The Board of Governors of the U.S. Postal Service have decided to delay the USPS’ plans to change the frequency of general mail delivery from six to five days, while continuing to provide retails, expedited, and package delivery services. The postal Board has directed postal management to re-evaluate several aspects of its operations, including its contracts and agreements with labor and its postal pricing plans.

Regarding the latter, the Board specifically has asked postal management to evaluate the possible need to call for and implement postal rate increases that exceed the inflation-based limits provided for in the Postal Accountability and Enhancement Act of 2006 (PAEA). Inflation-based limits to postal rate increases has been considered a key hallmark of PAEA, and has been credited for stimulating recent reductions in overall postal costs and enhancing postal operating and cost-efficiency. Read the rest of this entry »

The Association for Postal Commerce (PostCom), the industry leading representative of those who use mail and those who support others in the use of mail for business communication and commerce, Board of Directors met last week to discuss matters facing the mailing industry.

It elected seven new Directors to its Board:

•     Mike Brigham, Toshiba International Corporation
•     Heidi Gapinski, FedEx SmartPost
•     Keith Kellison, United Parcel Service
•     Chris Lien, Bell and Howell
•     Thomas Lloyd, Capital One
•     Cheryl O’Day, Discover Financial Services
•     Bob Schimek, Satori Software

The Board, in its normal course of business, passed two resolutions:

•     Board of Directors resolve that the President be directed, with General Counsel, to follow and monitor any developments dealing with patents filed by the Postal Service dealing with the Intelligent Mail barcode and report back to the Board if any action is needed.
•     Board of Directors resolve that the PostCom staff develop comments to the hybrid business model white paper published by the National Academy of Public Administration.

“PostCom met to discuss how mail works and still is a vital part of the American economic infrastructure. Indeed, it’s as valuable to the nation as are good roads, reliable and cost-efficient transportation, working telephones, and dependable electrical power and gas. In the coming year, we need to re-double our efforts to make sure this message is hear loud and clear by our nation’s policy makers. This is the year we need to make sure that Congress and the President fully appreciate the economic power and utility that a vibrant mail system has to offer. It will be the focus of what we do at PostCom,” said PostCom President, Gene Del Polito.

The US Postal Service Board of Governors meets in closed session beginning at 10 AM this morning, and according to Postcom, they’re expected to announce a 2.1% hike in the price of postage:

From Postcom:

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Previous podcasts in the series are at thisweekinpostal.info.

From Postcom:

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From Postcom: “Join PostCom President Gene Del Polito and Postal Regulatory Commission Chairman Ruth Goldway in a discussion of a number of wide-ranging topics including: the PRC’s recent five-day decision, the Annual Compliance Determination, the PRC’s complaint process, difficulties with service performance measurement, and more.”

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From Postcom:

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.

From Postcom:

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.

From Postcom:

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.

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.