PostalReporter.com Blog

According to the Washington Post:  Advertising might soon be pushing the envelope. The U.S. Postal Service is allowing companies to create their own branded stamps for first-class mail. Instead of flags, you can expect to see a company logo; instead of photos of famous Americans, you might see pictures of your local real estate agent.

It is a test, part of an effort to reverse the decline in first-class mailings. As USPS spokeswoman Joanne Veto said, “We want to make mail more interesting to consumers

The first company to buy in is Hewlett-Packard, which is using its corporate logo and pictures from its early days — including founders Bill Hewlett and Dave Packard — on mail sent to customers and partners.

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The first “corporate postage,” featuring the HP garage, rolled off Zazzle’s HP Indigo printing presses on May 16th.

After months of straddling organized labor’s two deeply divided sides, the Laborers Union on Monday said it was quitting the AFL-CIO, effective June 1.With little public fanfare, the union notified the labor federation that it would be aligned solely with the Change to Win Federation, the competing group that the Laborers helped create last year with six other unions. One of the Laborers’ concerns reportedly was over the impact of its departure on its 50,000+ mail handler members. That will divide them from the nation’s other postal worker unions, which belong to the AFL-CIO.

more from Monterey Herald

National Postal Mail Handlers Union

According to Utica (NY) Observer Dispatch: The U.S. Postal Service has decided not to transfer any local mail-processing functions to Syracuse, said Larry Johnson, plant manager at the processing and distribution center on Pitcher Street.

“Right now, there’s no changes planned whatsoever,” Johnson said. “This is a real good day.”

Postal officials had spent recent months looking at opportunities to consolidate processing operations across the country. Late last year, the postal service began studying Utica’s operations, looking to see whether it would be cheaper or improve service to have local mail processed in Syracuse.

The study determined switching the processing would result in no significant benefits, Johnson said.

Related Link:

USPS November 2005 Notice to APWU on Area Mail Processing (AMP) Feasibility Surveys.

By William Burrus, President American Postal Workers Union 

On May 3, 2006, the Postal Service announced its intent to increase postage rates in 2007. This public announcement focused on the 3-cent increase in price of a First-Class stamp, to 42 cents, and the introduction of a new “forever” stamp. (The forever stamp is aimed at ending the bureaucratic bumbling that accompanies rate increases when management fails to provide a sufficient quantity of 2- or 3-cent supplemental stamps to satisfy public requests.) News editorials have followed, expressing the views of analysts who track rate increases and consistently predict the imminent demise of hard-copy communications.

These public announcements and the analyses that followed all missed the most important story. That story is not the three-cent increase; how frequently rate increases have occurred; or the impact of computerization, e-mail, and cell phones on hard-copy communications. The real story is that this rate increase will begin the final chapter of transforming the United States Postal Service from a government service designed to foster communications among all the people into a tax-free entity intended to serve first and foremost as an extension of corporate advertising mailers.

The recent rate-request filing is intended to complete the transformation, begun in 1976, to redefine “uniform rates.” Along the way, the original concept of the U.S. Postal Service was abandoned. The concept was simple: With every user paying the same rate, the average rate would be affordable and communications would flourish.

Prior to 1976, all users of the mail within the respective classes paid the same amount. The First-Class rate was 13 cents, and the rate for Third-Class class mail (now known as standard mail) was 7.9 cents. No matter the economic circumstances of the individual consumer or commercial mailer, the rate was uniform, and the 200-year-old guiding philosophy of “uniform rates for universal service” was maintained.

Since 1975 the first-class rate has increased to 39 cents, a 200-percent increase, but the rates for large first-class business mailers have increased only 125 percent during the same period of time. Under the proposed rates, first-class stamps would go to 42 cents, a 223 percent increase since 1975, while the business mailers rate would increase only 140 percent.

The standard rates for large “automation mailers” have increased approximately 153 percent, and the amount is even less if they drop-ship their mail. Saturation mailers can mail for as little as 12.7 cents per piece, an increase of only 61 percent since 1975.

The rates introduced in 1976 were designed to influence the behavior of mailers. By giving them an incentive to affix printed zip codes, it was expected that the mail-processing operation would become more efficient. That rate structure was intended to bridge the gap as the Postal Service converted from manual and mechanical mail processing to a fully automated system.

