Postal Workers
Custom Search
Share
NALC Opens Its Archive For Research

Postmarked January 30th, 2012

The National Association of Letter Carriers has made its voluminous records archive available to the public at the Walter P. Reuther Library Collections at Wayne State University.  The records have been catalogued and there are descriptions available for each part of the NALC Collection.

MASTER LIST OF NALC ARCHIVE RECORDS
https://www.reuther.wayne.edu/taxonomy/term/13

The collection includes, among other materials, these files.  Each link
describes that set of files.

OFFICE OF PRESIDENT JAMES H. RADEMACHER (Mostly 1968-1977)
https://www.reuther.wayne.edu/files/LR001313.pdf

OFFICE OF PRESIDENT VINCENT R. SOMBROTTO (Records From 1979-1999)
https://www.reuther.wayne.edu/files/LR001915.pdf

OFFICE OF PRESIDENT J. JOSEPH VACCA (Mostly 1976-1979)
https://www.reuther.wayne.edu/files/LR001914.pdf

OFFICE OF THE EXEC. VICE PRESIDENT (Mostly 1976-1997)
https://www.reuther.wayne.edu/files/LR001910.pdf

OFFICE OF F. JOHN MILLER, EXEC. ASST TO THE PRES. (Mostly 1984-1999)
https://www.reuther.wayne.edu/files/LR001916.pdf

NALC INFORMATION CENTER RECORDS (Mostly 1960-2006)
https://www.reuther.wayne.edu/files/LR001912_IC.pdf

CITY DELIVERY DIRECTOR RECORDS (Mostly 1972-1985)
https://www.reuther.wayne.edu/files/LR001912_CD.pdf

OFFICE OF VICE PRES. FRANCIS J. CONNERS (Mostly 1975-1986)
https://www.reuther.wayne.edu/files/LR001917.pdf

NALC DEPT OF RESEARCH AND EDUCATION (Mostly 1977-1985)
https://www.reuther.wayne.edu/files/LR001918.pdf

NALC SECRETARY-TREASURER (Mostly 1971-1995)
https://www.reuther.wayne.edu/files/LR001751.pdf

NALC PUBLIC RELATIONS DEPARTMENT (Records from 1985-1995)
https://www.reuther.wayne.edu/files/LR001912_PR.pdf

Article about the transfer of records to Detroit:
http://nalc.org/news/precord/ArticlesPDF/0307-Archive&PERF.pdf
USPS List of CPUs and CPOs

Postmarked 1/28/2012

The Postal Service has published a list of Contract Postal Units and Community Post Offices (CPUs and CPOs):

http://www.prc.gov/Docs/80/80090/ChIR1.Q41-42.xls

Sheet One lists the 260 CPUs and CPOs closed during FY 2011.

Sheet Two lists the 145 CPUs and CPOs opened during FY 2011.

Sheet Three lists the 3520 CPUs and CPOs operating at the end of FY 2011.
A Private Postal Service at Half the Price of Bulk Rate Mail

Postmarked 12/22/2011

Found this flyer on my door today that advertises a door hanging company with rates about 1/2 the cost of Bulk Rate Mailing. (Click image to enlarge.)
Another JARAP? Are you kidding me?

Postmarked 12/16/2011

My post office just underwent JARAP route adjustments that were effective at the end of July. It was a complete debacle, with many routes gaining 100 percent new territories, one route becoming a monster route and endless problems with mail coming to the wrong routes. But that was no surprise, we had a team of individuals making the routes adjustments who had never delivered mail in my ZIP Code before. In fact, the carriers had been calling two on the team "Lucy and Ethel." One was supposedly a hot-shot manager and the other lady was a union rep who walked with a limp. Not to be mean, but they were actually in our employee parking lot, with papers strewn across the hoods of their cars, trying to figure out the data on our routes. I remember in the old days, before computers and COR, when route adjustments were accomplished with pen and paper by managers and supervisors who had actually walked the routes with carriers. During the old days, each route adjustment made the routes better. Today, each new adjustment makes the routes worse. Gone is a term I call "institutional memory." For decades at my PO, you knew that Tokalon Drive was on Route 15, for example. Now, no one really knows what mail goes to what route, as routes have been totally redone and renumbered. Now, UNBELIEVABLY, only 5 months later, we're being told that my PO will soon be undergoing a new JARAP route adjustment, after we have finally been able to make some sense of the adjustments of 5 months ago. How much money will be wasted, how many managers will be paid for churning the routes again? And will the routes be even worse in the end?
PA: 17 Carriers Put Off the Clock for 7PM Work Stoppage?

