to its members after research showed 82 per cent of small businesses felt post offices were vital to their operations."

According to The Peninsula, "The GCC Postal Institution meeting, slated to be held at Riyadh next year will discuss the possibilities for establishing a common GCC network for Express Postal service."

According to the Associated Press, "Congress has passed legislation that could relieve the Postal Service of billions of dollars in costs, possibly delaying future rate increases." [What's the saying? From your mouth to God's ear?]

Press release from the Office of Sen. Susan Collins: "Both the House and Senate passed historic postal reform legislation in the final hours of the 109th Congress after key negotiators -- Sens. Susan Collins, R-ME, and Tom Carper, D-DE, and Reps. Tom Davis, R-VA, and Henry A. Waxman, D-CA -- brokered an agreement that will modernize the United States Postal Service and make it viable for the 21st century. The legislation, the first major overhaul of the USPS since 1970, will help stabilize mail volume and stamp prices. "The U.S. Postal Service is the lynchpin of a $900 billion mailing industry, providing nine million jobs nationwide in fields as diverse as direct mailing, printing, catalog companies, paper manufacturing, and financial services. But under its current business model, which has not been updated in decades, the financial future of the Postal Service is not viable," said Senator Collins. "The only way to avoid what the Government Accountability Office refers to as a 'death spiral' - of excessive and unpredictable rate increases which lead to further reductions in mail volume - is through the comprehensive reform that we accomplished here today."

KUTV (Salt Lake) has reported that "The collision of a mail truck and a cow resulted in the destruction of about 6000 letters and packages, and the driver was seriously injured. A postal spokesman says the truck was headed north from Durango to Grand Junction on U-S 191 near Moab, Utah, when it collided with a cow Thursday night. The crash set the truck on fire and killed the cow." See also ABC-4.

Postal News for December 9, 2006

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

• It took about a dozen years to happen, but legislation to reform the Postal Service finally passed Congress this week. It now goes to President Bush’s desk for his signature.
• A look at rebuttal testimony that addresses key issues raised by the Association for Postal Commerce in the current rate case. This story includes a chart containing postal witness information and topics covered in rebuttal.
• The USPS Board of Governors this week approved the first phase of the Flats Sequencing System (FSS) initiative. The program includes the purchase and deployment of 100 FSS machines to 33 postal facilities, and funding to expand facilities to accommodate the large machines. Phase 1 deployment is slated to begin May 2008 and be completed by September 2010.The Postal Service says it will follow the plan for Confirm to cover its costs while responding to customer behavior. That’s despite criticism from mailers who maintain that the proposed changes will reduce demand for Confirm, a result that runs contrary to the USPS’ stated desire to improve transparency of the system and to seize the opportunities afforded by automation and advanced technology.
• Postal commentator Gene Del Polito wonders aloud about the Postal Service’s views and action on an issue that is key to ensuring a continued growth of the quality of mail service Confirm in this perspective.
• Direct mail continues to be a favorite of advertisers. Direct mail was the largest individual ad category in terms of dollars in 2006, up 8.5 percent to $59.91 billion.
• In this commentary, direct mail consultant Cary Baer looks at some possible ways around postal reform roadblocks. Legal battles, anyone?
• Sam Ryan of the Lexington Institute says the U.S. could learn much from Europe where a deregulated and competitive postal industry has led to lower prices and better service.
• Postal Service, APWU reach tentative contract; no deals with other unions. Giordano named USPS VP, public affairs and communications. New Jersey’s ‘do not solicit’ bill picks up new support. FedEx, DOT continue squabble over reporting rule. One more e-way to cut shipping costs.
• TNT wins right to use ‘post’ in Germany. Deutsche Post perhaps found innocent. China Post separated from regulator. Mail Boxes Etc. to expand in India. Italian Postal service dealing drugs.

Who handles the distribution of the PostCom Bulletin?
 Why, it's NETGRAM, of course. Read more about it.

From the Postmaster General: "The Congress is to be congratulated on the passage of the Postal Accountability and Enhancement Act of 2006. I would single out for extraordinary effort Senators Susan Collins, Joseph Lieberman and Thomas Carper and Representatives Thomas Davis, Henry Waxman, John McHugh and Danny Davis for making reform a reality. We are grateful that the funding for USPS retiree military service obligations will be borne by the Treasury. This, combined with release of the escrow funds, will be used for retiree health benefits. We look forward to working with the mailing community, USPS employees, the Postal Regulatory Commission and the Treasury on implementation of the pending legislation and delivery of affordable universal service to all Americans for many years to come."

Deputy OPM Director Dan Blair has been confirmed as the new Chairman of the Postal Rate Commission.

The U.S. Congress has passed H.R. 6407, a bill "to reform the postal laws of the United States."

From the Office of Rep. John McHugh: "After 12 years of hard work on an issue that impacts every household and business in America, Congressman John M. McHugh (R-NY) delivered landmark reform of the U.S. Postal Service today during the waning hours of the 109th Congress. The comprehensive legislation, while having virtually no impact on the way the American mailing consumer interacts with the Postal Service, will modernize operations and ensure the agency's future solvency."

The Daily Express has reported that "A huge row was brewing over the future of Britain's post offices, amid speculation of a fresh round of closures. The Government is expected to announce next week the level of its support for the network, which has fallen from more than 20,000 to about 14,500 in past years. The Royal Mail has told ministers that post offices are losing millions of pounds a week despite a recent closure programme. The Government spends £150m a year supporting the 9,400 rural post offices, which is due to run out in 2008." See also The Guardian, The Times, and The Telegraph.

The Islamic Republic News Agency has reported that "A group of Iraqi postal employees have completed their first training course in the southwestern city of Khorramshahr, said the city's post office head Hamid Soleymani on Friday. The 12-member group were familiarized with latest developments in postal activities during the training, said the official. He said that the printing of Iraq postage stamps, as requested by its present government, and the training of its staff in postal work in Iran were indicative of growing Iran-Iraq postal relations."

The Pacific Daily News has reported that "Fewer than half of Guam’s residents have mail delivered to their curb or even to their village because of bad or narrow roads, homes without numbers and streets without names. That means additional costs, to rent post office boxes in private or Postal Service facilities. Many of those obstacles have been or are being corrected, but it looks like the only residents who can expect curbside mail service from now on are those who already are getting it. New homes and new subdivisions are being built, but the U.S. Postal Service doesn’t intend to expand delivery routes to provide additional curbside service here, according to a Postal Service spokesman in Hawaii."

Postal News for December 8, 2006

The latest update from the Universal Postal Union Direct Mail Advisory Board has been posted on this site.

The U.S. Postal Service and the National Rural Letter Carriers’ Association (NRLCA) have reached a tentative four-year contract agreement. Upon ratification by union members, the agreement will run through Nov. 20, 2010, and affect approximately 66,000 career employees and 52,000 non-career employees who deliver mail to residences and businesses on rural delivery routes.

