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TOP NEWS STORIES |
Postal Service revenue dips with economy's downturn
"The U.S. Postal Service is delivering its best service ever,
but the slowing economy kept the agency short of its
expected revenue by almost a half-billion dollars last
quarter. A new pricing structure was expected to boost revenues, but
the nation’s slowing economy has meant less mail. The Postal
Service’s first-quarter volume dropped by 1.7 billion
pieces, almost 3 percent, from the same period in 2007. The
first quarter runs from October through December. The
decrease affected virtually all categories of mail. The
steepest decline was in Express Mail, which lost nearly 11
percent of its volume." -
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Deal reached on bill to compensate feds for unused sick leave
"A draft bill that would compensate some retiring federal
employees for unused sick leave is getting sweetened. Retiring employees under the Federal Employees Retirement
System would get up to $10,000 in compensation under the
latest version of a bill drafted by Rep. Jim Moran, D-Va.,
the Federal Managers Association said Monday. Moran's
previous draft bill had capped that at $5,000." -
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Teen's explosive device injures postal worker
"A postal worker suffered minor injuries this weekend after a
pair of teenagers left an explosive device in a Peachtree City
mailbox, police said. Police said a potentially explosive
device was thrown Friday onto the porch of a Linden Lane
residence to scare and retaliate against a 17-year-old who
lives there. The postal worker found a second device inside
the home's mailbox Saturday and suffered minor chemical burns
and an inhalation injury, police said." -
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Post office addresses environment
"When customers call
Geneva Postmaster Belinda Bolding, they ask about what happens
to refused or undelivered mail. They don’t ask about recycling
or other green initiatives the post office undertakes, Bolding
said." -
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Post office will finally release overtime data
"The request was a follow-up on a tip that
Wisconsin mail carriers were working themselves to the bone,
racking up tons of overtime and were unable to take time off.
The tipster said that the Postal Service refused to hire more
carriers." -
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San Diego: Postal Service Driver Robbed of $11,000
"A gunman held up a U.S. Postal Service truck
driver and fled with $11,000 yesterday outside a postal store
at the College Grove shopping mall in Oak Park, authorities
said. The driver was collecting cash, checks and money orders,
Postal Inspector Hillary Smith said." -
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A shrinking window of
opportunity
"The U.S. Postal Service has
announced that it is cutting back window hours at its only
24-hour post office in the Dallas area. Post office officials
said the reduction in hours is about efficiency. New,
automated postal machines now available in many post office
lobbies have cut into late-night demand at the main office's
service windows. The machines allow customers to weigh and buy
postage anytime." -
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Postal Executive Pay on
the Rise
"Postmaster General Jack Potter and seven other senior postal
officers have received hefty pay increases as a result of changes in the postal reform law.
Potter got the largest increase. His salary increases 39 percent to
$258,840 a year, up from $186,600. That's an increase of
$72,240 and is now the maximum allowed a postal officer under the Postal
Accountability and Enhancement
Act (PAEA)." -
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Postal Service makes play to stay in game
"In Rochester, postal officials have proposed
closing five city branches, opening four new offices - only
two of which would offer retail services, because the other
two would be for carriers only - and upgrading a retail branch
in Greece within the next two years. "We're not the only game
in town anymore," said Karen Mazurkiewicz, the western New
York spokeswoman for the Postal Service. "We have a real need
to grow revenue. If not, eventually we'll just price ourselves
out of business." -
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Postal Service is in business to make money
"To generate new streams of revenue, the Postal
Service has added services, including package tracking and
overnight delivery. It also has beefed up its sales
strategies, promoting higher-priced services over more
economical choices. For example, tell the clerk you want to send a package, and
the first price you'll be quoted is the highest -- overnight
delivery. You often have to ask if there is a less expensive option.