As time went on, and postal automation was more fully deployed, the original justification was no longer valid, so the rationalization morphed into “worksharing” A new theory was developed that sought to justify rates that reimbursed large mailers for mail “preparation.”

APWU was long the lone voice of concern over whether a government monopoly was being hijacked by the corporate community, to facilitate commercial communications at the expense of all others. Now, after 30 years, postal management has initiated the final assault on uniform rates through this proposal to assign to each corporate mailing the actual cost of the service, known as “bottom-up pricing.”

More of the article from APWU

(Associated Press) Personal data, including Social Security numbers of 26.5 million U.S. veterans, was stolen from a Veterans Affairs employee this month after he took the information home without authorization, the department said Monday.

The material represents personal data of all living veterans who served and have been discharged since 1976, according to the department. The information was included the veterans’ discharge summary that goes into a government database.

Postal Reporter insert: According to Veteran Affairs

This data contained identifying information including names, social security numbers, and dates of birth for up to 26.5 million veterans and some spouses, as well as some disability ratings.  Importantly, the affected data did not include any of VA’s electronic health records nor any financial information.

The VA is notifying all possibly affected veterans and setting up a special toll-free hotline, 1-800-333-4636.

Latest Information on Veterans Affairs Data Security

Veterans Affairs Secretary Jim Nicholson said there was no evidence so far that the burglars who struck the employee’s home have used the personal data — or even know they have it. The employee, a data analyst whom Nicholson would not identify, has been placed on leave pending a review.

“We have a full-scale investigation,” said Nicholson, who said the FBI, local law enforcement and the VA inspector general were investigating. “I want to emphasize, there was no medical records of any veteran and no financial information of any veteran that’s been compromised.”

“We have decided that we must exercise an abundance of caution and make sure our veterans aware of this incident,” he said in a conference call with reporters.

The theft of stolen information comes as the department has come under criticism for shoddy accounting practices and for falling short on the needs of veterans. Last year, more than 260,000 veterans could not sign up for services because of cost-cutting. Audits also have shown the agency used misleading accounting methods and lacked documentation to prove its claimed savings.

On Monday, the VA said it was in the process of notifying members of Congress and the individual veterans about the burglary, setting up a call center and Web site if veterans believe their information has been misused.

It also is stepping up its review of procedures for the use of personal data for many of its employees who telecommute as well as others who must sign disclosure forms showing they are aware of federal privacy laws and the consequences if they’re violated.

Nicholson declined to comment on the specifics of the incident, which involved a career employee who had taken the information home to suburban Maryland — on disks, according to congressional sources who were briefed on the incident — to work on a department project.

The residential community had been a target of a series of burglaries and the employee was victimized earlier this month, according to the FBI in Baltimore, which was investigating the incident.

USPS has notified Robert C. Pritchard, APWU Director, Motor Vehicle Services that it is proposing to convert Postal Vehicle Service (PVS) to Highway Contract Route (HCR) in Stockton and Fresno, California. It is rumored that similar proposals will be sent to other parts of the country. The following is a copy of the USPS letter. 

April 28, 2006

Robert C. Pritchard
Director, Motor Vehicle Services Division
American Postal Workers Union, AFL-CIO
1300 L Street, NW
Washington, D 2005-4107

Dear Bob:

This is to advise you that the Postal service is proposing to convert Postal Vehicle Service (PVS) at the Stockton, California P & DC to Highway Contract Route (HCR).

The decision to convert PVS to HCR in Stockton, California is based on a potential estimated savings of $356,923. The attached documentation discloses that annual PVS costs is $717,627 and the annual HCR cost is $380,704, which presents a better value to the Postal Service.

In making this decision to convert PVS to HCR, the Postal Service has considered factors such as public Interest, cost, efficiency, availability of equipment, and qualification of employees.

If there are any questions, please contact Rodney Lambson at (202) 268-3827.

Sincerely,

John Dockins
Manager
Contract Administration (APWU)

(USPS Press Release) Ever wonder what that box of stamps your grandmother tucked away in the attic is worth? It’s definitely worth a little, but you just might have a real gem like the 1918 Inverted Jenny Biplane stamp that recently sold for $2.9 million. You can see it, along with $40 million worth of other rare stamps, at the world’s largest stamp show. Imagine what it would be like to experience the excitement of auctioning off one of those stamps at one of the Washington 2006 World Philatelic Exhibition’s multi-million dollar stamp auctions. Running May 27 through June 3, at the Washington, DC, Convention Center, admission is free.

