United Parcel Service to Cut 1,800 Jobs by April

UPS disclosed earlier this month they will cut about 1,800 management and administrative positions in an effort to streamline its US management structure.

The shipper also announced that it will reduce the number of districts and regions in its domestic small package operation.  In April, the company will reduce the number of its US regions from five to three, and districts from 46 to 20.

The shipper said it will also strengthen local sales and marketing efforts.  However, that announcement did not refer to any specific planned campaigns or initiatives, said Lisa Hamilton, leader of the UPS corporate PR group.

The company also disclosed that “attrition will minimize some job displacements” and 1,100 employees will be offered a voluntary separation package. Operational employees, such as delivery personnel and package-sorters, will not be affected by the streamlining. The job cuts will be complete by the end of UPS' fiscal first quarter, or March 31.

UPS has no plans to close operating facilities, the company said in a statement.  Source: UPS Press Release

Postal Service Five-Day-Per-Week Update

If it had implemented a five-day-per-week delivery schedule years ago, the US Postal Service would have saved more than $2 billion during the 2008 fiscal year.  For the 2007 fiscal year, the cut in service would have saved the organization more than $1.9 billion, according to the Postal Regulatory Commission's annual report for fiscal year 2009.

The report, released less than two months after the USPS disclosed that it suffered a $3.8 billion net loss for fiscal year 2009, also revealed that the total cost of its universal service obligations for FY 2008 was nearly $4.8 billion, while that number was $4.4 billion for the previous fiscal year.

Last November, John Potter, postmaster general and CEO of the US Postal Service, lobbied stakeholders to cut the number of delivery days from six per week to five.

Ruth Goldway, chairwoman of the PRC, said in the report that the group expects to review a possible change in delivery days per week in the coming year. Goldway added that she's also encouraged a national conversation on the future of mail and hardcopy communications in the US.  Source: DMNews

IMB Volume Triples in Four Weeks

It took seven months to hit the 1 billion mark, but only four more weeks to hit 3 billion.  That's the number of Intelligent Mail Full Service mailpieces processed by the U.S. Postal Service since the program's implementation last May.

The milestone mailing entered the postal distribution network the week of January 4th.

The number of Intelligent Mail Full Service mailers increased to 171, a 60 percent increase from mid-December.

"The month of December has been one of exceptional participation and performance," said Tom Day, senior vice president, Intelligent Mail and Address Quality. "The PostalOne! system handled more than twice the previous peak of eDoc postage statements and did so with 98 percent being processed in 30 minutes or less. Mailers are realizing the benefits of Full Service Intelligent Mail, and are doing so in a stable operating environment."  Source: PR Newswire

USPS Inefficiency Drives Up Periodicals Costs

The Postal Service is missing out on an opportunity to reduce its costs of handling Periodicals mail, a postal expert says.

Declining mail volume has left “a great surplus” of flats-sorting machines, but a large portion of magazines and newspapers are still undergoing more expensive manual sortation, according to Halstein Stralberg.  That’s part of the reason that the cost of handling Periodicals supposedly rose 6% in the previous fiscal year even though average copy weights were lighter.  Source: Dead Tree Edition