WASHINGTON, Jan. 14, 2011 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ — Patrick R. Donahoe today took the oath of office in front of employees and family members to become the 73rd Postmaster General of the United States and the CEO of the U.S. Postal Service.

Pledging to return the Postal Service to profitability and continue to provide high levels of customer service, Donahoe announced a new partnership with eBay as part of a renewed push to generate much needed revenue and the expansion of the Forever Stamp program for customer convenience.

“I am confident that we will emerge as a profitable, market-responsive organization that competes for customers and delivers even greater value to the American people,” Donahoe said.

Earlier this week, the Postal Service signed a new, five-year contract with eBay to provide online tools and marketing programs to help millions of small businesses grow through the use of direct mail, while providing some of the best shipping prices to fulfill new customer orders.

“Our alliance with eBay continues to strengthen and grow. This new contract builds on the trust the eBay community has invested in us as their leading shipper of choice,” Donahoe said.

Beginning with the Jan. 22 issuance of the Lunar New Year stamp, all commemorative stamps will become Forever stamps. Once purchased, the stamps are valid literally forever – despite any future price changes. No additional postage will ever be needed.

The Postmaster General reiterated his commitment to working with Congress and the Administration, citing ongoing conversations with both the federal offices of Personnel Management (OPM) and Budget Management (OMB) to recover $6.9 billion the Postal Service has overpaid the Federal Employee Retirement System.

“We are looking for every opportunity to control costs and raise revenue. We will do everything we can to ensure that money can be used by the Postal Service to prefund retiree health care or pay down debt and avoid repeating the situation we found ourselves in with CSRS and prefunding retiree health benefits,” Donahoe said.

There is a provision in legislation currently sponsored by Sen. Susan Collins to address the overpayment. Donahoe encouraged Congress to support the Collins bill and the POST Act introduced by Sen. Tom Carper.

Donahoe was appointed Postmaster General in October by the Governors of the Postal Service and accepted the duties of the position on Dec. 7. He was administered the oath of office by Louis J. Giuliano, Board of Governors chair.

“Pat has demonstrated the ability to drive large-scale changes of the type that are necessary to ensure the long-term strength and viability of the Postal Service far into the future,” Giuliano said. “The board of Governors could not be more pleased that Pat has accepted this appointment.”

Donahoe and his service team are credited with regularly exceeding demanding performance goals and setting new records for on-time delivery and operational efficiency. He began his career as a clerk in Pittsburgh in 1975, and in 2001, became responsible for all facets of mail operations, including processing, delivery, retail, engineering, transportation and facilities. He has served in a variety of senior management positions in operations and human resources before becoming Deputy Postmaster General in 2005.

Despite the challenges facing the Postal Service, Donahoe said his belief in Postal employees and the future of the Postal Service remains strong.

“Our employees have been and always will be our greatest asset and our greatest strength,” he said. “We are the indispensible means of delivery today, and our challenge is to make sure we remain the indispensible means of delivery far into the future.”

Management ‘Lacks Understanding’ of Risks, Agency Concludes

The Occupational Safety and Health Administration has hit the Postal Service with another unwelcome finding: Delivery Bar Code Sorter machines pose a direct risk to workers’ health, and there is a “general lack of understanding about the hazards and injuries” associated with the equipment among postal managers.

In a Jan. 4 letter to the Postmaster General, OSHA Assistant Secretary Dr. David Michaels said the agency had received more than 170 complaints alleging that “injuries occurred due to worker exposure to ergonomic stressors” associated with DBCS operation at Processing and Distribution Centers nationwide. The complaints were submitted by APWU locals in response to a request from the national union after the USPS rebuffed union attempts to correct — or even discuss — DBCS hazards.

In response to the complaints, OSHA selected nine sites for inspection as a representative sample. The inspections and ergonomic evaluation “identified generally consistent risk factors at most inspected sites,” the majority of which resulted from the repetitive motions required to operate the DBCS, Michaels wrote.

Hazards included repeated bending and twisting; forceful gripping; lifting heavy weight; shoulder exertions; extended reaches, and forceful pulling and pushing. Other risks included contact trauma, working in awkward postures, and generalized body fatigue.

“OSHA’s findings are an important step toward protecting the safety of APWU members,” said Executive Vice President Greg Bell. “Our members have known about the dangers of working on DBCS machines based on their first-hand experience. I am hopeful that OSHA’s involvement will encourage the Postal Service to correct the problems.”

Ignorance of Risks

According to OSHA’s evaluation, “almost all managers assigned to Tour 1 and 3 indicated ignorance of any risks associated with performing DBCS tasks. This severely limits the opportunity for improvement in the workplace since there isn’t a basic knowledge of the hazards or even the process,” OSHA reported. “Additionally, many of the decision making managers work Tour 2 while almost all production work is done on Tour 1 and 3.

“It will be very difficult to address problems when management at all levels, especially safety personnel, work a significant portion of the time on the shifts where the majority of the work is not performed.”

OSHA also reported that supervisors have ignored injury complaints; encouraged clerks to “work through” the pain, or have discouraged the reporting of injuries. “This fosters a perceived ‘lack of caring’ about the worker,” the agency reported.

OSHA conducted inspections at P&DCs in Seattle, WA; Orlando, FL; Madison, WI; West Columbia, SC; Pittsburgh, PA; Providence, RI; Mankato, MN; Wareham, MA, and Chicago, IL.

“Not all risk factors were identified at every facility at the time of our visit,” Michaels noted, “but the underlying potential seemed to be present at all sites because of the similarity of equipment and job tasks.”