“Stamp collecting is the world’s most popular and historical hobby,” explained U.S. Postal Service Postmaster General John E. Potter. “It’s a fun and educational activity the entire family can enjoy. We look forward to seeing parents and children; teachers and students; collectors and non- collectors at the Washington 2006 World Philatelic Expo to sample the pastime of a lifetime.” (more…)

(Associated Press) The Supreme Court has decided not to revive lawsuits by former postal employees of Washington mail center who were exposed to anthrax.

The former employees had said that workers at the Brentwood postal center were deliberately kept on the job even though officials knew that workers had been exposed to anthrax in letters that were sent to Capitol Hill.

The lead plaintiff in the class action lawsuit brought against the U.S Postal Service, Dena Briscoe, of Clinton, Maryland, says the court’s decision not to hear the case mean’s “no one’s being held accountable.”

Briscoe, who now works at the Southern Maryland sorting facility says she still suffers from fatigue, chills and other symptoms she attributes to anthrax exposure.

Leroy Richmond, of Stafford, Virginia had filed a separate lawsuit and was seeking 50 (m) million dollars in damages.

Brentwood had to be closed in October of 2001 for 26 months while the building was decontaminated.

PostalReporter: A third Brentwood employee also filed a lawsuit over anthrax exposure. In  McQureerir v. United States of America, et al., the judge dismissed this case on April 25, 2006 based on the same reasons as set forth in Briscoe and Richmond lawsuits. (D.D.C., 05-02175 (HHK)

(CongressDaily) A small provision in the House version Legislative provision would benefit Postal Service competitors

A small provision in the House version of the postal overhaul bill would raise rates for customers sending single-piece parcel packages, effectively giving a big payoff to U.S. Postal Service competitors.

The House provision places single-piece packages into a category for products that compete in an open market alongside UPS and FedEx. Rates for those products would be set by comparisons with its private competitors. Additionally, unlike most postal products, customers would have to pay a sales tax on sending their individual packages.

Both provisions, insiders say, would drive up prices. The bills also would create a category for first-class mail, but those rates would be set by the Postal Regulatory Commission and subject to an annual rate cap. One postal insider said it is the “general belief” that the provision was created to serve the interests of Postal Service competitors.

Acknowledging the likely price increase because of the provision, the insider said “anything that weakens the Postal Service is in the advantage” of the agency’s competitors.

Legislative provision would benefit Postal Service competitors

Bill Olson, an attorney for the Association of Priority Mail Users, said there has been “an enormous amount of private lobbying” from UPS throughout the drafting of the overhaul bill. He said the single-piece package provision in the House measure “effectively accomplishes the agenda” of companies such as UPS.

more from Govexec.com

Related link:

UPS Uses Political Clout to Press for Cuts in Pension Benefits

 Mail still a bargain: Price changes are at or below inflation (U.S. Postal Service)

Like most Americans, you’re probably feeling the pinch at the fuel pump — and when you pay your household heat and electric bills. Not to mention ever-increasing health care costs.

It’s the same for the Postal Service. That’s why we’ve filed for price adjustments to take effect next year, including a 3-cent increase in the price of a First-Class stamp. Price changes will vary for other postal products and services. Even with adjustments, the U.S. Mail is still a great bargain.

“By the time new rates take effect in May or June of 2007, the cost of a First-Class stamp will have increased by an average of just a penny a year during the last five years — less than many other consumer products and services,” said Postmaster General Jack Potter.

Potter noted the price of a First-Class stamp has increased at rates lower than or equal to inflation since today’s Postal Service began operations in 1971 — while the cost of gasoline has doubled since the last USPS operational rate adjustment in 2002.

With every 1-cent increase in the price of fuel costing us $8 million a year, you can see that it’s a huge expense. Likewise health care costs are increasing across America. In 2005 alone, these costs increased by $437 million for the Postal Service, reaching a total of $6.6 billion to cover more than 621,000 current employees and 445,000 retirees. (more…)