E-Magazine has said that "The Do Not Call Registry opened in 2003 and has received more than 125 million telephone numbers from people who do not want their contact information sold to telemarketers. Three years later, Americans are still waiting for a simple, companion registry in order to reduce the quantity of unwanted junk mail from direct mailers. © Getty Images Although bills have been introduced in Missouri, Illinois, New York and California, and several other states have expressed interest in introducing similar bills in January, little is happening on a national level. Meanwhile, every four months, an area the size of Rocky Mountain National Park is leveled in order to produce the 100 million trees worth of junk mail that invades the mailboxes of millions of Americans each year. This production and disposal of junk mail consumes more energy than 2.8 million cars and costs citizens and local governments hundreds of millions of dollars per year in collection and disposal fees."

Catalog Success has reported that "Eleven years in the making, and written off as dead and buried just a few weeks ago, a new postal reform bill is expected to be passed through the House and Senate possibly by the end of Friday — if not, Saturday."

The Library of Congress now has an HTML version of  H.R. 6407 posted on its Thomas web site. A printer friendly display can be found on Thomas as well. A Word version of H.R. 6407 can be found on this web site.

As the Federal Times has noted, "The American Postal Workers Union said Dec. 6 that it reached a tentative four-year contract with the U.S. Postal Service, the first of the four unions currently negotiating new contracts to reach an agreement. Without disclosing specifics, AWPU President William Burrus said it is an “outstanding agreement that protects the rights and interests of postal workers and the American people.” A day earlier, the National Association of Letter Carriers said it had reached an impasse in talks with Postal Service management and would proceed to mandatory arbitration. In a statement, NALC President William Young said the offer made by the Postal Service was an “outrage” that he was determined to stop in its tracks. Among those things, NALC said it objected to the Postal Service’s refusal to rule out any attempts to contract out existing city carrier work."

The APWU Rank-and-File Bargaining Advisory Committee voted unanimously to approve the union’s tentative 2006 Collective Bargaining Agreement on Dec. 7 at a meeting in Washington DC. The agreement will be sent to union members for a ratification vote, which the committee will supervise. The four-year tentative agreement provides for two wage increases and an upgrade for all APWU-represented employees, in addition to Cost-of-Living Adjustments (COLAs) twice per year. It also provides for the elimination of part-time flexibles as a workforce category in large offices, no later than Dec. 1, 2007. All PTFs in offices of 200 man-years or more will be converted to full-time regular by that date. The Postal Service will pay 95 percent of healthcare premiums for employees enrolled in the APWU Consumer Driven Health Plan; for workers enrolled in other health plans, the employees’ share of premiums will increase 1 percent per year for four years, beginning in 2008.

The United States Postal Service is looking for a Chief Privacy Officer to handle a wide variety of privacy-related issues and initiatives in Washington, D.C. The position is the equivalent of the GS-14 level. Applicants should refer to announcement number PCES-0603 (closing date 12/30/06). All applicants must submit their resumés and cover letters to EXEC-eApply@usps.gov. Questions regarding this announcement may be directed to the Centralized Recruitment Team at (202) 268-8112.

According to the Washington Post, "In a round of unexpected dealmaking, the House and Senate began moving yesterday toward passage of legislation that would overhaul the business operations of the U.S. Postal Service for the first time since 1970. But key Senate and House leaders, including Rep. Henry A. Waxman (D-Calif.), came up with an agreement, and congressional aides said the measure could be approved no later than today under expedited procedures. Key features:

• Create a cap for raising postal rates by linking adjustments to increases in the consumer price index, giving mailers some predictability about postage increases. The price cap would be reviewed after 10 years by a newly created Postal Regulatory Commission, which could modify the cap or adopt an alternative rate system if necessary.
• Repeal a law that requires the Postal Service to make payments, originally intended for postal pensions but no longer needed, into an escrow fund. That essentially would release $78 billion over 60 years, money that would be used to cover retiree health-care liabilities, pay off postal debts to the Treasury and perhaps lower rate increases.
• Put in place a three-day waiting period before an employee is eligible to receive workers' compensation for job-related injuries. The waiting period is a feature of most state workers' comp programs, and at one point had been dubbed a deal-breaker by the National Association of Letter Carriers union. The NALC had no comment. Other federal employees are not subject to a waiting period.

To reach the compromise, House negotiators agreed to keep the waiting period, as sought by the Senate, and Senate negotiators agreed to give way to the House on whether the rate cap could come up for review and possible modification. "

The Associated Press has reported that "Shares of United Parcel Service Inc. and FedEx Corp. have gained ground ahead of the typically busy holiday season, but the question is whether the package delivery giants can carry that momentum forward if the economy moderates as expected in 2007."

The Idaho Statesman has noted that "The growing problem of consumers shipping potentially hazardous materials spurred the Associated Mail and Parcel Centers, a Dallas-based trade group for 3,300 mail and shipping businesses, to launch Ship Responsibly, a nationwide program aimed at educating the public about the dangers of shipping hazardous materials."

Direct Newsline has reported that "Pitney Bowes Management Services have joined forces with a NewlineNoosh to provide commercial and marketing print services. Under the terms of the agreement, PBMS can sell NLN managed services for print at its more than 1,600 U.S. customer locations."

ThisIsWiltshire has reported that "First class service at Swindon's sorting office has sparked a boycott by post workers in Reading. The Dorcan sorting office was praised for being the best in the country by mail watchdog Postwatch last Friday. Swindon Regional Mail Centre, which delivered 97 per cent of first-class letters within a day, is planning to double in size and take over offices in Reading and Gloucester. Now put-out posties in Reading are calling for people to boycott Swindon on their Christmas cards. Postal workers from Reading's Royal Mail Centre, has told customers to write "Not via Swindon" on their Christmas cards."

Transport Intelligence has reported that "TNT Express has announced it has extended its Economy Express product offering to cover all countries worldwide from Europe. The expansion is designed to reinforce TNT Express' focus on globalising its express product offering and strengthening network capabilities with the extension of Economy Express (from Europe) to an additional 150 destination countries worldwide."

Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung has reported that "Deutsche Post, the German postal service operator, presented an unexpectedly positive outlook for its express operations on Tuesday, which led to a further rise of almost 2 per cent in the share price yesterday. In particular, analysts were impressed at the ambitious targets for margins in the group's express business, which has been poor so far this year: the company is aiming for an average ebit margin of 10 to 12 per cent within two years. In the third quarter of this year, the ebit margin was just 2.3 per cent, owing to losses in France and the US. Business has now stabilised in the US, however, and Deutsche Post says that it expects to achieve a turnaround there in two to three years."

Precision Marketing has reported that "Adam Novak, one of the architects of Royal Mail's media markets strategy, who oversaw a 30 per cent growth in direct mail, has died."