Postmarked 12/14/2011

Rumor received via email: "We have been told that 17 letter carriers in Bethel Park, PA 15102 have been sent home with a threat of dismissal for a work stoppage for returning back to the Station at 7pm on 12/13/11. They have been informed to stay home until further notice."
Dallas: USPS Considering Contracting Out Motor Transportation (MVS)

Postmarked 12/07/2011

At the Area Mail Processing Feasibility Study public meeting held in Dallas, Texas on December 7th, 2011, Acting District Manager Tim Vierling said the USPS is considering replacing USPS employee MVS (Motor Vehicle Service) and PVS (Postal Vehicle Service) driver transportation routes with HCR (Highway Contract Routes). The way I understood the question and answer, HCRs would be transporting mail from the plant to the post offices, which would effectively be "contracting" out a function that is currently being accomplished by USPS employees in USPS trucks.
Heart to Hearts

Postmarked 11/24/2011

Tomorrow is another workday at the ole post office delivering mail, and I'm betting us letter carriers will be getting another "heart to heart" from our new station manager. Now our new station manager is a decent human being, but he's got a tough job, that is, getting his "numbers" to match our actual production "numbers." Not an easy task when routes were made in lighter months and now it's the heaviest mail volume time of the year. Unfortunately our new boss is a lot like the old boss, except he's not "Special Forces" (more on that later). He likes to have heart to hearts with us carriers about how bad we are doing. In his first heart to heart he included something about firing people which resulted in a petition signed by most of us carriers about a hostile work environment. The other day the new boss said that only one of the carriers he has walked with had an acceptable pace. Well, I think he has only walked with three carriers, and I'm pretty sure he started at the bottom of the productivity list. You see, I think I'm doing a great job, and there are other carriers at my office doing the same. But we are all subjected to the same "bad carrier" speech, which is ultimately turning the entire station against him. Back to the old boss. Our old boss came in to the station bragging about how he was in Army Special Forces. He even had a story about how, as a supervisor, he stood up to his manager and said something like "don't you mess with me, I'm Special Forces" LOL. Well, I was interested in his Special Forces (SF) service as I was actually in a MEUSOC (Marine Expeditionary Unit Special Operations Capable) unit (they call it the Tip of the Spear) that was forward deployed on Navy ships to respond to emergency situations like embassy rescues and stuff like that (see my photo from S. Korea LOL). Soon, the station manager's story unraveled, though I'm not sure he even knows that to this day. He had a two-year enlistment. (The Army doesn't waste their time training "Special Forces" who are only in for two years.) He wasn't a Ranger (said there's no official designation as a Ranger). Didn't go to RIP (Ranger Indoctrination Program). Didn't go to Q-School (Green Beret Qualification). That doesn't leave anything but the Delta Force, and I'm pretty sure he wasn't in that either with a two-year enlistment. So to make a long story short, this "SV" (now Stolen Valor) guy comes in to the station writing Letters of Warnings right off the bat, including some LOWs to some of the best carriers at the station. Guess what, pretty much the entire station turned against this guy pronto. Even the runners and "helpers" didn't want to help this guy anymore. In the end, this SV guy almost had a nervous breakdown. He stated to me that if he were lying on the side of the road needing assistance that maybe only five carriers out of our 35 would stop to help him. (I thought his number was a little high but didn't want to hurt his feelings.) Now, the new boss came right in and almost immediately gave a LOW to one of our best carriers. (The carrier stated he got "screwed over on a help slip", meaning he was helping another carrier and the carrier gave him more mail to carry than the supervisor instructed, causing him to work past his allotted time. And I believe this carrier because I have known him to be a great carrier for almost 17 years.) Not good for overall morale and a good indication this new boss will end up in a place just like the old boss. A couple of years ago we had a great supervisor and sometimes acting station manager that most everyone respected. I'll go ahead and say his name here - Webster Lusk. He was a quiet guy, not prone to insultive "heart to hearts". But if you messed up, he would call you into his office to deal with you privately. No "bad carrier" rants to the entire station. The moral to my little rant? If you are a manager or supervisor coming in to a new post office, don't turn the entire workforce against you with threatening "heart to hearts." Deal with the troublemakers privately and you may end up with some slack and good will from the rest of the carriers.
Ending Saturday Mail Delivery Provisions on the Table in NALC/USPS Contract Negotiations?

Postmarked 9/09/2011

You can bet the USPS would like to see provisions in the upcoming NALC/USPS labor agreement (and also the NRLCA/USPS upcoming contract) that address the ending of Saturday mail delivery. Of course, Congress has the final say on the end of Saturday mail delivery, but the end would have consequences in a new contract not currently addressed in the current/old contract. So if ending Saturday mail delivery might possibly happen anyway, it's probably best that needed changes are negotiated by NALC beforehand that are beneficial to letter carriers under the circumstances.
Will "Postalgeddon" Talk Be a Self-Fulfilling Prophecy?