"It's more up-selling than leaving out information," said Carl
Walton, spokesman for the Postal Service in Greensboro, N.C. "The purpose is to offer the best and fastest service
possible," he said. "If that service is $27, we are going to
quote that first." -
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Police: Mail Carriers Played Video Poker in Mini-Mart Back
Room
"An investigation into why mail trucks were always
sitting outside a Westmoreland County convenience store
resulted in four poker machines and $10,000 being confiscated
on Thursday. Neighbors complained about
late-arriving mail, police said, so they began to investigate
and asked the inspector general for help." -
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APWU, NALC Sue USPS and Inspector General Over Invasion of
Medical Records Privacy
"The suit alleges that the OIG has routinely instructed
medical providers that they must submit records to the OIG and
that they should refrain from notifying affected employees
that the records have been requested by the OIG. In suing the
Postal Service and the OIG, the unions’ suit asserts that
these practices constitute an unlawful invasion of privacy;
they extend beyond the authority of the OIG; they violate
postal workers’ constitutionally protected right to privacy;
and they amount to unreasonable searches and seizures in
violation of the Fourth Amendment of the Constitution of the
United States." -
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USPS: Two New Shipping Initiatives Approved
"The Board of Governors has approved two new
initiatives to grow our shipping business and revenue. A new,
larger Priority Mail Flat Rate Box enables customers to ship
50 percent more than with the current box. It will be offered
at a discount to overseas military addresses - a postal first
for the armed forces. USPS also announced a new Sunday and
holiday delivery price for Express Mail. Customers can begin
using the new boxes March 3, the same day the premium takes
effect." - USPS to charge extra for
delivery on Sunday, holidays -
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FTC Report: US Postal Service Needs More Autonomy
"The U.S. Postal Service is hurt more than it is helped
by its status as a government entity, the Federal Trade
Commission said in a study released on Wednesday. Federal
constraints, such as restrictions on the postal service's
ability to manage its labor force and configure its network,
increase its costs by an estimated $330 million to $782
million a year, the FTC found." - FTC
Report (PDF) -
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Wall Street
Hates Your TSP
"Tell that individual, and his or her Wall Street
puppetmasters, that you are doing all of your investing within
the federal 401k plan. It has the lowest administrative fees
in the business. And that's good for you but terrible for most
mutual funds which make a ton (as in pots) of money handling your money." -
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Twenty Years of Service
Don't Save Letter Carrier's Job
"Mr. Eck was delivering mail on his route when he
got into a shoving match with an off duty co-worker. Eck was
arrested and charged with aggravated assault. The agency
charged Eck with unacceptable conduct and fired him. Eck
appealed to the Board and argued that he did not start the
fight, did not cause severe bodily injury as alleged by the
agency, and he had acted in self defense." -
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Postcom: 2.9 Percent Rate
Increase?
"Well, the rumor mill is cranking,
and it says that the Postal Service will be announcing soon
its intention to raise postal
rates by 2.9% when calculated at the class level." -
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Postal
workers still waiting for portion of missing paychecks
"Last month
thousands of postal employees across the country did not get
all the money they earned just before the holidays thanks to a
computer glitch. The workers got 65 percent of their pay when the
glitch was discovered and were told they would have to wait
two more weeks for the rest. Melinda Crotts was one of them.
Today she hoped to see that money but once again is was
missing." -
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Postal career workforce continues decline
"US Postal Service employment statistics showed a
continuing decline in the career workforce at the end of 2007.
The USPS ended the year with 681,013 career employees, down
1.9% from the prior year. The decrease of 13,329 career jobs
was more than made up for by 21,537 added casual workers, and
11,801 transitional employees." -
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Downtown Fort Worth Post Office Among
Facilities Listed in GAO Report
"What
do you get when you spend $1 million to repair a post office?
If you guessed a post office that "remains in deteriorating
condition, is largely vacant and does not appear critical to
the U.S. Postal Services mission..." then you've probably seen
the Downtown Fort Worth Station at 251 W. Lancaster Ave. The
building, valued at $5,310,520 by the Tarrant Appraisal
District, houses obsolete mail-sorting equipment, and its
99,000 square feet of space is mostly empty -- only the main
floor of the three-story building is routinely used, according
to a December report by the U.S. Government Accountability Office." - GAO Report: US Postal Service Facilities (PDF) -
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Postal Service plans to save $1B this year with automation,
cost cutting
"Perhaps the most fundamental challenge for USPS is
labor costs: They make up nearly 80 percent of total operating
expenses, a ratio that’s been virtually unchanged since 1971.
High labor costs are inevitable with the Postal Service’s
business model, postal executive Linda Kingsley said."
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TSP to Frequent Traders: "Go Play Somewhere Else"
"According to the TSP folks, frequent trading activity has
cost other TSP investors quite a lot of money. The actions of
a few traders has also created the possibility of instability
in the funds with "greater risk of performance deviations from
the TSP Funds' benchmarks." The costs have been paid by
everyone who has invested in the I fund and "in 2006,
transaction costs caused all long-term investors in the I Fund
to earn 0.08% less than they otherwise would have."
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APWU: They Love to Hate Us
"Postal Points, a mailing industry newsletter,
has enjoyed taking potshots at the APWU for quite a while, but
the vitriol seems to have increased lately. And in a Dec. 21,
2007, article about the Omnibus Appropriations Bill that
passed Congress late last year, the publication also blasted
legislators who added a provision to the spending bill that
directed the Postal Service to postpone any facility
consolidations until further review has been made by the
Government Accountability Office."
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