USPS Moves Ahead with Consolidation

The U.S. Postal Service announced this week plans to move ahead with a modified plan to consolidate its network of 461 mail processing locations in phases [ Presentation ]. The first phase of activities will result in up to 140 consolidations through February of 2013. Unless the circumstances of the Postal Service change in the interim, a second and final phase of 89 consolidations is currently scheduled to begin in February of 2014 [ Fact Sheet ]. “We revised our network consolidation timeline to provide a longer planning schedule for our customers, employees and other stakeholders, and to enable a more methodical and measured implementation,” said Patrick R. Donahoe, Postmaster General. “We simply do not have the mail volumes to justify the size and capacity of our current mail processing network. To return to long-term profitability and financial stability while keeping mail affordable, we must match our network to the anticipated workload,” said Donahoe. “Our current plan meets our cost reduction goals, ensures seamless and excellent service performance throughout the implementation period, and provides adequate time for our customers to adapt to our network changes.” The Postal Service will begin consolidating operations this summer – which mostly involve transferring mail-processing operations from smaller to larger facilities. Due to the volume of high-priority mail predicted for the election and holiday mailing seasons, no consolidating activities will be conducted from September through December of 2012. Approximately 5,000 employees will begin receiving notifications next week related to consolidating and other efficiency-enhancing activities to be conducted this summer. The USPS also announced that it would soon issue a new regulation to modify its existing Service Standard for overnight delivery. The USPS said a Final Rule would soon be published in the Federal Register that would initially shrink the geographic reach of overnight service to local areas and enable consolidation activity in 2013. The new rule would further tighten the overnight delivery standard in 2014 and enable further consolidation of the Postal Service mail processing network absent any change to the circumstances of the Postal Service.

Source: U.S. Postal Service

USPS Launching Digital Enterprise

The Postal Service is creating a new enterprise focused on the online sphere, according to an internal memorandum from Postmaster General Pat Donahoe. The “digital solutions” group is intended “to better explore growth opportunities in the digital space, and to translate those opportunities into new streams of revenue, enhance the value of our current offerings, and improve customer experiences,” Donahoe said in the memo to his officers. Heading the group will be Paul Vogel, who has been USPS president and chief marketing & sales officer. Replacing Vogel will be Coca-Cola executive Nagisa Manabe. At the soft drink giant, Manabe served as vice president of new growth platforms. Manabe “will lead our efforts to frame a new generation of ideas to better promote and grow our organization,” Donahoe said.

Source: Federal Times

More Periodicals Changes Forthcoming

The Postal Service recently relaxed the standards to allow limited reporting of electronic copies of Periodicals to satisfy the circulation standards [ Link ]. In addition, Chuck Tricamo from the USPS Pricing Classification Service Center told an American Business Media webinar audience that publishers will soon have the opportunity to enclose loose supplements with their publications without the endorsement. There could also be some changes to advertising limits in Requester publications.