ThisIsExeter has reported htat "Talks are continuing in a bid to prevent a city post strike that could prove crippling in the run-up to Christmas.Senior union officials and post office bosses met in London yesterday to try to end a dispute that almost led to strike action on Monday." See also the BBC.

Postal News for December 7, 2006

A revised version of the postal reform bill, H.R. 6407, has been introduced by proponents of reform in the House of Representatives. Action on the bill can occur on the House floor at any time. PostCom has been told that the Senate proponents of reform have agreed to this language. The language around the cap essentially says that a hard cap under language in the Senate bill would be in place for 10 years and then the cap would be reviewed by the Postal Regulatory Commission. The PRC would review to determine if the cap is achieving its objectives and, if it were not, the PRC would be authorized to make -- by regulation -- modifications or adopt alternatives as my be necessary to achieve objectives.

In Congressional Quarterly it was reported that "The largest overhaul of the Postal Service in more than 30 years could be headed to the president's desk before the end of the week. Supporters hope the changes, aimed at making the Postal Service operate more like a business, can move through the House and Senate quickly after years of falling just short of completion. "We're running traps right now, but it is possible postal reform will not be return to sender this year," said Eric Ueland, chief of staff to Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist, R-Tenn."

As Federal Computer Week has noted, "The U.S. Postal Service is testing new technology designed to more rapidly and efficiently process, distribute and deliver letter mail that postal authorities refer to as flats — large envelopes, magazines, catalogs and circulars. The Postal Service Board of Governors approved Dec. 6 the initiative, known as the Flats Sequencing System (FSS) program. USPS can now move forward with its plans to use sophisticated equipment that will sort flat mail for letter carriers, who must now do it manually before departing for their routes. The FSS equipment is designed to sequence flat mail at a rate of about 16,500 pieces per hour. Scheduled to operate 17 hours a day, each machine will be capable of sequencing 280,500 pieces a day to more than 125,000 delivery addresses." See also Government Computer News.

In the December issue of its DMM Advisory, the U.S. Postal Service noted that "Today we updated our mailing standards to capture the following changes: Labeling Trays and Sacks of First-Class Mail We revised the labeling standards for mixed AADC and mixed ADC containers of First-Class Mail letters, flats, and parcels. This change will allow containers of mixed ADC and mixed AADC mail to be labeled directly to the actual processing sites. We updated sections 235.5.0, 235.6.8, 335.5.5, 335.6.0, 435.5.4, 708.7.2.5, and Labeling List L201 with this change. Labeling Lists We updated the labeling lists L001, L006, L007, L201, and L606 to reflect changes in mail processing operations. Our next DMM update is scheduled for January 4."

As DM News has noted, "A bill that aims to create a credit card "do-not-solicit" list for senior citizens and other vulnerable consumers is advancing in New Jersey. It was sponsored by four Democratic Assembly members and now has 38 more co-sponsors, though there is no sponsor in the state Senate. Hawaii, Illinois, Missouri and New York also introduced do-not-mail legislation this year."

Forbes has reported that "Germany, which will take over the revolving EU presidency for the first half of 2007, plans to reach an agreement between member states on postal liberalisation by the end of June, diplomatic sources told Agence-France Presse."

In his latest perspective, postal commentator Gene Del Polito said: "Now, I don't know about anybody else out there who gives a hoot or holler for the preservation of the Confirm service, but I, for one, am quite tired of watching the Postal Service march down a road that (from my perspective) is guaranteed to drive mailers' interest in Confirm out of existence. I've toiled within this industry for some 23 years, but never...and I mean never...have I ever seen the Postal Service behave so obstinantly about an approach to an issue that was in opposition to the genuine and defensible views held by all...and I mean all...of its customers."

The Independent has reported that "Local authorities are buckling under the 78,000 tons of unaddressed junk mail that is thrown into landfill sites each year, according to a new survey. It shows that British companies are not cleaning up their marketing data, resulting in direct mail going to the wrong people and irrelevant mail clogging up the postal service. The survey was sponsored by Informatica Corporation, a data software company."

According to Government Leader, "The Postal Service, perhaps more than any other government entity, has the unique position of offering a service to every door, every day. Sometimes, in rural areas, the mail carrier may be the only person who checks in with an elderly person each day. If PMG Jack Potter hears of a mail carrier doing a good deed or special favor for someone, he writes that employee a personal note. Such is life in Potter’s world, where the postmaster general tries to balance the needs of the Postal Service’s workforce with those of its stakeholders—300 million Americans."

Postal News for December 6, 2006

Seven Days has reported that "When United Parcel Service started out in 1907, the messenger service made deliveries via bicycle. This holiday season, the company is borrowing a page from its people-powered past. Since the last week of November, distribution centers in Rutland, White River Junction, Barre and Burlington have been augmenting their motorized fleets with mountain bikes pulling lightweight flatbed trailers that can hold upwards of 100 pounds each. Seasonally employed riders make deliveries in flatter sections of towns."

According to Multichannel Merchant, "As the volume of holiday print catalogs threatens to break the backs of America’s postal carriers, it would stand to reason that consumers’ e-mail inboxes would be overflowing as well, and opt-outs would be skyrocketing as a result. But according to experts, mainstream retailers are showing a surprising restraint in their e-mail efforts this season."

Well, the APWU may have come to an agreement with the Postal Service, but the Postal Service is still under fire by the National Association of Letter Carriers. In a recent communique, NALC President William Young told his members that "the United States Postal Service delivered its final proposals to us on December 4, 2006. Those proposals represent what management thinks about the contributions city letter carriers have made to the success of the USPS. I cannot begin to tell you how disappointed I am—and how determined I am to stop this outrage in its tracks....Management’s non-economic proposals are just as absurd."

GovExec.com has reported that "In a final attempt to overhaul the U.S. Postal Service's rate-making operation and retirement program, House Government Reform Chairman Tom Davis, R-Va., and ranking member Henry Waxman, D-Calif., have drafted a proposal that they hope to entice the measure's Senate co-sponsors to sign and try to move this week. While Waxman said "it's something that could be passed this week," it remains to be seen whether the Senate would be receptive to the proposal."

From PR Newswire:

• Action from the meeting of the Board of Governors of the U.S. Postal Service:

1. Technology that successfully boosted postal efficiencies in the processing, distribution, and delivery of letter mail will soon be applied to the sorting of what the Postal Service refers to as "flats" -- large envelopes, magazines, catalogs, and circulars. Known as the Flats Sequencing System (FSS) program, the initiative approved today by the Postal Service Board of Governors allows the agency to move forward with plans to employ sophisticated equipment to sort flat-mail pieces for letter carriers, who now must manually sequence this mail before leaving the office for their routes.
2. The Board of Governors approved a fiscal year 2008 appropriation request totaling $153.4 million. This annual request to Congress, as provided under current law, includes $83.5 million in reimbursement for free services the Postal Service is required to provide, including free mail for blind persons and for overseas voting. This appropriations request also includes reconciliation adjustments for previous years based upon final audited mail volumes, which are $24.9 million for fiscal year 2005 and $16 million for fiscal year 2006.
3. The Board approved the Postal Service Fiscal Year 2006 Annual Report.

