USPS to Senator Tester: No closures during Primary Election season
Filed under: post office closings, postal, postal news, press releases, usps
Senator said consolidating mail processing facilities could delay absentee ballots
April 13, 2012
(MISSOULA, Mont.) – In response to a request by Senator Jon Tester, the Postal Service will not close the Butte, Helena, Kalispell or Wolf Point mail processing facilities in Montana during the state’s upcoming primary election season.
Tester last month told the head of the Postal Service that closing mail sorting facilities could prevent absentee ballots from reaching polling locations by Election Day. The Postal Service previously agreed to suspend closures until at least May 15 and again during the general election season this fall. Tester said the closure moratorium should include this year’s primary elections in Montana.
Montana holds its Primary Election on June 5.
Tester, who led the charge to successfully convince the Postal Service to change course and keep Missoula’s processing facility open, said that the Postal Service’s decision is a step in the right direction, but that the fight to keep the mail processing centers would continue.
“Closing mail processing facilities during an election season would delay ballots and prevent Montanans’ voices from being heard,” Tester said. “This decision is welcome news, but we have more work to do to make sure these facilities remain open to meet the needs of rural America.”
Forty-seven percent of Montana voters cast absentee ballots in 2010, a threefold increase from 2000.
There are nearly 635,000 registered voters in Montana. To be accepted, Montanans’ absentee ballots must be returned to county election offices by the time polls close on Election Day. Ballots postmarked on Election Day, but not received, are not accepted.
“The U.S. Postal Service plays a valuable role in helping to facilitate fair and well run elections in Montana,” Montana Secretary of State Linda McCulloch
said. “An untimely change to the mail processing system could potentially impact voter participation, voter confidence, and the dissemination of important election-related materials.”
The Postal Service’s response to Tester also says that the closure of mail processing facilities nationwide will depend on the organization reducing the current requirement to deliver mail in 1-3 days to 2-3 days.
Tester vowed to continue working on legislation that would preserve the faster delivery standards – something the Postal Service says would require most processing facilities to be kept open nationwide.
The Senate may begin considering postal reform legislation next week.
USPS honors four iconic baseball all-stars with Forever stamp
Joe DiMaggio, Larry Doby, Willie Stargell and Ted Williams on deck to be honored on Forever Stamps
WASHINGTON — Four of Major League Baseball’s most revered Hall of Famers return to Cooperstown, NY, to a stamping ovation July 20 at the National Baseball Hall of Fame and Museum in the form of postage where they will be immortalized on 45-cent First-Class Forever stamps.
The First-Day-of-Issue Major League Baseball All-Stars stamps dedication ceremony is taking place at 10 a.m. at the Museum that morning as part of the opening day festivities for the four-day Hall of Fame Weekend celebration in Cooperstown. Available nationwide that day, the stamps can also be purchased at the Museum and the Cooperstown Post Office. Read more
Senator Durbin Statement on Nationwide Postal Workers Rally
April 12, 2012
[WASHINGTON, D.C.] – U.S. Senator Dick Durbin (D-IL) today said the Postal Service cannot cut its way to a solution that protects jobs, reduces costs and maintains service. Instead, the Postal Service which employs more than 30,000 people in Illinois must work with Congress and the American people to address its financial problems. Durbin, who worked to secure a five-month moratorium on postal facility closures, also noted that the U.S. Senate is expected to debate comprehensive reform legislation within the next few weeks.
“The Postal Service faces serious financial challenges and it needs to work with Congress and the American people to address them. The Postal Service – employing 30,000 Illinoisans from clerks, to drivers, to postmasters, to letter carriers – needs to restructure its services in a way that preserves its reputation for affordable, timely service; expands revenue opportunities; and reflects the reality of an internet driven world. Without Congressional action, the damaging cuts proposed by the Postal Service would likely take effect.”
“I share the National Association of Letter Carriers view that we need to create a long-term business model that will reform and grow the Postal Service to meet the needs of Americans in the 21st century. Any legislation that aims to do this deserves consideration in Congress before the moratorium on closures ends next month. I look forward to working with my colleagues to strengthen comprehensive legislation during an open and honest debate on the Senate floor within the next few weeks.”
