Congress Extends USPS Deadline

Recently approved legislation by Congress and the president to keep the government operating under its current budget authority through November 18th also includes a provision delaying for six weeks the Postal Service’s $5.5 billion payment to the Retiree Health Benefits Trust Fund. The original deadline for the payment was September 30th, the end of Fiscal Year 2011. The extension prevented the Postal Service from defaulting on the payment in FY 2011. However, USPS leadership continues to support passage of comprehensive, long-term legislation to provide a more flexible business model for the Postal Service with the ability to respond to a changing marketplace and customers’ evolving mailing and shipping needs.

Source: USPS News Link

Area Mail Processing Changes

The U.S. Postal Service is continually improving its efficiency by making better use of space, staffing, equipment, and transportation in processing the nation's mail. This practice has become increasingly important as they have experienced a significant reduction in the amount of single-piece First-Class Mail that enters there system. In fact, from fiscal year 2001 though the end of fiscal year 2010, mail volume for this category has declined by almost 23 billion pieces, approximately 42 percent. At the same time, the deployment of state-of-the-art automated mail-processing equipment allows them to sort this type of mail more efficiently than ever. For example, Brown Printing is entering their mail deeper into our system, closer to its final delivery point, bypassing many Postal Service processing and transportation operations. Considered together, these factors have created excess processing capacity at many postal facilities where mail is canceled and sorted. The Postal Service is actively looking into opportunities to increase efficiency by consolidating mail processing operations, allowing us to make better use of our resources. Area Mail Processing (AMP) is a key element of this important effort. Faced with a massive nationwide infrastructure that is no longer financially sustainable, the U.S. Postal Service has proposed sweeping changes designed to save the organization up to $3 billion a year by cutting its network of processing facilities by over half and adjusting service standards. For more information about the future network, click here.

“Stop the Presses”

Brown Printing and other printers halted their presses and reacted to the news of Steve Job’s death when TIME created a commemorative issue with a 21 page cover story package dedicated the late Apple and tech genius Steve Jobs. The magazine scrapped the original cover package and replaced it with the timely, yet timeless content devoted to Jobs. The issue is available on the newsstands. In a press release the magazine said, “The issue includes a six-page essay by Jobs’ biographer Walter Isaacson, a historical report on Jobs career by TIME technology reporters Harry McCracken and Lev Grossman and a photo essay by Diana Walker, who has been shooting Jobs for TIME since 1982. The cover image is a photograph of Jobs taken by Norman Seeff in 1984. This is the seventh time Jobs has appeared on the cover of TIME.”

Source: Mr. Magazine