• SteelCloud, Inc., a leading engineering and manufacturing integrator of network centric and embedded computing solutions today announced it has been awarded a contract valued at nearly $10 Million by the U.S. Postal Service Engineering Department to provide specialized servers for the FRIP Program. The initial contract calls for initial deliveries in early 2007 to the FRIP prime contractor, Siemens Energy & Automation, Inc. Postal Automation Division in Arlington, Texas. By summer 2007, additional servers will be installed at select postal locations. In the fall, the remaining production servers will be deployed throughout the U.S. Under terms of the agreement, the U.S. Postal Service has an option to purchase additional servers for another $2.6 Million within six months of the initial contract award for delivery in the company's fiscal year 2008. Exercise of this option will result in approximately $12.6 Million in total contract revenue.

Editorial correction: We reported earlier that "After having become the focus of a recent Wall Street Journal piece on the fall-out from the 2006 elections, UPS public relations director David Bolger has been discharged." Apparently, our information source was incorrect. Bolger's departure was of his own choosing. He decided to find his way back to the now more fertile ground of Democratic-Hill politics. Bolger and UPS reportedly left on amicable terms.

The U.S. Postal Service and the American Postal Workers Union (APWU) have reached a tentative four-year contract agreement.

According to Mailers Council executive director Robert McLean: "The NALC has revealed the key components in the USPS’ December 4 proposal—and they include several major changes to the pay and benefits that city carriers currently receive and those they would receive in retirement. Although we have not seen the proposals made to the other three unions, it is likely they were similar. Here are the key issues—as reported by the NALC:

• No wage increase for the first year of the contract; instead, a lump-sum payment (that, presumably, would not be added to the base pay).
• A 1% general increase in the second year and 1% in the third year.
• Continuation of COLAs for this contract, but paid only as lump sums (meaning not added to base pay); and elimination of COLAs at the end of the contract.
• For city carriers with family health insurance coverage, an increase of $1,300 a year (presumably through a shift in the percentage of the premium paid by the USPS, but the NALC announcement is unclear on this point).
• A 1% payroll deduction to pre-fund future retiree benefits.
• Cuts in annual leave, sick leave, night shift premium, Sunday premium, and overtime premiums.
• A 2.5% annual increase in uniform allowances.
• Elimination of the “no layoff” clause and local negotiations.
• An increase in the number of low-paid, no-benefit workers.
• A new rule permitting managers to perform bargaining unit work.

Lump-sum annual payments and COLAs paid as lump sums are significant long-term cost issues because they do not add to a carrier’s base pay. A carrier’s base pay in the last three years of employment (or the “high three”) determines the amount of the carrier’s pension. So, these changes would offer substantial long-term savings to the USPS over the next several decades for more than 200,000 employees—in this craft alone."

In an op-ed piece published in the New York Times, Lexington Institute scholar Sam Ryan wrote that "Freer markets would surely be better not only for Europe’s consumers and businesses, but also for American companies that do business overseas. And yet, if the United States were in this fight, we’d be on the wrong side. We’d be right there with France, blustering about how government agencies create jobs while private companies take them away. After all, an outsized and inefficient government-subsidized monopoly runs America’s mail system, and it steadily raises rates on its captive consumers. Private competitors can enter the delivery market only if they charge at least $3 per piece or twice what the Postal Service charges, whichever is greater."

The Wall Street Journal has reported that:

• The payment-card industry is charging into one of the last bastions of consumer business that has been slow to accept plastic: utilities. In the past year, a number of large natural-gas and electric providers have begun allowing residential customers to pay their bills with credit and debit cards. Utilities are dropping their longstanding opposition to plastic as new competition looms in states that have deregulated the former monopolies. To help hang on to customers, the utility industry is searching for ways to make bill-paying faster and easier.
• Black consumers spent more than $300 million on books last year, according to Ken Smikle, publisher of Black Issues Book Review, a unit of Chicago-based Target Market News Inc. That's more than twice as much as they spent in the early 1990s. Bookspan, the book-club company owned by Bertelsmann AG and Time Warner Inc., says its Black Expressions Book Club boasts 460,000 members, compared with 345,000 for its famed Book of the Month Club. Black Expressions is expected to generate double-digit growth in both its sales and membership through the next few years, estimates Markus Wilhelm, Bookspan's CEO. "The growth has been stunning," he says. [Markus Wilhelm currently serves as the Chairman of the Board of Directors of the Direct Marketing Association and is a past-recipient of the Association for Postal Commerce's Stan Woodruff Award for his extraordinary contributions to the Association and its work.]

The Voice of America has spotlighted the National Postal Museum as its "Website of the Week."

Asia Pulse has reported that "The US on Monday asked India to lower import tariffs, open up sectors such as retail and financial services and put in place a strict intellectual property rights regime to enhance trade and investment flows. "There are many challenges that exist. There is a range of sectors that have constraints in terms of ownership caps such as retail and financial services," US Under Secretary for International Trade Franklin Lavin said at a CII meeting. Lavin, who is visiting India with the largest-ever US delegation comprising representatives of 250 companies, said India must also undertake further reforms in telecom, postal services, education, cable and broadcasting."

The Irish Times has reported that "Several Fine Gael TDs called on the Government last night to block the closure of rural post offices."

As the McKinney Courier-Gazette has noted, "With McKinney's population currently at 112,000, the post office at 550 N. Central Expressway, between Virginia Parkway and White Street, seems to be constantly busy as more people move to McKinney. The McKinney Post Office was built in March 1992, when far fewer people lived in the city....The USPS is aware of McKinney's growth....The USPS measures growth not by the population, as cities do, but by the number of deliveries a post office has....The USPS has contracted with small businesses for contract postal units, or CPUs throughout McKinney."

The Wall Street Journal has reported that "Europe's economy is firing on all cylinders after years of feeble growth, helping to sustain global expansion as the U.S. economy slows and surprising many economists who doubted the Continent could muster enough demand to break its reliance on exports."

Charles Prescott (the Direct Marketing Association's international business guru) has noted that "The value of the U.S. dollar is falling. So what are you doing about developing your international business markets? Make hay while the Euro rises."

MENA-FN has reported that "Reinforcing its position as one of the top courier companies in the Middle East, Empost, the UAE’s national courier company, now covers 225 destinations around the world including Australia, the American continents, Europe, Far East, Indian Sub Continent, Africa and all the Middle East. What gives Empost a competitive edge is the fact that it delivers its services to these destinations within 72 hours."