OSHA noted that it would provide a copy of the report to each site for which the agency received a complaint regarding DBCS operations, as well as a detailed, site-specific Ergonomic Hazard Alert Letter (EHAL). The report includes guidelines to aid in eliminating or reducing the risks present in the Feeder and Sweeper tasks, Michaels wrote. “We strongly suggest you utilize the information provided in the technical report and the P&DC site specific EHALs to aid in eliminating or reducing the risks present in the Feeder and Sweeper tasks.”

The DBCS report was the second dose of bad news the USPS received from OSHA on Jan. 4. The agency also issued the Postal Service 37 citations that day for under-recording workplace injuries and illnesses. In recent months, inspections revealed 242 instances of recordkeeping violations at 10 postal facilities.

via OSHA: DBCS Machines Pose Risk to Workers’ Health; Management ‘Lacks Understanding’ of Risks, Agency Concludes.

The Washington Post’s Ed O’Keefe reports on Twitter that Postmaster General Pat Donahoe plans to reduce the USPS administrative workforce by 30%. Plans include eliminating 2,000 postmaster positions, consolidating about ten of the service’s 74 district offices. The changes would cut about 7,500 jobs overall.

Update: In a subsequent entry on his Federal Eye blog, O’Keefe says that the 7,500 job reduction will take place “through attrition as eligible workers retire”.

Click here to download this week’s podcast, or click the play button below to listen online.

Audio clip: Adobe Flash Player (version 9 or above) is required to play this audio clip. Download the latest version here. You also need to have JavaScript enabled in your browser.

Previous podcasts in the series are at thisweekinpostal.info.

Update: No press release yet from the USPS, but the web page listing USPS officers was updated moments ago to reflect the change.

Sources tell us that current Northeast Area VP Jordan Small will be the new Eastern Area Vice President, filling the vacancy created when Megan Brennan was promoted to Chief Operating Officer. Taking Small’s place in Windsor will be Steve Forte, who was the VP for the New York Metro Area until it was merged with the Northeast.

The National Association of Postmasters of the United States (NAPUS), which did not take part in the joint letter to the President signed by the other employee associations, has sent the White House an almost identical call for action. No word on why the group chose to go it alone:
NAPUS letter to Obama on pension overfunding

Norway Post is continuously developing in order to provide services that are adapted to its customers’ current and future needs. In the spring, Norway Post is to launch a new digital mailbox that will be in addition to the traditional, physical mailbox.

Norway Post’s digital mailbox will be based on a person’s street address and national ID number. It will thus be easy to find the mail recipient and the digital mailbox will take note of any changes to your street address.

”Norway Post has been a trusted third party for the distribution of letters for more than 360 years. Nowadays, more and more communication is taking place digitally and Norway Post wants to take part in these developments,” says Dag Mejdell, Norway Post’s CEO.

Mr Mejdell underlines that Norway Post’s expertise and credibility will continue to be important in the digital world.

Simple and well arranged

Digital messages have become part of everyday life. The challenge is that each company has its own system and recipients must themselves seek out several e-mail accounts and log onto the websites of banks, insurance companies and public bodies.

”The many websites, user IDs and passwords mean that it is not easy to be a consumer. When Norway Post launches Digipost, all this communication can be gathered in one digital mailbox,” continues Mr Mejdell.

Norway Post’s new digital mailbox is intended to make it easy to send, receive, deal with and file important mail. The system that is established will have the same security level as internet banks.

Physical mail

The volume of physical mail has declined over the past decade as a result of the transition to digital solutions.

“We are aware that our digital product will affect ordinary mail. But digital mail has come to stay. If Norway Post does not do this, someone else will. Norway Post must be involved and we want to be the first company to do this in Norway,” says Mr Mejdell.

Norway Post’s goal is for the new digital mail system to be in normal operation during the first half-year. Norway Post will test the solution during the period leading up to the launch. In addition, Norway Post is inviting advanced web users to contribute their ideas to help develop the solution.

The Association for Postal Commerce (Postcom) has joined postal unions in calling on the President to do something about the Congressionally mandated over-funding of pensions that threatens to bankrupt the US Postal Service:

Mr. President, we join our voice with those of our colleagues who deal with each day’s challenge of ensuring that our nation has the benefits that come from a universal mail system. Mail is, and will remain, for quite some time to come, an important part of the way this nation communicates and does business. The U.S. Postal Service is an Executive Branch agency. It is being imperiled needlessly by budget scoring mechanisms that don’t even comport with reality. It’s time to direct others within the Executive Branch to take sensible steps to rectify this matter.

From the DMM Advisory:

Recognizing ongoing concerns about mailers’ readiness for broader adoption of the Intelligent Mail barcode (IMb®), the USPS® has decided that automation discounts for mail with POSTNET barcodes will continue to be offered beyond May 2011.

Today’s announcement, made following consultation with key industry leaders, means that mailers also may continue to use the POSTNET barcode for reply mail (such as Business Reply Mail (BRM), QBRM and Permit Reply Mail) and PLANET Code® for Confirm® Service.

The relaxing of requirements beyond the planned May POSTNET retirement timeframe allows for an easier transition to the full use of the IMb while continuing to receive automation discounts.

The value of the IMb is a proven technological advantage with more than 41 billion pieces of IMb-enabled mail processed by the USPS. As more Industry leaders continue to embrace the IMb, the Postal Service is committed to enhancing the benefits of Intelligent Mail Services.