Postmarked 9/05/2011

Remember in 2008 when bank customers made a run on IndyMac Bank after Sen. Chuck Schumer released a letter calling into question the bank's viability? Within eleven days after release of the letter, customers had withdrawn about $1.3 billion from the bank, precipitating its failure. John Reich, the director of the Office of Thrift Supervision, said that Schumer had given the bank a "heart attack."

Of course, public and congressional discussions about the Postal Service's problems are necessary to correct the debatable problems. But there's been a lot of "piling on" and at some point one has to wonder if the "Postalgeddon" talk will encourage advertisers to take their money elsewhere. Here's what's been said about the Postal Service lately:

Will be broke by winter
Will be insolvent
Will be forced to shut down in 2012
Email is killing the Postal Service
Labor costs are killing the Postal Service
The Postal Service is planning to close thousands of post offices
The Postal Service is planning to break legal contracts and lay off 100,000-plus employees
The Postal Service is planning to close more than half of its mail processing centers
The Postal Service is planning to add a day of delivery time to some First Class and Priority Mailings
The Postal Service is planning to cut Saturday delivery

Aside from wondering if the Postal Service will be open in a year, mailers must be wondering if their mail will actually be delivered in a timely manner if the Postal Service cuts 100,000-plus employees and cuts more than half of its mail processing centers. I just hope the "piling on" ceases before the Postal Service loses more volume.
Looking back, maybe there should have been more support for ending Saturday delivery

Postmarked 9/01/2011

Many months ago, the Postmaster General made it clear that ending Saturday mail delivery was a centerpiece of his plan to save the Postal Service's financial future. NALC came out against this proposal (in the apparent belief its stance would save a number of letter carrier positions) despite indications that a vast majority of letters carriers wanted to have weekends off. But the USPS now, seeing it had just lukewarm backing from a few postal stakeholders about ending Saturday mail delivery, is now proposing upending the entire Postal Service, with proposals to add a day to delivery times for First Class Mail, cutting more than 50% of mail processing centers, virtually ending current federal retirement systems, ending the current health benefits system and more. It's an almost complete tearing down of the Postal Service as we know it. Of course, these proposals are just plain outlandish in their entirety, considering the Postal Service is otherwise a highly efficient organization that gets most letters (and there are billions) to their destinations the next day. (Overall, as I've stated below, the Postal Service should rethink its pricing and product mix to stay competitive and relevant.) I just wish there had been more support for the initial proposal to end Saturday mail delivery, a reasonable solution for the Postal Service to fix its financial position and a great quality of life benefit to many postal workers.
Postal Plans Not Adding Up

Postmarked 8/28/2011

Overall, despite having more than a few abusive bosses, the USPS is a good job to have. So we should all be more than a little concerned about proposals put forth that would greatly reduce the number of employees and possibly reduce service standards. I believe there are ways to save the Postal Service and increase its relevancy without gutting it. Here's what doesn't add up for me. One proposal is to have the USPS explore the possibility of relaxing delivery standards for First Class and Priority Mail as a result of drastic plant closings. Adding a day of delivery time to some First Class and Priority Mail mailings just doesn't make sense in an electronic age where new ways are constantly being developed to deliver news, information, documents, movies, files etc. almost instantaneously. I'm talking about emails, Facebook, Twitter, texting, iPads, streaming - but the Postal Service is talking about adding a day to delivery time. Another thing that doesn't make sense to me are plans that the Postal Service's new Every Door Direct Mail will help save the day, even though massive employment cuts could be coming. The problem with this plan is that EDDM requires a full, bulked-up workforce to get everything delivered in a timely manner. Full coverage mailings take manpower, a lot of it. At my PO recently, we've been hit with a number of almost full-coverage mailings that have taken my station to the limit. Some carriers at my PO have recently been working until 7-8PM at night to get the job done. And the carriers have often been left waiting (on the clock) in the AM for scarce clerks to distribute the mail. Somehow amid all the hype it seems we don't have enough clerks. At my house yesterday, I received what looks to be my first piece of EDDM. It was for a car title loan, an industry that is highly criticized for taking advantage of people in need of cash. It reminds me of the credit card NSAs that nearly launched a number of Do Not Mail registries. I don't want unsolicited mailings from car title loan companies. I want mailings about my interests, as silly as they are - in my case dodgeball, racquetball, movies, history, travel, adventure travel, etc. My idea, found below in this blog, would replace Standard Mail with a new class of right-priced Business Mail that could be intelligently targeted to postal customers. You see, the Postal Service's core problem, aside from the pre-funding accounting gimmick, is PRODUCTS AND PRICING. THE POSTAL SERVICE DOES NOT HAVE THE RIGHT MIX OF PRODUCTS AND PRICING. Unfortunately it seems the USPS is planning to keep (and even expand with EDDM) Standard Mail, a product that is neither adding relevancy or profits to the USPS. As the plan goes now, the USPS will probably drown in a sea of red ink, sinking to the bottom of the ocean with a bag of bulk mail tied around its ankles. There's no reason to gut the USPS, just like there's no reason the Postal Service shouldn't be profitable. We are a monopoly in an industry that has customers at every address in America.
Mail Preference List Could Make Mail Relevant Again, Save Postal Service