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

The largely unnoticed Article 27 of the EU directive (2002/39 EC) could be- come decisive for the further opening of Europes postal markets. The article stipu- lates that the directive is "valid until 31 December 2008" only, unless otherwise decided.
German trade union Ver.di is upholding its threat to launch "industrial ac- tion on an unprecedented scale".
Spanish trade union association CCOO is critical of the decree issued by the Spanish parliament on 10 November (CEP News 48/06). Various media, among them the reputable daily »La Republica“ (24.11) report CCOO fears that the decree opens the door for private service providers to focus solely on profitable market niches, i.e. urban regions.
Poste Italiane is introducing new service products in an attempt to finance the universal service.
According to circulating rumours, Deutsche Post will not incur penalties from the Federal Network Agencys ongoing inquiry into abuse allegations. Usual- ly well-informed sources claim that the Agency has been unable to ascertain that the post was undercutting market prices via its subsidiary In Haus Service GmbH.
The Dutch mail service provider TNT Post may continue to use the term "Post" in its company name in Germany. The Nuremberg Higher Regional Court last week rejected a complaint filed by Deutsche Post against a decision by the Nuremberg District Court.
While German trade union Ver.di is threatening to take industrial action against Deut- sche Post (see separate article), Swiss postal workers and their union representatives took to the streets on Monday.
Deutsche Post appears determined to pool together its German mail and parcel dispatch operations completely and outsource parts of its parcel delivery operations.
A spectacular takeover has catapulted British CEP operator City Link (2005 turnover: 369.7m euros; operating profit: 43m euros) into the ranks of leading service providers in the market.
UPS subsidiary Mail Boxes Etc intends to open 150 branches in India over the next five years.
Last week Nigel Barton, TNT director of operations in Britain, made an in- teresting public proposal. Referring to the ongoing debate about the viability of post offices in rural areas, Mr Barton suggested that Royal Mail introduce special counters in such areas, where parcel and express services could leave items which they had been unable to deliver.
Aramex International, which claims to be market leader for express opera- tions in the Middle East, has taken over Dubai-based Docman Limited.
Product innovation from Time Warner could make the current DVD distri- bution system practically superfluous. Last week, the worlds biggest media group announced that 2007 would see the launch of a new service, enabling customers to dow- nload films from the Internet and burn them onto DVDs.

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.

Online Media Today has reported that "Despite rather healthy predictions issued this week by some of Madison Avenue's leading forecasters, the rate of U.S. ad spending appears to be slowing down, not accelerating, and the Internet may be a culprit."

According to Transport Intelligence, "DHL Exel Supply Chain and the IBM business consulting firm Global Business Services have jointly developed a new IT-based warehouse-management solution for Karstadt Warenhaus GmbH. Starting in mid-2008, 11 DHL locations will be equipped with the new solution, known as system platform logistics. Once the system goes into operation, Karstadt hopes to profit from significantly improved logistics processes and falling costs."

As the folks at Engadget have put it: "Remember that recommendation that we expected to see come out of the National Institute of Standards and Technology pretty soon -- you know, the one that would de-certify all those fundamentally flawed direct record electronic voting machines? Well, we apparently spoke too soon, as The Washington Post now reports that the recommendation didn't even make it out of committee."

In an opinion piece written for the New York Times, Postal Rate Commissioner Ruth Goldway noted that "Public confidence in the accuracy of vote counting is at an all-time low. The Election Assistance Commission estimated that as many as 850,000 votes were not counted in the 2004 elections, and a recent report warned that electronic voting machines cannot be made secure. Fortunately, a remarkably sophisticated and effective technology exists for solving these problems, and it is “old-fashioned” mail. The founders conceived of a national postal service as a force to “bind our nation together.” Other technologies may now spread the news and help families stay in touch, but the Postal Service should be called upon to meet this latest challenge to our democracy."

Reuters has reported that "German mail and logistics firm Deutsche Post expects its DHL Express business in the United States to break even in two to three years as it takes on larger U.S. rivals UPS and FedEx. The company wants to achieve a return on sales of 3 to 5 percent at the U.S. business in the mid to long term, DHL Express head John Mullen said at a capital markets day in New York on Tuesday."

The Battle Creek Enquirer has reported that "Representatives of the Office of Inspector General were in Battle Creek today to conduct interviews with more postal carriers, the U.S. Postal Service said. The investigation of some 28 postal carriers at the local post office is continuing, said Agapi Doulaveris, Washington, D.C.-based spokeswoman for the inspector general’s office. The investigation came to light when the carriers were suspended without pay on Nov. 8. At the time, the inspector general's office said the investigation began with management reports of mail being discarded or delayed."

NPR's Morning Edition has reported that "Immigrants, legal and illegal, send billions of dollars home using money transfer companies such as Western Union. So do criminal enterprises, such as human and drug traffickers. Western Union has evolved from a company delivering telegrams to one based on international money transfers."

Postal News for December 5, 2006

Word has it that the final push is being made to enact postal reform. The principals need to agree, however, by late tomorrow, or all bets are off.

From PR Newswire: "With holiday shopping season upon us, it's time to make your list and check it twice on who has been naughty and who has been nice. DHL recently conducted a survey of people who ship their gifts during the holidays, finding that 40% of people polled admitted to recycling unwanted holiday gifts they have received from friends or loved ones, an increase of 15% since 2004. The survey also gauged Americans' attitudes and perceptions around shipping during the Holiday times, finding that nearly 80% of people are comfortable shipping their gifts to friends and loved ones. More than 70% of those polled responded that they send their holiday packages during the first two weeks of December to ensure timely delivery. But who behaves by waiting to open their packages on the holiday, and who peeks? Loved ones can rest assure that most people -- 78% of respondents -- can contain their excitement and wait until Christmas morning to open gifts from long-distance relatives."

From the U.S. Postal Service: "Joanne Giordano has been appointed the new Vice President – Public Affairs and Communications for the U.S. Postal Service. Joanne will officially begin on December 9, 2006; her first day at working being December 11th.

Uni-International has told its members that "The UNI-Europa Postal Committee which met in Luxembourg on 20 November 2006 decided that all UNI-Europa's Postal affiliates within the European Union should organise meetings, demonstrations and/or other forms of actions in front of their ministries or, wherever possible, in front of the Finnish Embassy in their country. UNI Postal's John Pedersen says: "The postal trade unions stand unanimously together in trying to convince governments and the European Parliament that the Commission is going too far with their vigorous attempts to liberalise European postal services."

As the Wall Street Journal has noted, "Online shoppers' favorite perk -- free shipping -- is becoming harder to find this holiday shopping season."

