USPS Announces Closure of 252 Processing Facilities

The U.S. Postal Service is moving forward with plans to close more than half its processing facilities, a change that will restructure first-class mail delivery for the first time since the agency's inception. The plan includes closing 252 of its 487 mail processing facilities. With these closures, first-class mail will move to a two-to-three day standard delivery time and next-day delivery will be rare. The plant closures are expected to result in the elimination of roughly 28,000 jobs nationwide. The Postal Service says the change, part of its network optimization initiative, will save $3 billion by 2015. The next steps to closing the processing facilities involve the USPS requesting an advisory opinion from the Postal Regulatory Commission. Supporting documents such as the proposed Federal Register, an illustrative Service Standard Directory (SSD), and illustrative labeling lists are just a few of the requested documents that will be available on the Mailer Information website.

Source: Government Executive

Exigent Update

Some of the largest mailing associations have sent a letter to the Postmaster General urging him to pull the postal exigent request. They include the Alliance of Nonprofit Mailers, the Association for Postal Commerce, the Direct Marketing Association, and the Association of Magazine Media. The letter stated: “We are perplexed. In your presentations to the mailing community in recent months, we have heard you say repeatedly that you do not want an exigent price increase; an exigent increase will not occur; and mailers should budget for 2012 price increases at the CPI level, because a larger increase would be self-defeating due to its negative effects on mail volume. Simultaneously, however, the Postal Service has continued to file pleadings and signed statements with the Postal Regulatory Commission in Docket No. R2010-4 claiming that the Service still seeks a $2.3 billion exigent increase. Unless and until the Postal Service publicly withdraws its formal request for Commission approval of exigent rate increases, mailers must assume that the Postal Service is serious about seeking them. For the good of the Postal Service and the mailing community, we urge you to pull the exigent request.”

Source: Postal News

OIG Sees USPS as Zumbox

The USPS Office of the Inspector General (OIG) is back with a fourth white paper telling the USPS to go digital. This one basically says the post office should ape the start-up Zumbox and set up an e-mail service called “eMailbox” that incorporates the .post domain and a highly secure data storage service called “eLockbox” where folks can archive important legal and personal documents." InfoTrends estimates that digital mailbox services will deliver 2 billion paperless transactional documents to U.S. consumers in 2015—representing 7% of all transaction documents, 19% of all paperless delivery, and $323 million in transaction document delivery fees alone.

Source: ePostal News

Miracle on 34th Street

During these tough times for the USPS you might find this short Hulu short clip from the classic movie Miracle on 34th Street just the holiday medicine to cheer you up. Those were the days. Click here and enjoy.

FedEx Small Package Rates Going up by 4.9% in 2012

FedEx Corp will raise rates for FedEx Ground and FedEx Home Delivery by a net average 4.9% next year, matching the 2011 increase. Reuters reports that FedEx and its larger competitor, United Parcel Service, have been successful getting rate increases because of high demand for their services brought on by many shippers' lean inventory policies. In September, FedEx said it would raise rates beginning in January for its FedEx Express service by a net average of 3.9 percent, and 6.75% for FedEx Freight services.

Source: TruckingInfo.com