Postmarked 7/31/2011

In my prior post of 7/17/2011 found below, I mentioned a Mail Preference List that could help make the mail and the USPS relevant again. Let's be honest. As postal employees, we all appreciate mail volume, any mail volume. It pays the bills and our salaries. Unfortunately, mail volumes are becoming less relevant to postal customers, and will continue to become less relevant each day as personalized First Class letters become fewer and non-personalized Standard mailings increase. I know with the mail I receive each day, much of it goes straight to the trash unfortunately because much of it doesn't pertain to me in the least. But what if it did? What if somehow I could get mail that actually interested me? Well, there are some ways to do that already - subscribe to magazines, sign up for mailing lists, etc. Still, though some magazines and mailers share some mailing lists, it's not exactly working out.

Before I get into the Mail Preference List in more detail, I want to mention a couple of business/economic theories. First, Douglas McGregor's Theory X and Theory Y and Abraham Maslow's Hierarchy of Needs generally state that work should be meaningful and important. (And of course the market demands products and services that are useful or meaningful in some way.) And another theory I want to mention is that the free market thrives on information, and the more perfect that information is, the more efficient the market runs, and the less perfect that information is, the less efficient the market runs.

With that said, here's what's happening now. Sure, there's some mailing lists, especially for bills LOL. However, a lot of the mailstream now is filled with full coverage or partial coverage mailings that are deemed to be successful if only a certain small percentage act on the mailings. This is especially true with the full coverage ad circulars that much of the nation receives weekly. But as many carriers and postal customers alike can tell you is that much of this goes straight in the trash. (Many apartments, for example, will set up a trash can next to the mail boxes. Carriers will often find these trash cans full of ads circulars they delivered the day before.)

In my prior post I mentioned two problems that have emerged for the Postal Service - pricing and products. In a nutshell, many, many mailers are using the lower priced Standard Mail to mail products through the US Mail. Plain and simple. And this trend towards even more Standard Mailings is putting the Postal Service in a financial bind. Here's my idea.

Create just two classes of letter mail - First Class and Business Class. First Class would remain basically the same. Business Class would replace Standard Mail, Nonprofit Mail and any other kinds of letter-sized (and hopefully flat-sized) mail I have failed to mention here. The new Business Mail would be rate-incentivized to fit and run on proven DPS machines and not on the super-sized and costly FSS machines that only create another bundle of mail to be delivered. Non-targeted full-coverage mailings would be discouraged with inopportune rates.

Business Class Mail would be empowered by a centralized Mail Preference List that would be run by the Postal Service or affiliate partners. Postal customers would log in to the Mail Preference List website and indicate what types of mail they would like to receive. At the top of the site would be a place for customers to check off common preferences such as pizza coupons and grocery ads if they wish. But there would be thousands of other categories as well, from brands such as Coca Cola and Toyota Scion to activities such as softball and Zumba dancing to interests such as cats and jousting. The mailing lists found at this preference site would be further enhanced through website partners who would develop their own mailing lists. For example, I would be able to add a snippet of code that directed PostalMag viewers to sign up for either a PostalMag.com mailing list or various postal-related lists such as postal uniforms, right-hand drive vehicles, etc. Mailers would, in turn, log in to this Mail Preference List site, select the lists they would like, perhaps weed the list down further by selecting only females or people between 30 and 40 years old for example, then design the mailpiece online and have a USPS partner such as Valassis print the pieces and enter into the mailstream.

Here are a few examples of how this Mail Preference List proposal could make the mailstream much smarter, more efficient, and more profitable for everyone involved and empower our economy in a million new "Invisible Hand of Capitalism" ways.

The first example is the diversion of current full-coverage ad circulars to Business Class. With more-perfect information, pizza delivery companies wouldn't have to pay to mail to every address in the region for example. (In the Electronic World, this is known as spam.) With Business Class, pizza companies could just mail a letter-sized mailing/postcard to just the addresses where customers have indicated a preference for receiving pizza-related coupons. Conceivable, a singular ad circular with twenty different advertisers could generate up to twenty different mailings, each highly targeted to the customer.

Here's how it could work for me. In addition to running PostalMag.com, I am also the Commissioner of Dallas Dodgeball. Right now, I do not mail anything to promote Dallas Dodgeball for lack of a relevant mailing list, though I do have an email list. But what if I could log into the Mail Preference List and generate a list of all people within a twenty-five mile radius interested in receiving information about dodgeball? That list would be golden to me and I would certainly use it. Perhaps there would be 300 people on the list. That's 300 pieces of mail added to the mailstream, perhaps on a monthly basis. Now, add this mailing to the millions of new mailings that would be generated by the Mail Preference List and there's no reason for the Postal Service to suffer in this market driven economy for perhaps another two decades.