USA Today has reported that "It may be the Internet age, yet consumers should expect old-fashioned junk mail to keep clogging their mailboxes. Marketers' spending on direct mail will swell 7.5% to $64 billion next year after growing 8.5% this year, according to respected ad forecaster Robert Coen, who on Monday presented his industrywide 2007 look-ahead at the annual media conference hosted by UBS. That means direct mail will continue to be one of the fastest-growing ad formats. "More and more mail advertising is being used … and all of this despite the fact that postal rates went up about 5%," says Coen, forecasting director at media buying agency Universal McCann."

According to Shout99.com, "The Federation of Small Businesses (FSB) has called for a sustained approach from regulators to improve the postal service offered to small business customers by Royal Mail and to preserve the existing levels of post offices across the UK. The survey of more than 3,000 small businesses across the UK found that post offices were vital to the survival of 82 per cent of small businesses."

Transport Intelligence has reported that "TNT has been talking to its big shareholders in London about its new direction. Yesterday, Monday 4 December, the senior management of TNT held an 'Analysts Meeting' to articulate its corporate, marketing and financial strategy now that it has divested its logistics business."

As the Washington Post has noted, "The U.S. Postal Service and one of its largest unions, the National Association of Letter Carriers, have broken off contract talks and will take their differences to arbitration. The arbitration process typically takes six months or longer, and the rulings usually give unions some or much of what they sought at the negotiating table, according to Bush administration officials." [The American postal system devours its young....Wait until you see how R2006 is implemented. It'll be clear that it'z the only organization in the world that shoots its own wounded.]

GovExec.com has reported that "Mass mailers hit by consecutive years of price increases from the U.S. Postal Service are bracing for a future without a postal overhaul bill that would modify the agency's rate-making rules and provide customers with more predictable price increases. With final passage of the overhaul bill likely to be bypassed in the last week of the lame duck, mailers -- who find the Postal Service's rate-making process unreliable -- say they will look at alternatives to sidestep budgeting for increased costs of postage and shipping."

In the December 2006 edition of his "Insider's Report," Coen said  "the Winter Olympics and many intense political contests led to extra advertising spending for television commercials, but most other media did not do very well except for mail ads and the Internet."

Postal News for December 4, 2006

Handelsblatt has reported that "Deutsche Post, the German national postal services provider, is planning to merge the parcel and mail shipment divisions and outsource other divisions of the parcel delivery division to external companies. It is feared that these drastic changes will entail further job cuts at Deutsche Post."

Reuters has reported that "Package delivery company FedEx Corp. will increase the rates for its ground delivery unit, FedEx Ground, by 4.9 percent on Jan. 1."

The U.S. Postal Service Office of Inspector General has posted on its website: NO-AR-06-005 - Audit Report - Efficiency of Carrier Sequence Barcode Sorters dated August 2, 2006 http://www.uspsoig.gov/FOIA_files/NO-AR-06-005.pdf; FT-AR-07-001 - Audit Report - Service Level Agreements dated November 2, 2006 http://www.uspsoig.gov/FOIA_files/FT-AR-07-001.pdf . Also posted is the September 2006 U.S. Postal Service Office of Inspector General Semiannual Report. Questions should be addressed to Agapi Doulaveris at 703.248.2286. 

The Associated Press has reported that "A stamp once thought to be a rare find worth hundreds of thousands of dollars is definitely a fake, an expert said Monday after reviewing the postage used to mail an absentee ballot in last month's election. An incorrect number of border perforations and its thickness, printing method and inexact colors gave it away as a forged Inverted Jenny, said Mercer Bristow of the American Philatelic Society. The real 24-cent stamps were printed in 1918 with a World War I-era biplane erroneously flipped upside down."

According to Gerald J. McKiernan, Manager, Media Relations, USPS, "The U.S. Postal Service is continuing contract discussions with three of its four largest unions in a continued effort to reach negotiated settlements. Discussions are continuing with the American Postal Workers Union, AFL-CIO (APWU), National Rural Letter Carriers’ Association (NRLCA) and National Postal Mail Handlers Union (NPMHU). Regrettably, we were not able to reach a negotiated agreement with the National Association of Letter Carriers, AFL-CIO (NALC) and will begin the dispute resolution process."

Dow Jones has reported that "Dutch postal and express company TNT N.V. has announced new initiatives to strengthen the competitive position of TNT Post in the Netherlands and said it expects to grow outside its home market. In a statement ahead of an investor presentation in London, TNT said new cost saving initiatives at its Dutch postal operation are targeted to save EUR300 million on an annual basis, to be implemented between 2008 and 2015."

The Northwest Louisiana News has reported that "The Press-Herald has just received notice via e-mail that the postal workers at the North Pole have gone on strike. The penguins reportedly refuse to work with the polar bears (because of past problems); and the elves maintain they are too busy making Christmas toys in Santa’s workshop to take on the extra postal work. Santa has reportedly been extremely upset about not receiving any letters from the boys and girls."

Traffic World has reported that FedEx Express and the Department of Transportation are at a stalemate in a fight over how the airline must report volume and revenue information from the cargo it carries for the U.S. Postal Service. In mid-November, the DOT's Bureau of Transportation Statistics told FedEx it must separate out mail numbers for Postal Service shipments moved under its multi-billion dollar, seven-year federal contract. In a directive for transparency in an operation with a large impact across the parcel delivery world, BTS ordered FedEx to provide the information immediately and going back to August.  Fedex has filed a petition for review of a BTS decision requiring more data on services to the United States Postal Service.

Promo: "Before we became nation of e-mailing, text-messaging, Blackberrying technology addicts, we had to become a nation of letter writers. Why? The postal system, as David Henkin argues in his new history, laid the cultural foundations for both today’s telecommunications and the habits of interconnectedness that continue to reshape our society. Drawing us into the strikingly familiar yet intriguingly distant world of antebellum America’s bourgeoning postal culture, Henkin tells the fascinating story of the birth of modern communication."

According to DC Velocity, "Accurate calculation of "dimensional weight" is carrying greater, well, weight in parcel shipping rates. That's leading to greater interest in tools that measure up to the demands of high-speed cubing and weighing."

Forbes has reported that "AT&T Inc said it has won a 12 mln usd one-year contract renewal from the US Postal Service as well as a task order worth up to 13 mln usd from the US Agency for International Development (USAID). The first contract renewal includes providing local voice and networking services to 9,000 US Postal Services offices across a 13-state region."

As the Wall Street Journal has noted, "forecasts being released this week suggest that the tough ad market they experienced this year is likely to worsen in 2007. Not only will marketers continue to shift dollars from traditional media to emerging venues such as the Internet -- possibly at a slightly reduced rate -- but audience fragmentation will make it harder for media outlets to win price increases."

ZDNet.com has reported that "Poste Italiane Group offers its customers throughout Italy a variety of services, from postal products and delivery to e-Business solutions. Poste Italiane wanted to further develop the business-critical areas of its technology infrastructure. One major component of this project was the consolidation of its messaging systems and a migration to 64-bit computing. To this end, Poste Italiane deployed Microsoft Exchange Server 2007 on a cluster of 64-bit server computers. The new messaging environment simplifies administration, reduces hardware costs, and meets the demands of a high-volume messaging environment."

