This just in from the USPS…price increase on the horizon
Release No. 10-064
Postal Service Proposes Price Changes
WASHINGTON —The U.S. Postal Service Governors recommended increasing the price of a First-Class stamp 2 cents to 46 cents and authorized the production of a pane of four evergreen tree branches as the newest image for Forever Stamps. The price of a postcard would increase 2 cents to 30 cents.
The Postal Regulatory Commission must approve the recommended price changes. The increases would not go into effect until January 2, 2011. It would be the first stamp price increase in almost two years.
Holiday Evergreen Forever Stamps will be available to the public in October at the current rate of 44 cents. Once purchased, the stamps are valid literally forever – despite any future price changes. No additional postage will ever be needed.
Faced with plummeting mail volume traced to the recession and increased use of the Internet, the Postal Service is projecting a deficit of nearly $7 billion for the next fiscal year. Despite eliminating 1 million work hours and reducing expenses by more than $1 billion every year since 2001, a budget gap remains.
The proposed price changes, if approved, will raise about $2.3 billion for the first nine months of 2011. Postmaster General John E. Potter said he does not want customers to bear the burden of dramatic price increases. Instead, Potter announced in March that pricing would be one in a series of solutions the Postal Service is pursuing to become financially sound.
“There is no one single solution to the dire financial situation that the Postal Service faces,” Potter said. “These proposed rate adjustments are moderate and part of a fair and balanced approach to insuring mail service for all Americans well into the future.”
Other actions outlined in March included changes to delivery frequency, restructuring prepayments of retiree health benefits, creating a more flexible workforce and expanding access to products and services to places more convenient to customers.
The Postal Service receives no tax dollars for operating expenses, and relies on the sale of postage, products and services to fund its operations.
Complete details of today’s filing can be found on usps.com. No prices will change before 2011.
Summer Postage Sale – well, sort of a sale, no, more like a small rebate
summer sale
To those that are excited about the impending summer postage sale, there are a few details you need to know, first, did you receive a letter from the USPS recently?
Here is what it looks like: summer-sale-electronic-letter
Here are the details:
The USPS has made it official (almost) that they are going forward with the proposed ‘Summer Sale’ event. The PRC must still weigh in with their decision, which is expected in late May, to make this program official. This program would provide a 30% postage credit on mailings submitted between July 1, 2009 and September 30, 2009. This incentive program is designed to increase mailing activity during the usually dormant summer months, when the USPS has their most excess capacity available.
Unlike most sales however, there are a multitude of qualifiers that apply to the Summer Sale.
Who and what qualifies?
For the most part, the USPS has already determined what mailers qualify. Letters were sent out on 5/7/09 to approximately 3,200 mailers whom they determined will be eligible for this program by utilizing the mail volume data that exists within their internal system.
1. This program only applies to Presorted Standard letters and flats.
2. The next qualifier is that you must have mailed a minimum of 1,000,000 pieces during the time period of October 1, 2007 and March 31, 2008. Total volume is calculated by mailer, so even if you utilize multiple permits, your total volume will be calculated across all permits that are associated to your organization. This also applies to “Ghost Numbersâ€, which are created if your mail is sent through a Mail Service Provider. If you feel you are eligible, but have not received a letter, then you can request a contact by emailing your information to summersale@usps.gov.
If you have met the criteria above, you are ready to begin to calculate the ‘Sale’ portion of the program. The 30% postage credit will be given only on the number of mail pieces that exceed your mailing threshold for the time period of July 1, 2009 to September 30, 2009. The caveat to this all is that your mail volume in October must not fall below your mailing threshold for that month. If this occurs; the total credit accrued from mailings between 7/1/09 to 9/30/09 will be deducted by the amount of pieces that fell below the threshold in October and that will be the final credit. The credit will be issued at some point in December of 2009 once the USPS has completed the above calculations.
How to calculate your potential savings:
Below is an example of how to calculate the savings that you as a mailer may receive through this program. Listed in this example is the all important Threshold, which will be the key to planning your mailings to take advantage of this program.
1. Base volume (7/1/08 – 9/30/08): 500,000 pieces
2. Trend:
a. Volume 10/1/08 – 3/31/09 = 1,800,000 pieces
b. Volume 10/1/07 – 3/31/08 = 2,000,000 pieces
c. a/b = (1,800,000 / 2,000,000) = .90 or 90%
3. Base x trend = Threshold:
500,000 x .90 = 450,000
4. Rebate = (Actual volume – threshold) x (actual postage cost / actual volume) x 30%
a. Actual volume for 7/1/09 – 9/30/09 – threshold =
475,000 – 450,000 = 25,000 pieces
b. Actual postage cost / actual volume =
$103,075 / 475,000 = $0.217
c. Rebate =
25,000 x $0.217 x .3 = $1627.50
The October Effect:
It is important to keep your mailing volume for October in mind when factoring the potential savings. If your volume falls below the calculated threshold, then your overall credit will be impacted. Below is an example of how to calculate this effect.
a. October 2008 volume x trend (in #2 above) = October threshold:
300,000 x .90 = 270,000 pieces
b. If October 2009 (260,000 pieces) < October threshold:
Threshold – actual = adjustment
270,000 – 260,000 = 10,000
Rebate adjustment
a. Actual volume – summer sale threshold – rebate adjustment:
475,000 – 450,000 – 10,000 = 15,000
b. New rebate:
15,000 x $.217 x .3 = $976.50
For those of you that have received a letter; be sure to certify the volume that the USPS has provided to you since this will be a binding once you have agreed to enroll in the program. Also be sure to have your response in by August 1st, 2009.
