Category: Alliance Report

October 24, 2018 The Office of the Inspector General of the USPS recently released a report on the savings realized from the 2015 degradation in First Class mail service times.  Here is how they described the goals of the change: On January 5, 2015, the Postal Service revised its First-Class Mail (FCM) service standards, eliminating…

October 24, 2018 The Postal Service is growing the revenue and profitability of its competitive package business enough to make a very large, increasingly positive impact. In its filing of 2019 price changes, the Postal Service shows that a full-year implementation of the competitive product price increase, even after accounting for volume impacts, would increase…

October 24, 2018 As we have in years past, we urge all nonprofit mailers to seriously consider participating in the Postal Service price discount promotions in 2019.  They present the opportunity to both realize near-term postage savings and to test new concepts that might yield positive results going forward.  Five will be very familiar from…

October 10, 2018 The Postal Service’s latest attempt to save face on the recent Federal Register Notice (FRN) fiasco came at last week’s Mailers Technical Advisory Committee (MTAC) meeting.  The first public attempt by USPS management to walk back, or back-pedal, its colossal error in previously announcing the potential ban of all merchandise in Marketing…

October 10, 2018 By Phil Claiborne, Circulation Director, Elks Magazine The United States Postal Service is “contemplating” ridding Marketing Mail of merchandise or goods, only paper-based printed matter would be allowed.  First, let me say I dislike the name Marketing Mail, for its commercial connotation, I prefer Standard Mail. Second, what does this mean for…

October 3, 2018 The U.S. Postal Service Office of Inspector General invited the Alliance of Nonprofit Mailers to participate in an interactive session with many of its staff with the goal of furthering their understanding of this important customer segment.  We responded by presenting on October 3 an all-star panel of nonprofit mailers who exemplified…

Are Changes to Standard Mail on the Horizon? By Leo Raymond–Republished with permission by the author. October 9, 2018 An unfortunate yet chronic criticism of the Postal Service is that it seems to not understand its commercial customers’ businesses. What they do, why they do it, what their business objectives are – all that seems too…

How the USPS’s Proposed Changes to Marketing Mail Hurts Customers By Phil Thompson–Republished with permission by the author. October 2, 2018 On August 23, the United States Postal Service filed a Federal Register with proposed changes to the definition of Marketing Mail Contents. This proposal has mailers at all levels very concerned, regardless of industry. Members…

October 10, 2018 By Deborah Damore Informed Delivery is a service offered by the United States Postal Service whereby residential consumers can view online images of physical mail that is expected to be delivered that day.  Users can view greyscale images of the exterior, address side of incoming letter-sized mail pieces (not the inside contents)…