Overall, this idea is about the only way I can think of to make the mail intelligent enough to be relevant in this Electronic Age.

Additional notes:

1. Postal customers without Internet access would be provided with a postcard with a listing of popular categories to be checked off such as pizza, grocery and home improvement. These postcards would be mailed to the Mail Preference List and scanned into the database.
2. The Mail Preference List could be integrated into social websites such as Facebook (which already has lists of likes) and other sites such as Groupon (imagine a Deal of the Day mailing).

Below image: Here's an example of what a Business Class mailpiece could look like. Already, some pizza companies are sending some postcards instead of ads in weekly circulars, like this one that was mailed to my PO Box.
USPS to Announce New "Village Post Office" Concept

Postmarked 7/25/2011

The USPS will announce on July 26th, 2011 a new "Village Post Office" concept. For smaller communities without a Post Office or other access to postal products, the Village Post Office will become a supplementary option - and an opportunity for local businesses, according to the USPS. This new retail option will be operated by community businesses, such as pharmacies, grocery stores and other local retailers or town halls and government centers. Village Post Offices will offer the most frequently purchased postal products and services - stamps and prepaid flat-rate packaging. Village Post Offices will become part of the network of outlets operated by third parties to complement the Postal Service's own retail network. These also include Contract Postal Units, Approved Shippers, Stamps on Consignment locations and Community Post Offices.
Recent United States Postal Service Trademark Applications

Postmarked 7/23/2011

Source: United States Patent Office
More information on each trademark application is available at http://www.uspto.gov 

1   85368746  THE GREAT BOX RACE
2   85300712  EVERYWHERE I AM
3   85172124  SEE IF IT FITS!
4   85975429  US POSTAGE PAID
5   85069794  US POSTAGE PAID
6   85366383  FIRST-CLASS PACKAGE RETURN
7   85364381  WEE DELIVER
8   85345599  PRIORITY MAIL RETURNS
9   85322722  USPS BLUE EARTH
10   85365413  IT'S IN THE MAIL
11   85363980  ZIPSTATION
12   85363811  SHIPPING EVOLVED
13   85312926  APPROVED POSTAL PROVIDER
14   85308333  UNITED STATES POSTAL SERVICE U.S.MAIL
15   85350733  EDDM
16   85350714  EDDM BMEU
17   85350691  EDDM RETAIL
18   85316561  PRIORITY MAIL REGIONAL RATE
19   85315681  YOUR OTHER ADDRESS
20   85314052  PRIORITY MAIL OPEN AND DISTRIBUTE
21   85345584  USPS RETURNS
25   85092549  PUTTING OUR STAMP ON A GREENER TOMORROW
26   85153448  REAL MAIL NOTIFICATION
27   85121633  WE'RE EVERYWHERE SO YOU CAN BE ANYWHERE
28   85013393  POSTMARK AMERICA
29   85252023  POSTAL REGIONAL GROUND
30   85288878  COMMERCIAL FIRST-CLASS PACKAGE SERVICE
31   85281028  EVERY DOOR DIRECT MAIL - RETAIL
32   85302130  POST OFFICE IN YOUR HOME AND IN YOUR HAND
33   85281070  EVERY DOOR DIRECT MAIL - BMEU
34   85279781  IT'S TIME TO RETHINK YOUR SHIPPING
35   85034221  CRITICAL MAIL
36   85304523  APPROVED POSTAL PROVIDER
37   85155718  PRIORITY MAIL FLAT RATE
38   85091695  PARCEL SELECT LIGHTWEIGHT
39   85091723  POSTMARK AMERICA PASSPORT
40   85269692  DELIVERING IN NEW WAYS
41   85251941  DELIVERING TRUST
42   85251730  EVERY DOOR DIRECT MAIL
43   85253319  SAMPLING THROUGH THE POSTAL SERVICE
44   85211936  USPS EPACKET
45   85211923  EPACKET
46   85204859  SECURITY: IT COMES WITH THE STAMP
47   85203928  REPLY RIDES FREE
48   85203651  PARCEL SELECT REGIONAL GROUND
49   85194202  MAIL (MARKETING ACHIEVEMENT IN INNOVATION AND LEADERSHIP) AWARD
50   85156062  A SIMPLER WAY
51   85153491  PRIORITY MAIL REGIONAL RATE BOX
52   85133278  GEM
53   85091675  USPS PACKAGE INTERCEPT
54   85088464  USPS MOBILE
55   85076197  IMB
56   85053745  POSTAL GROUND
57   85042610  YOUR OTHER ADDRESS
58   85011431  USPS DELIVERY CONFIRMATION
USPS Needs to Find Its Sweet Spot
My Two Cent's Worth on Postal Transformation

 Postmarked 7/17/2011

Here's my two cent's worth on how the Postal Service should proceed into the future. Sorry if it offends anyone.

