Friday, March 25

Small package market changes could benefit buyers

'Longtime market leader UPS has seen some of its market share taken away by growing rivals FedEx, the U.S. Postal Service (USPS) and DHL.'
Purchasing

Debate Over Postal Rates Moves To Senate Commerce?

Aviation Week suggests that the airline industry 'is lobbying to take [the Collins postal reform bill] before the Senate Commerce Committee, which is likely to be more sympathetic to the plight airlines would face should the bill make it into law.'
Aviation Daily (subscription)

UPS pilots union approves holding strike authorization vote

Associated Press

Jacksonville Truck Drivers Join Strike Against Private Mail Haulers

APWU News
Post Office spokesman says mail won't be delayed by strike
Radio Iowa

Bird Droppings In Vent Sicken Post Office Workers

KCCI-TV Des Moines

Wednesday, March 23

New USPS Rules Threaten Huge Postage Costs for Nonprofit Mailers

NonProfit Times

Mailing Industry Task Force Cites Progress in 4 Areas

DMNews.com

USPS Releases February Financial Results.

Net income for the month was $12.2 million. Revenue was up 0.1% compared to February 2004, while expenses were up 2.7%. First class mail volume declined 2.4% compared to SPLY, while Standard increased 4.1%. There was slightly more Standard Mail in the system (at $0.19 a piece revenue) than First Class (at $0.37 a piece).
USPS web site
click here for the Excel version of the report

USPS to Pay Employee Health Premiums for Workers Called to Active Duty

APWU News

Postal Service teaches eBay 101

Honolulu Advertiser

Later hours boost Newark post office

Wilmington (DE) News Journal

Thursday, March 17

FedEx 3rd-Qtr Profit Rises 53% on Asian, European Shipments

Bloomberg

Illinois man pleads guilty to money order fraud

A man has pleaded guilty to purchasing more than 200 money orders, each with a face value of $1 or $2, at post offices in St. Louis and Southern Illinois, and altering them to read '$900.'
Alton (IL) Telegraph

The 2001 anthrax mystery lingers

Newsday

Saturday, March 12

Mail Theft Under Investigation

WHTM-TV Harrisburg PA

Benefit Bouncing Betty

Did the BOG step on a landmine with it's letter to Congress?
E-NAPUS Legislative Newsletter

Friday, March 11

List of Problematic 'Leyman' Trucks Released

APWU News

Hamilton P&D set to reopen

'The post office here is set to reopen Monday, 3 1/2 years after it handled anthrax-laced letters sent to Tom Brokaw, two U.S. senators and the offices of the New York Post in attacks that further heightened the nation's insecurity in the weeks after 9/11.'
Associated Press

OSHA injury and illness reports decline

USPS Link Online

Thief drives off in postal truck; mail missing

Miami Herald

Pitney Bowes CEO: Mail Still Preferred Over E-Bills

DMNews.com

Thursday, March 10

USPS Employee Statitistics Update

As of February, USPS career workforce stands at 690,301, down 14,280 from the prior year. The biggest reductions were in clerks- 10,042; mailhandlers- 1,267; supervisors- 1,117; and Area/HQ- 886. City carriers dropped by 64, while rural carriers were the only group to increase, up by 999.
Postal Rate Commission

NAPS: Compromise on Escrow, Military Retirement Near

National Association of Postal Supervisors Legislative Update

Letter Carrier 'Baby V' part of 'Idol's' final dozen

Southwest Florida News-Press

Wednesday, March 9

Your tax dollars at work!

'A Congressional Research Service report found that about one in eight public laws are post-office-naming bills.'
The Hill

Eligibility Requirements for Standard Mail

Background on upcoming changes to the rules
Alliance of Nonprofit Mailers web site

NAPUS Quarterly Consultative

NAPUS and USPS disagree on filling Postmaster vacancies
NAPUS Hotline

Tuesday, March 8

Deputy PMG Nolan to Retire

Deputy PMG John M. Nolan has informed the Board of Governors that he will retire in May. Nolan returned to the USPS in 2000 following eleven years with Merrill Lynch. Prior to joining Merrill, Nolan was General Manager/Postmaster of the former New York Division. He began his Post Office career in 1970.

California postal worker robbed

San Mateo Daily Journal

Monday, March 7

Forecasting Mail Volumes

'This is one of several background papers that are being prepared as part of the Pitney Bowes research for the manuscript, 'Electronic Substitution for Mail: Models and Results; Myth and Reality'. A final manuscript will be published by Pitney Bowes in 2005.'
Pitney Bowes Postinsight.com

Postal Clerk Saves Co-Worker By Using CPR

WTKR-TV, Hampton Roads, VA

Contractor Cuts Off APWU Members' Healthcare Benefits

APWU web site

Workers Picket And Protest What They Call Mismanagement Of Florida Post Office

WJHG-TV Panama City

Friday, March 4

The Problem of Speaking Two Dialects of the Same Language

Abstract: The Postal Service and policy makers find themselves confounded by the confusion resulting from the use of two dialects of the same language based on a perpetuation of a PRC fiction that single-piece and presort First-Class Mail are both a part of one subclass, rather than two distinctively different subclasses. The matter can be resolved simply by instructing the USPS to provide its ratemaking data based on CRAs generated for every separately scheduled rate, and by giving the USPS sole authority to define what is and what isn't a subclass.
Postcom's Gene Del Polito

Commentary: How to kill a reform bill with one really bad idea

Postcom.org

FEHBP Targeted?

'Postal Health Care in the Crosshair' is the lead article in this week's E-NAPUS Legislative Newsletter

DMA: DM Sales Up 9.4% in Fourth Quarter

DIRECT

Revisiting an Old 'Silly Regulation'

DMNews.com

USPS Board Takes Stance on Reform Legislation

DMNews.com

NALC denounces BOG proposal on reform

NALC Bulletin

Tuesday, March 1

Megan Brennan named Northeast Area VP

Link Online

New package-flow technology not delivering at UPS

Computerworld

Two new officers named

Postmaster General Jack Potter yesterday announced the appointment of two new officers. Lynn Malcolm is Vice President, Finance, Controller. Susan Plonkey is Vice President, Service and Market Development.
Link Online

USPS forms remittance mail task force

Press release

USPS aims to strike new deal on undeliverable mail

Federal Times

FedEx fights disclosure of postal contract data

Traffic World reports 'In a letter that had been kept confidential, FedEx wrote to the U.S. Bureau of Transportation Statistics (BTS) that releasing revenue and volume information about its lucrative postal contract would bring the carrier and the USPS "commercial harm" and would delay mail delivery.'

Traffic World posted a copy of the letter on its web site after it was released in response to a Freedom of Information Act request from the magazine. The BTS had requested volume and revenue information on FedEx's mail carrying operation about a year ago, according to Traffic World. 'Competitors, including the airlines that have lost huge volumes of mail under a USPS management of its delivery network, want those details as they seek ways to win back mail traffic.'

The article also quotes attorney David P. Hendel, a critic of the contract, as saying 'I think the Postal Service is embarrassed about how much they are paying. They've really clamped down on any information about it. They treat it as a big success. But it actually is a very expensive proposition for them.'

The magazine identifies Hendel as 'a former USPS attorney', who later represented Emery Worldwide in its unsuccessful challenge of the FedEx contract. It also reports that the FedEx contract is the largest of any postal supplier, at $1.1 billion last fiscal year.