On December 13, 2011, Durbin joined with 14 other Senators to announce that at their request, the Postal Service voluntarily agreed to put in place a five-month moratorium on closing postal facilities. Their announcement followed a meeting between several Senators, Postmaster General Donahoe and the U.S. Postal Service Board of Governors Chairman Thurgood Marshall, Jr., in which Senators expressed concern over the impact of reduced service and the loss of thousands of jobs. During the moratorium, scheduled to end on May 15, 2012, the Postal Service will continue to study the impact of proposed closures on service and costs and to solicit community input.
On September 15, 2011, the U.S. Postal Service announced plans to review its mail processing network in the hopes of reducing costs. When the moratorium expires, the Postal Service is planning to move forward with the elimination of overnight delivery and the closure of as many as 3,700 mostly rural post offices and over 200 mail processing facilities, including at least 8 in Illinois, four of which – Springfield, Quincy, Carbondale and Centralia – are being considered for consolidation with out-of-state facilities. All of the Illinois facilities are owned by the Postal Service and employ a total of approximately 1,600 people.
Sen. Carper Reacts to GAO Report on USPS Efforts to Consolidate Mail Processing Facilities
WASHINGTON – Today, Sen. Tom Carper (D-Del.), chairman of the subcommittee that oversees the U.S. Postal Service, released the following statement reacting to a new Government Accountability Office (GAO) report on overcapacity at the U.S. Postal Service and efforts to consolidate its mail processing network. The report was jointly requested by Sen. Carper, Sen. Susan Collins (R-Maine) and Rep. Darrell Issa (R-Calif.).
“Today’s report confirmed much of what we already knew – that the U.S. Postal Service has gone to great lengths to reduce the number of mail processing centers it maintains in order to adjust its operations to reflect the changing demand for the products and services it offers. To date, the Postal Service has consolidated dozens of facilities, particularly Airport Mail Centers, saving billions of dollars annually. Yet despite these efforts, the Postal Service still maintains far more processing capacity than it needs to meet current demand in a cost effective manner. Many in Congress strongly believe that the Postal Service’s most recent proposal to close more than 200 additional mail processing facilities is the wrong approach. At the same time, the Postal Service is losing billions of dollars annually and mail volume is continuing to decline. I’ve long maintained that if something is worth having, it is worth paying for. If Congress wants to require the Postal Service to maintain additional mail processing facilities, we have to figure out a way to reduce costs elsewhere or raise revenues.
“I look forward to working with my colleagues to address the financial challenges facing the Postal Service – including the question of how many mail processing facilities should be maintained – when the Senate considers the comprehensive, bipartisan postal reform legislation that I have co-authored along with Sens. Lieberman, Collins and Scott Brown. As I’ve said time and again, the Postal Service’s financial crisis is dire, but it’s not hopeless. We can solve this problem if we work together to provide the Postal Service with the flexibility and resources it needs to survive in the 21st Century.”
To read the GAO report, please visit: http://www.gao.gov/products/GAO-12-470.
Letter Carriers President Says S.1789 Lacks Vision, Won’t Solve USPS Problems
WASHINGTON, April 6, 2012 — In Speech at Rutgers, NALC President Calls on Congress to Take Time to Draft Comprehensive Reform Instead of Pushing Through Flawed Legislation
Fredric V. Rolando, president of the National Association of Letter Carriers, said Friday that Postal Service legislation pending before Congress lacks any long-term vision and fails to provide for the creation of an effective business plan for a vital American institution. Read more
UPS Store Honored by USPS With 2012 Mail Innovation Award
ORLANDO, April 5, 2012 – The UPS Store ® franchise network (NYSE:UPS) has been honored by the U.S. Postal Service® at the National Postal Forum here for its participation in Every Door Direct Mail®, which provides small businesses with a cost-effective way to send direct mail.
Last year, The UPS Store announced it was collaborating with the U.S. Postal Service on Every Door Direct Mail to help support direct mail growth along with its own objectives of growing its print business and supporting local small businesses.
Using Every Door Direct Mail, small business customers can work with their local The UPS Store center to create, print and distribute high-quality direct marketing pieces to every address in a designated neighborhood.
“Every Door Direct Mail is a ready-made product for The UPS Store franchisees, who help fellow small business owners with the logistics of running a small business,” said Stuart Mathis, president of Mail Boxes Etc., Inc. (MBE), which franchises The UPS Store locations. “We are honored by this recognition and look forward to continuing our relationship to help grow both our businesses as well as support the small business community.”