NewKerala.com has reported that the "World's leading package distribution company United Parcel Service (UPS) will set up 150 access points (UPS Store) in India in the next five years."

DM News has noted that "Marketers should be wary of a new no-mail Trojan horse at the door. Four Democratic Assembly members in New Jersey have won 38 more co-sponsors to a bill creating a “do-not-solicit” credit card registry for senior citizens and other vulnerable consumers in their state. The bill, introduced in January, is before the full New Jersey Assembly and could be voted on as early as Dec. 11."

According to the Manchester Everning News, "post office closures in Manchester have a "significant" knock-on impact on local communities, hitting firms, community groups and even schools, according to a new report."

Press Release: "FraudLabs.com has announced the launch of PostalCodeWorld Canada Web Services that enables retrieval of postal code related information by Canada Postal Code lookups."[It offers a similar service for postal codes in the U.S. and Mexico.]

The BBC has reported that "A postal strike due to begin at a sorting office in Exeter has been called off after a union and managers decided to hold more talks."

The International Herald Tribune has reported that "Portuguese postal workers took part in a strike Monday to protest the hiring of subcontractors to do their jobs, the postal workers union said. The one-day strike was affecting mail distribution but post offices remained opened, postal services said."

EDP24 has reported that "Postal bosses have declared a Christmas amnesty for minor infringements of its new postal charges, the EDP has learned, despite customers having four months to get used to the new rates. The Royal Mail says it will adopt a commonsense approach to "genuine mistakes" for people who under-price Christmas cards and it will waive a £1 penalty charge. However, blatant offenders will have to pay extra for cards or small parcels to be delivered if the wrong stamp has been clearly attached to the item."

Postal News for December 3, 2006

NY1 has reported that "The U.S. Postal Service announced Saturday that hundreds of pieces of mail addressed to the World Trade Center still arrive each day. The Postal Service said the mail is probably from companies who have not updated their mailing lists. As a result, the post office has accumulated stacks of mail addressed to people who used to work in the towers." See also WINS. [This is stupid. There's no excuse for not having removed these addresses from business databases. It's this kind of thing that fuels the calls for "do not mail" lists.]

Postal News for December 2, 2006

According to L'Express, the Swiss post office has begun a train-based express delivery service.

According to the Daily News, "The Ministry of Posts and Telecommunications has taken steps to add an allowance to the pension scheme of retiring postal employees, Minister of Posts and Telecommunications D.M. Jayaratne said. The measures also envisage profit sharing among the employees."

The Asahi Shimbun has reported that "For decades, the post office chiefs have worked under conditions considered more favorable than postmasters at ordinary post offices, or futsu-yubinkyoku, throughout the country As well as being exempt from being transferred, the special network postmasters were not forced to retire until the age of 65. For ordinary post office employees, the retirement age is 60 However, according to "New Vision for Post Offices," issued Thursday by Japan Post Co., come next fall, post offices will be unified under a single category The retirement age for all employees will be set at 60 and postmasters will be subject to transfers, the report said, effectively leading to the abolition of the special privileges."

The Monterey Herald has noted that "The race to the holidays has become even more challenging as more and more business customers give up their own warehouses and use hubs operated by UPS, the world's busiest delivery service, as staging areas for their products. ''This is the fastest growing part of the overnight shipping business, especially during peak season. It's a major corporate shift. They are becoming the logistics arms for their customers,'' said John Husing, an Inland Empire-based economist who focuses on the warehouse and distribution industry. ''The future of American capitalism is doing the things you are good at and contracting out the rest. Why run a distribution operation when what you are really good at is making scented candles?''

Reuters has reported that "Package delivery company United Parcel Service Inc.expects to increase its air freight capacity and save millions of dollars in fuel costs, with new cockpit technology that makes pilots more aware of a plane's surroundings, a UPS executive said. The system called SafeRoute -- developed by ACSS, a joint venture between defense companies L-3 Communications Holdings Inc. of the U.S. and Thales SA of France -- allows pilots to cruise in to the landing strip reducing fuel burn, noise, and noxious emissions as well as increasing the frequency of arrivals."

The Sunday Times has reported that "The SA Post Office, already under-fire for awarding suspect tenders, is set to be sued for a further R240m, this time by a company that is 25% owned by Investec Bank that claims it was suspiciously overlooked for a massive contract. The contract, which expires in three years, involved handling all the Post Office’s postal road freight."

The Associated Press has reported that "A union representing nearly one-third of the nation's postal workers said Friday it couldn't reach an agreement with the government on a pay package, pushing contract talks closer to binding arbitration. Consumers face no threat of service interruptions because postal workers are barred from striking under federal law. But the National Association of Letter Carriers, which represents 225,000 of the U.S. Postal Service's 700,000 employees, said it was disappointed by the impasse. The other three unions involved in negotiations are the American Postal Workers Union, the National Rural Letter Carrier's Association and the National Postal Mail Handlers Union."

As hostilities between the colonists and the Crown grew, many people began protesting high postage rates by sending their letters “out of the mails.” By sending letters outside official mail channels—either by private courier or by abusing a free franking privilege—people avoided what many Americans considered an undesirable tax. “Out of the Mails,” an exhibit opening Thursday, Dec. 14 at the Smithsonian’s National Postal Museum, illustrates a variety of methods used to circumvent the official post during the Revolutionary War period. For more information visit the museum’s Web site at www.postalmuseum.si.edu.

Postal News for December 1, 2006

The volume of early registrations in response to the expanded 2007 National Postal Forum catalog mailing has overwhelmed NPF's ability to process pending registrations during the holiday season. NPF wants to celebrate the great response. So to allow a break and to reward loyalty, NPF is extending the “Early Registration Discount” until January 5, 2007.

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

• The Postal Service released its preliminary annual report for FY 2006 last week, following the early release of its 2006 finances at the November Board of Governor’s meeting. Here’s a look at the data.

• A lack of communication can be a terrible thing. That’s especially true for mailers when the subject is Evolutionary Network Design and it’s the USPS that’s not talking. So PostCom asked two senior Postal Service executives to address some of the concerns expressed by the mailing industry.

• Catalogs are not becoming obsolete as more and more consumers shop online. A senior vice president for Smith & Hawken, the gardening retailer and major catalog mailer, said catalogs appeal to consumers and are the best method of convincing customers to go online.

• PRC seeking special assistant. Business Objects to hold free web seminar Dec. 7. FedEx offers balm to angry drivers. U.S. refuses radioactive Canadian mail. Mail Services opens new international mail processing facility.

• Cyber Monday finds online sellers competing with special prices, offers.