The Postal Service is currently facing a financial crisis created by an overzealous effort to "starve" the Postal Service into greater efficiencies. This financial crisis will somehow be fixed, don't worry about this for the long term.

Longer term, and we are already in the longer term, the Postal Service needs to fundamentally rethink core strategies. In a nutshell, electronic communications have and will be further in the future undercutting the Postal Service's core competency - delivering paper products to locations throughout the United States. The key word in the last sentence was "paper." Paper communications are on the way out, thanks to the Internet and other electronic mediums, but also because the Postal Service continues to do business the old way and not using electronic mediums to make paper communications relevant.

Here's what the Postal Service did to attempt to increase volume and its own relevancy in the Electronic Age: The USPS entered into NSA agreements with major credit card companies that flooded the mail stream with billions of unwanted credit card offers. All this did was make many Americans hate the mail, and it certainly made the mail less relevant and even helped lead to "do not mail" registry attempts in several states. The Postal Service did this as part of a core strategy, formulated in the early 2000s (the Transformation Plan), that called for a Postal Service serving greater volumes of mail, even at a time when electronic communications were beginning to undercut the Postal Service. Even today, the Postal Service is attempting to generate greater volumes of mail (that NECESSITATE A LARGER WORKFORCE) through its Every Door direct mail initiative, even as it wants to cut the Service's number of employees.

Overall, the USPS is facing HUGE, HUGE long-term problems if it continues to do paper delivery in the present way in an electronic world. But here's my plan to make the Postal Service relevant once again.

The Postal Service needs to find a profitable "Sweet Spot" - a combination of simplified rates that generate the right mail volumes handled by the right-sized workforce that generates a profit (or break even) that relevantly serves the needs of the nation and businesses. Here's how to develop the "sweet spot."

First, let me just say the Postal Service complains about diminishing First Class mail volumes and the increase in less profitable Standard volumes. BUT HERE'S THE BILLION DOLLAR LIGHT BULB GOING OFF IN THE HEAD MOMENT. The Postal Service created Standard Mail in the first place. It doesn't necessarily have to offer Standard Mail or at the rates it charges. It would be like Taco Bell creating a ten cent taco and then getting mad that people aren't ordering the 99 cent tacos!

So with that said, the Postal Service needs to totally rethink the way it charges people for delivering paper products. Here's a few pointers:

1. The Postal Service currently has thousands of total rates. Make it simpler for people to mail products by greatly reducing the number of rates, even at the most basic levels. There are currently a number of rates for basic letters, from non-profit rates to pre-sort to Standard to First Class and more. Overall, less rates mean less paperwork, admin costs, tracking costs, etc. etc. for the Postal Service while making it perhaps easier for people to mail.
2. Continuing with the premise of Number One, create two rates for basic letters, keep the First Class rate and make a new Business Class rate (more on this later).
3. That's right, Number Two doesn't have room for a non-profit rate. Two points here: The Postal Service can't afford to do charity work, as good as some of that charity is. Two: Many, but not all, non-profit mailers are in it for the money and, after admin costs, many return ten percent or less to the actual charities or "non-profit" works.
4. That's right, Number Two doesn't have room for Standard saturation mailings either. Here's the problem with Standard Mailings and a right-sized, smaller, more efficient workforce: Mondays are heavy mail volume days due to the accumulation of mail over the weekend. However, Tuesdays and/or Wednesdays necessitates a larger workforce (more man hours) to handle the workload of often hard to handle, every door mail deliveries. Then, Thursday, Friday and Saturday mail deliveries, with less volumes (both in total bulk and piece counts) are accomplished with the same Tuesday and Wednesday-sized workforces. Do away with bulk mailings, that are incidentally possibly unethical uses of our nation's trees considering the shotgun approach to these untargeted mailings), and the Postal Service can get by with a smaller workforce compliment that is not bulked up to handle the most unprofitable (so they say) mailings.
5. Each week at my post office there seems to be more and more packages. And there will continue to be more and more as more people become comfortable with ordering online. I have a feeling, since many of these packages are hand-sorted at some point, this isn't exactly the Postal Service's most profitable line. Perhaps the Postal Service should price itself out of some of the package delivery business to become more nimble and efficient.