Companies nominated for the Mail Innovation Award have demonstrated creativity by finding new ways to use the mail to drive significant business results and mail growth. Since the start of the relationship in September 2011, MBE and U.S. Postal Service have worked together to educate The UPS Store franchise owners on the process as well as how best to position the program to small businesses in their communities. The UPS Store dedicated October 2011 as Every Door Direct Mail Month, promoting the direct mail product to its network of franchised small business owners as well as their customers.
“In addition to providing this service to their small business customers, our franchisees have used Every Door Direct Mail to market their own businesses,” added Mathis. “And they’ve seen results, attracting and retaining small business owners in their communities.”
U.S. Postal Service Plans to Allow Mailer Logos and Marks on Permit Indicia
New Flexibility and Advertising Opportunity for Commercial Mailers
WASHINGTON, March 30, 2012 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ — The U.S. Postal Service is planning to revise its mailing standards and has recently filed with the Postal Regulatory Commission to allow commercial mailers to include logos, trademarks, brand images or other kinds of marketing designs in the permit imprint indicia area of their mail. The Picture Permit Imprint Indicia offering will provide participating companies with immediate recognition of their logos, products or promotions while boosting the visual impact of their mail.
“This prime real estate area will allow companies to brand, advertise and market their products and services on the actual mail piece,” said Gary Reblin, vice president, Domestic Products. “Market research shows that customers believe picture permits will enhance the perception of their mail.”
If approved by the Postal Regulatory Commission, the offering will be effective on or about June 24, 2012, for commercial mailers of presorted First-Class Mail letters and cards or Standard Mail letters. The premium for First-Class Mail letters and cards will be 1 cent per piece and for Standard Mail letters 2 cents per piece.
“Picture Permit will provide our customers with advertising opportunities without impacting required indicia information on the mail piece,” said Reblin. “Allowing Picture Permits is just one of the many ways the Postal Service is working hard to make mail work better for our customers.”
For more information about the Postal Service’s Picture Permit Imprint Indicia offering, contact the Picture Permit offering program management office at picturepermit@usps.com.
A self-supporting government business the U.S. Postal Service is the only delivery service that reaches every address in the nation, 151 million residences, businesses and Post Office Boxes. The Postal Service receives no tax dollars for operating expenses, and relies on the sale of postage, products and services to fund its operations. With 32,000 retail locations and the most frequently visited website in the federal government, usps.com, the Postal Service has annual revenue of more than $65 billion and delivers nearly 40 percent of the world’s mail. If it were a private sector company, the U.S. Postal Service would rank 35th in the 2011 Fortune 500. In 2011, the U.S. Postal Service was ranked number one in overall service performance, out of the top 20 wealthiest nations in the world, by Oxford Strategic Consulting. Black Enterprise and Hispanic Business magazines ranked the Postal Service as a leader in workforce diversity. The Postal Service has been named the Most Trusted Government Agency for six years and the sixth Most Trusted Business in the nation by the Ponemon Institute.
Follow USPS on Twitter @USPS_PR and at Facebook.com/usps.
SOURCE U.S. Postal Service
Here is the USPS Request to PRC:
USPS Picture Permit Request to PRC
Hochul, Griffith & Noem Introduce Bipartisan Legislation Capping USPS Executive Pay
Filed under: politics, postal, postal news, press releases, usps
March 28, 2012
WASHINGTON, D.C. – Representative Kathy Hochul (D-NY) yesterday was joined by Representatives Morgan Griffith (R-VA) and Kristi Noem (R-SD) in introducing the bipartisan Postal Executive Accountability Act, which limits compensation for executive officers of the United States Postal Service to the same level of pay as the President’s Cabinet.
“I was proud to work with my colleagues in introducing this bipartisan cost-saving measure during this time of record-high deficits,” said Rep. Kathy Hochul. “While American families are struggling to get by and the jobs of thousands of postal employees across the country remain in jeopardy, including 700 employees in Buffalo, it’s absurd to think the Postmaster General and his top executives are making significantly more than Cabinet Secretaries. This bill will cut the pay and substantial bonuses for USPS senior leadership.”
“When we’re trying to make tough choices with respect to the post office’s financial future, fiscal responsibility needs to start at the top,” said Rep. Morgan Griffith. “With our unprecedented financial problems, this bill proposes a common sense reform. I urge my colleagues to join us in this very reasonable bill.”