• Canada Post CEO pledges billions to modernize. Japan mail volumes, revenues, profits continue to decline. Private operators able to use Correos network. French rail cargo express competitors squabble. Swiss Post unlikely to get baking license. Czech postal conversion approved. Emirates Post plans privatization, growth. DHL hub subsidies questioned. Apollo Management refinancing TNT purchase. DHL Iberia expands. Tuffnells added to network.

• PostCom welcomes ADP Financial Information Services as new member.

• A list of upcoming postal-related events.

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.
 

Who handles the distribution of the PostCom Bulletin?
 Why, it's NETGRAM, of course. Read more about it.

Did you know that the U.S. Postal Service actually has on its web site a section dealing with "Flats Strategy" events?

From Business Wire: "Skanska has been contracted to build a new post office terminal in Norway. The contract amounts to NOK 570 M, about SEK 660 M, which is included in order bookings for the fourth quarter. The customer is the Norwegian Postal Service (Posten)."

The Financial Times has reported that "Ministers are locked in battle over whether to put a multi-million pound contract to offer basic banking services to post office customers out to tender, allowing banks a chance to outbid the Royal Mail. The outcome of the dispute will affect significantly the level of future government subsidy needed to prop up the ailing post office network. Ministers promised yesterday to unveil a rescue package for the network before Christmas. The government is expected to pledge hundreds of millions of pounds of future taxpayer support, but still requires a cull of thousands of post offices."

Marketing Week has reported that "John Ivers, the former DHL Global Mail UK managing director, has joined postal regulator Postcomm as director of licensing. Ivers, who left DHL earlier this month (MW November 16), will report to the Postcomm management team, which also includes chairman Nigel Stapleton, chief executive Sarah Chambers and deputy chief executive Richard Moriarty. Ivers, who will be director of licensing, framework and market intelligence, will be responsible for the licensing of Royal Mail and its competitors."

The Independent has reported that "Royal Mail paid out pounds 8.6m in compensation last year after receiving more than 800,000 complaints about lost, damaged or delayed letters, the postal regulator Postcomm disclosed yesterday. A total of 11.4 million letters were lost and 243 million delayed, out of the 25 billion delivered each year. Postcomm called for a simplification of Royal Mail's "complicated" compensation arrangements."

Maclean's has reported that "The Ontario Court of Appeal has dismissed a claim by critics of the North American Free Trade Agreement who argued that some of its provisions violate the Constitution. The provisions concern special tribunals that hear complaints from private corporations claiming government policies are harmful to their business interests. The complainants, including members of the Canadian Union of Postal Workers, say the NAFTA provisions deprive the Canadian courts of authority."

The UCLA International Institute has noted that "Although Japan's postal system will be gradually subjected to market forces beginning in 2007, the commissioned postmasters and their political allies are mobilizing to soften the effects of the privatization of the post office, argued Japanese political scholar Patricia Maclachlan at a Nov. 13, 2006 talk sponsored by the Paul I. and Hisako Terasaki Center for Japanese Studies. Maclachlan discussed the historical roots of Japan's postal system and the political power of the Zentoku, the national association of commissioned postmasters."

ThisIsMoney has reported that "Doubts were raised last night about figures published by Royal Mail showing a record-breaking performance delivering first-class post. Consumer watchdog Postwatch said Royal Mail's 'best-ever' performance had been helped by controversial changes to final collection and delivery times."

The Daily Mail has reported that "The reliability of postal deliveries has reached record levels with more than nine out of 10 first class letters arriving a day after being posted, the Royal Mail announced. In the three months to September 94.5 per cent of first class post was delivered on time, the best performance of any quarter on record and better than the target figure of 93 per cent." See also Precision Marketing.

According to the Postalnews Blog, "Volume and revenue numbers for the fiscal year that ended September 30 were released at the last BOG meeting, but you can get a better picture of the changes facing the USPS by taking a look at the RPW numbers that were posted last week. RPW stands for Revenue, Pieces and Weights, and the RPW reports contain the basic numbers used to calculate postal budgets, and to set postal rates. What it all boils down to is this- like it or not, the high revenue, monopoly-status volume is continuing to decline. The lower revenue, less stable advertising volume will continue to increase. Right now the conventional wisdom seems to be that hard copy, mailed ads and catalogs can drive both mail order and online sales. That’s an equation that’s subject to change, however, as the web mindset matures- given the cost difference between electronic and postal ad delivery, it might not take much to arrive at a tipping point where electronic delivery of advertising sweeps hard copy delivery away."

Dow Jones (via postalnews.com) has reported that "Stamps.com has sued Endicia and PSI Systems, alleging the two companies infringed on 11 Stamps.com patents."

The Federal Times has reported that "The deadline for the contract talks between the U.S. Postal Service and three of its four major unions passed Nov. 30 without a settlement. All parties, including the American Postal Workers Union, which had not set a deadline to the talks, agreed to continue negotiations Dec. 1. There was no word from any party on any new deadline, which had already been extended from Nov. 20."

According to Multichannel Merchant, "If you ship only within a limited geographic area, working with a regional parcel carrier certainly makes sense. If you ship beyond your regional market, it is likely that you will be doing business with a national carrier. But this doesn't mean that all your outbound packages can or should be shipped by the national carrier."

The Brooklyn Record has reported that "Folks on Brooklynian's Park Slope forum are in a tizzy about their mail-delivery service. The problem is not limited to the Slope but seems to be Brooklyn-wide, thanks in part to a USPS decision to phase out "stoop service" (delivery to the top of the front stairs at a brownstone). The mail delivery problem in Brooklyn has become so endemic that Rep. Edolphus Towns, whose district includes Bedford-Stuyvesant, as well as parts of Fort Greene and Williamsburg, plans to put postal problems on top of his agenda — above Social Security and the war in Iraq — when he hosts his next round of Town Hall meetings in 2007."

Transport Intelligence has reported that "DHL Express has announced new list rates for 2007, including a 3.9 percent increase in the net average shipping rate for DHL Domestic Air Express and International Express, and an average increase of 4.9 percent for DHL Ground shipments and for DHL@home. The increase for air express and international shipments is comprised of a 5.9 percent average increase in the base rates, offset by a 2.0 percentage point reduction in the Air fuel surcharge index. The new rates will be effective January 1, 2007. In the first quarter of 2007, DHL will add a new dimensional weight system for oversized Ground shipments."

Shanghai Daily has reported that "China Postal Group Corporation has been set up, with a registered capital of 80 billion yuan (US$10 billion), to deal with the country's postal services. Liu Andong, the director of the State Post Bureau, took the position of general manager and legal representative of the group."

Business Day has reported that "as tensions continue to mount at the board of the South African Post Office, high drama ensued yesterday when suspended CEO Khutso Mampeule insisted on attending a board meeting. Mampeule was suspended two weeks ago for allegedly “undermining the authority of the board”, following a criminal complaint he laid against his predecessor, Maanda Manyatshe, over a disputed tender. "