Second, the Postal Service needs to find ways to make mail relevant once again. The current system isn't working. Have you considered your personal mail-mix recently? The answer might be no as you may be tossing a good seventy five percent or more of any day's mail in the trash. Credit card offers, "non-profit" political mailings, mail for the people who last lived at your address, incessant cable TV offers, and the such. The current mail mix contains just a certain percentage of pieces that are indeed relevant and add value to postal customers. Here's how to make mail more relevant, and at the same time make it easier and cheaper for the Postal Service to handle:

1. The Postal Service, or in conjunction with private partners such as Valassis, Pitney Bowes or even Google, needs to develop highly-targeted mailing lists and make these lists available to mailers (perhaps for a price). The Postal Service needs to develop an online national mailing list registry where people can go (perhaps directed there when they move) and register what kind of mail they would like to receive. For example, I might go to the website and check off Star Wars, Lost (TV), dodgeball, and perhaps an upcoming movie such as Cowboys and Aliens, and other personal interests. Someone else might go there and check off yoga, Zumba and cats. Mailers, in turn, would buy these lists for very highly-targeted mailings. Websites and individual businesses could get in on the action too by offering site mailing lists. As the owner of PostalMag.com, I would love to be able to add some HTML code provided by the mailing list registry to my website that signed up people for my site's mailing list, that then could be bought and used by various companies interested in selling to postal people. Mail would suddenly become relevant again. These mailings would be accomplished at the above-mentioned Business Class rate that would be less than (but not too much less) than regular First Class mailings.
2. The Postal Service is currently testing a service (Direct Mail Hub) where customers log in to create mailings. The mail registry would be used in conjunction with this new service.
3. The Postal Service would need to adjust rates to make sure these mail registry mailings are letter-sized and able to be processed via DPS. Long term, the Postal Service should phase out its huge and costly FSS machines and adjust rates in a manner that diverts current flat mailings to DPS compatible mailings (which is the most efficient way for the Postal Service to process and deliver mail).
4. Former saturation mailers wouldn't necessarily have to go out of business due to the end of saturation mailings. They could perhaps find a place handling mail registry mailings.

Here's a couple of more must-haves for finding the Sweet Spot:

Five-day delivery is a must and anyone saying otherwise is protecting the interests of special interests. Understandable, but five-day delivery makes sense for so many reasons, it's a no-brainer.

Ending door-to-door delivery (and going to curbside or centralized delivery). Another no-brainer. It's the 21st Century and we're still walking door to door in many areas across the country. Curbside or centralized delivery is about twice as efficient as door to door, causes less, costly injuries and is compatible with DPS mailings.

Workforce structure: There's a reason there's major animosity between mailers and the APWU. The plain fact of the matter is that much of the comparable work of APWU represented members earning $20-plus an hour is accomplished in the private sector at $10 to $15 an hour. Knowing this, the APWU has already agreed to a new tier of clerks who will make less than current clerks. Long term, the solution is to develop a tiered system as has been developed in the private sector at UPS. Many clerk-types at UPS are newer hires making $10 to $15 an hour. Those who prove themselves and "stick with it" are offered the opportunity to become UPS drivers who make even more than USPS letter carriers. Ultimately, this would necessitate the merging of postal labor unions, something that might become more relevant for postal unions as the postal workforce shrinks anyway.

Electric delivery fleets, but only when electric vehicles can operate continuously for eight hours or more with curbside or centralized delivery on a single charge.

In conclusion, the Postal Service needs to find a Sweet Spot for the 21st Century. Here's how to do it:

1. Simplify rates. Create just two classes of rates for letter-sized mail: First Class and Business Class
2. Price itself out of the market for larger package mailings - let the private sector handle these mailings.
3. Divert flat mailings to more-easily processed letter-sized mailings by adjusting rates upwards for flats.
4. Create an online national mail preference registry to encourage highly targeted mailings at the Business Class rate.
5. Phase out environmentally irresponsible saturation mailings and divert this business to Business Class Mail. The pizza coupons found in these former saturation mailings, for example? Divert to Business Class. More efficient, highly targeted, more relevant, more profit for the USPS and potentially less costly for mailers. (Create a pizza category at the mail preference registry to develop a mailing list that local pizza joints can purchase to send offers to potential local customers.) The mail preference registry would in effect be empowered by the "Free Hand" of the capitalist market economy.
6. End door-to-door mail delivery in lieu of curbside or centralized delivery.
7. Restructure the craft workforce into one-represented unit, with newer hires working in clerk-type jobs at lower rates and proven employees given the chance to work for higher rates at the more-labor intensive job of delivering mail.
8. Oh yeah, I forgot to mention above about the Postal Service needing to close remote, rarely-used post offices and developing "contract" units in their places, if feasible.

Overall, the above is just my opinion. I didn't mean to offend anyone or any organization. I wish I had more time to go into more details on some points, but the gist of what needs to be done is there. This opinion was written from a strategic-level viewpoint without regards to any special interests. But electronic mediums are destroying the Postal Service's relevancy as it sits today and long-term, VERY SIGNIFICANT changes are needed to keep the Postal Service relevant in the near to long-term future, not the piecemeal changes proposed by some politicians recently.
DOIS Five Minute PM Casing Issue?