“As the postal service looks to curb costs by cutting rural services, they should look at all expenditures – and that includes top salaries and bonuses. The Post Master General shouldn’t be making more money than a Cabinet Secretary when the postal system is calling on Congress to help them stay solvent,” said Rep. Kristi Noem.
The Postal Executive Accountability Act would reinstate the longstanding policy of paying the Postmaster General and other USPS executives no more than the President’s Cabinet ($199,700 in FY2012). Additionally, this bill would prohibit the issuance of bonuses to USPS executive officers in years that the Postal Service closes any retail or processing facility.
USPS Explanation of Secret Study Is Misleading, Inaccurate, APWU Charges
Filed under: APWU, politics, postal, postal news, PRC, press releases, usps
APWU Web News Article 023-2012, March 26, 2012
The Postal Service’s recent attempt to justify the decision to keep market research secret is misleading and inaccurate, the APWU has charged. The research, which was conducted in August and September 2011, indicates that revenue losses from the USPS plan to degrade service standards could eliminate any potential savings from consolidating or closing 223 mail processing centers.
Contrary to the Postal Service’s March 23, the survey did not ask customers whether they “would lessen their use of the mail if the Postal Service immediately imposed price increases, service standard changes, altered delivery frequency, realigned its network of mail processing facilities and other actions.”
In fact, on March 9, the USPS specifically denied that it had asked respondents about the combined effect of cost-saving proposals. In a document [PDF] filed with the Postal Regulatory Commission (PRC) , the Postal Service declared that it “has conducted no ‘combined impact’ analysis” of the proposals.
An introductory statement to the survey [PDF] said the USPS is “exploring several changes.” There is no mention of immediately imposing any of the changes — let alone all of them at once. The APWU believes the response would have been even stronger, if, as the USPS press release inaccurately claims, the survey asked customers how they would respond if the USPS implemented all the proposals mentioned.
Furthermore, the research was not “canceled” as the Postal Service’s press release reports. All of the intended surveys were completed and compiled. Once postal officials saw the preliminary results, they decided not use them. Instead, they elected to conduct a second survey in October and November. This decision may have delayed the filing of the case with the PRC, which had been announced and expected in early October, but was not filed until Dec. 5.
Not surprisingly, the results of the second survey [PDF] were far less damaging to the Postal Service’s rationale for degrading service standards.
Rebecca Elmore-Yalch, vice president of Opinion Research Corporation, the firm that conducted both studies for the Postal Service, testified before the PRC that the first survey may not have answered the question USPS wanted answered, however, she maintained that, “It was very good research. . .” and it is “very useful.”
The customer response may well be even stronger than measured in the survey. The Postal Service reduced the predicted volume loss substantially, using a large “likelihood” factor — the probability that a customer would reduce mail less than reported. The Postal Regulatory Commission rejected this method in a previous case, Docket N2010-1, but the USPS continued to use it in this case nonetheless.
source: USPS Explanation of Secret Study Is Misleading, Inaccurate, Union Charges
Congressman Critz Requests Immediate Review of “Loophole” the USPS may be using to close Post Offices
Filed under: post office closings, postal, postal news, press releases, usps
Cites Post Office Closings in Westmoreland and Somerset Counties (Pennsylvania)
WASHINGTON, D.C. — Congressman Mark S. Critz (PA-12) sent a letter to the Postal Regulatory Commission today requesting an immediate review of concerns that the United States Postal Service (USPS) may be deliberately labeling post office lease holders as “unreasonable” in an attempt to close postal centers outside of the public review and appeals process. Congressman Critz found this to be the case with post offices in Derry, East Vandergrift, New Florence and Sipesville.
“Over the past few months, my office has discovered multiple instances where post office lease holders have agreed to the exact terms set forth by the USPS, only to be told after agreeing to these terms that these centers would be closing anyway,” wrote Congressman Critz, who is already on record as fighting the planned closures of 33 postal centers in the 12th Congressional District. “In other words, I fear that the USPS believes it has identified a loophole through which they are free to close hundreds, if not thousands, of postal centers without question.”
Postal centers that are part of the larger feasibility study require a public meeting and have an appeals process built in. Congressman Critz has already collected hundreds of such appeals in the event of actual closures in these towns. The study targets by name 3,600 centers nationwide. Concern that lease issues were being used as a separate means to close even more centers prompted the Congressman’s review. Read more