 Postmarked 5/28/2011

Received via email at PostalMag.com:

"There's a problem in DOIS.... WORKLOAD STATUS report is NOT giving us credit for 5 minutes PM CASING.... It's putting the 5 minutes in our AM CASING which results in longer pivots..... It would be nice to see how widespread this problem is. I think it's nationwide. I'm in Cleveland, Ohio. Poland, Ohio says they have the same problem. Biz agent's office say they are aware and are waiting on Rolando's instructions. This has been going on for a while. Probably since last DOIS upgrade."
Limited Edition Stamps?

 Postmarked 7/14/2010

 Bill Kibler of BeirutStamp.com has been trying for several years to convince the USPS to issue a Beirut Veterans US postage stamp that honors the Peacekeepers of the Multi-National Peacekeeping Force, Beirut, Lebanon. (Many of these peacekeepers were killed in suicide bombings in 1983.) But Bill has finally given up the issue with the USPS after several rejections and has "settled" on postage stamps from Zazzle to honor the Beirut veterans. That's too bad.

I'm not sure a regular USPS stamp would be appropriate for the Beirut Veterans, but I'm not sure Zazzle is the solution either. Perhaps there should be something in between? That got me to thinking.

What if the USPS issued limited edition stamps for special causes or events? These limited edition stamps could be much like the pictorial postmarks as found in the Postal Bulletin - local postmarks that commemorate everything from watermelon festivals to local historical anniversaries. However, these limited edition stamps that I am proposing would honor or commemorate stuff a little farther up the ladder, for example Super Bowls, All Star games, conventions (Comic-Con, etc.), and other causes such as the Campaign to Honor Nisei Veterans. Such stamps could probably be distributed locally, for example in a special edition promotion of 100,000 stamps commemorating a Super Bowl. Besides getting a lot of special interest groups seeking stamps off their backs, the USPS could perhaps reinvigorate stamp collecting a bit since such stamps would be collectibles (some more rare than others), and as collectibles, it would be like printing money, since many of these special edition stamps would end up in a drawer somewhere and never used for postage.

Such stamps wouldn't be sold nationally with the regular stamp offerings and most would be printed in batches of perhaps 10,000 to 100,000. These stamps could be sponsored by companies, events or communities. Just off the top of my head, I can envision stamps sponsored by Coca-Cola, stamps that honor athletic events or happenings (such as the famous Landon Donovan goal in the World Cup), and stamps that honor local events (such as the 2010 State Fair of Texas).

On an additional note, perhaps such stamps could be used to raise funds for special causes. Just a few thoughts.

People Dying From Something Being Sprayed on Their Mail?

 Postmarked 6/19/2010

Just passing along an email I received to see if anyone knows anything about the subject. I checked Snopes.com, but nothing so far.

*** Start of Email ***

"Hey Tom... just wondering if you've heard (or gotten any info coming in) about people dying in Tennessee, from something being sprayed on their mail? Supposedly it's some kind of perfume smelling stuff and people are getting sick and dying from inhaling it? My info is coming from a friend on my route, who's niece is a deputy county sheriff in a small town down in Tennessee and she called her today to see if we were having any issues with the mail up here in Michigan? Just curious if you've heard anything about it?"

*** End of Email ***
PenFed Credit Card Available to USPS Employees

 Postmarked 6/19/2010

The following are real testimonials about a credit card that is available to USPS employees. I'm mentioning the card in case the card may actually save people some money. (As with all financial credit offers, please get all the facts before applying.)

*** Start of Testimonial One ***

"The PenFed Credit Cards ad (at www.militarynewsnetwork.com) that you recently posted on Postalmag.com was a godsend to me and several of my friends. Fast and easy application, and the interest rates on the cards are so
much better than the ones we have been using!

Thanks so much, K.B., Wichita, Kansas"

*** End of Testimonial One ***

*** Start of Testimonial Two ***

"If you need a new credit card with low interest rates, check the home page of postalmag.com ---- look for the ad that says "PenFed Credit Cards" in red. They've got cards with transfer old balance rates of 4.99% for 24 months and as low as 7.49% APR (final rate of just 9.99%)!!! This is way better than the 22% and 24% many of us have been paying, and they are not too picky about your credit rating. You have to join the Pentagon Federal Credit Union with an initial deposit of $5.00, and you have to make a one-time $20 donation to a military service members' organization to apply, but hey, it's well worth it in the end. Cheap date!"

*** End of Testimonial Two ***
About Tom Wakefield

Tom is the owner of PostalMag.com, a website with news and information for postal employees. Tom is also a USPS letter carrier and NALC Branch 132 union member in Dallas, Texas. Tom's Postal Blog is a place for postal tidbits, rumors, musings and digressions about the postal world.

About  |  Contact  |  Terms of Use  |  Privacy Policy

Copyright PostalMag.com, All Rights Reserved