This program is a great way to potentially reach more customers at a lower cost and therefore enhance your business’ ROI. The system is not perfect, but it is a step in the right direction for the USPS to utilize their new found pricing freedom to help mailers.
From the Federal Register today:
Federal Register Notices
DATE: Pending publication in the Federal Register.
Standard Mail Volume Incentive Program (aka Summer Sale)
AGENCY: Postal Serviceâ„¢.
ACTION: Final rule.
SUMMARY:
The Postal Service is revising Mailing Standards of the United States Postal Service, Domestic Mail Manual (DMM®), to add section 709.2 which introduces new standards for a special volume incentive program for mailers of Standard Mail® letters and flats with mail volume exceeding their individual USPS™-determined threshold levels. The program period will be from July 1, 2009 through September 30, 2009.
EFFECTIVE DATE: July 1, 2009.
FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: Kevin Gunther at 202-268-7208.
SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION:
The Postal Service is implementing a volume incentive program for qualified high-volume mailers of commercial or Nonprofit Standard Mail letters and flats, for volume mailed between July 1, 2009 and September 30, 2009, above their USPS-determined threshold level. This program encourages mailers to provide new volume and to take advantage of our current excess capacity to process and deliver additional volume.
USPS Summer Sale – Save 30%!!!!
May 1, 2009
DMM Advisory
Pricing and Classification — keeping you informed about the prices and mailing standards of the United States Postal Service
Summer Sale
Today we filed a notice with the Postal Regulatory Commission for a Summer Sale. The Sale will provide a 30 percent reduction in postage for qualifying Standard Mail customers mailing letters and flats. The Summer Sale will run from July 1 through September 30, 2009.
The Summer Sale offer is subject to review by the Commission for up to 45 days following May 1.
The Domestic Mail Manual (DMM) is available on Postal Explorer (pe.usps.com). To subscribe to the DMM Advisory, send an e-mail to dmmadvisory@usps.com. Simply indicate “subscribe” in the subject line
Survey: CMOs Not Happy With Digital
April 18, 2009
By Todd Wasserman
CMOs see digital as the medium of choice in this economy, but aren’t getting what they want out of it, according to a new survey from Heidrick & Struggles.
In December, the Atlanta recruiting firm polled 111 senior marketing executives at firms with $1 billion or more in annual revenues about their digital strategies. The impetus, said Lynne Seid, partner in the firm’s global consumer practice, were comments from H&S clients expressing frustration over the fact that so much information exists online about consumers—like their search and social media behavior—and yet marketers felt they were accessing it poorly.
Information on existing customers is especially valuable since in the current down economy, many are focusing on retaining such customers, and cross-selling and up-selling to them, in addition to trying to win over new customers.
Respondents to the survey found their current ability to access ROI and metrics on their digital marketing lacking and rated their companies behind the curve. Many said they would have to look outside the company for help, whether that means hiring new employees or relying on ad agencies—though the marketers said they weren’t happy with their current agencies either.
Time after time in the survey, marketers expressed an awareness of digital’s potential along with a recognition that they weren’t close to tapping it.
For instance, one of the selling points of digital media is its ability to let marketers respond quickly to new opportunities, but only 16 percent of respondents rated themselves “very satisfied†with their ability to do so. Fifty-one percent said they were “somewhat satisfied.â€
On a more granular level, the respondents rated marketing ROI, Web behavioral analyses and CRM as the most important parts of their digital marketing mix. Not many marketers thought that they were good at those functions at this point. Only 18 percent said they were “very satisfied†with their ROI analysis, only 13 percent said the same of their CRM program and 19 percent were happy with their search engine optimization.
There was also some debate over who has responsibility for analytics like Web traffic and usage reports. Most marketing departments are currently handling those functions, but they would like to fob it off on IT. Though search marketing also scored high, pulling up the rear on that list were blogs, social networking tools and mobile advertising.
On the bright side, most respondents thought they had Webinars down pat and they were fairly confident in their ability to execute online surveys and contests. On the other hand, most rated their ability to pull off mobile ads and video ads fairly low.
For what ever reason, marketers think their companies are behind the curve on digital marketing, but they don’t see themselves that way. “That’s called ‘irony,’†Seid said. Their agency partners are another story. Fifty-five percent disagree with the statement: “We trust our ad agency partner to provide us with the digital marketing expertise that we need.â€
Seid said the big takeaway from the survey is that there’s still enormous room for improvement for most companies’ digital marketing strategies.
“What I’m hearing anecdotally is there are now sometimes half a dozen digital agencies and suppliers specializing in social media and search,†Seid said. “We don’t have anyone managing, integrating and demanding best practices in those areas.†Seid envisions a “digital CMO†taking responsibility for managing those disciplines. Said Seid: “That will be the CMO of the future.â€
Is the ubiquitous blue box going bye bye?
In recent weeks, one-quarter of the 3,700 collection boxes in the Los Angeles area have been removed, said Joseph L. Harrison, a spokesman for the U.S. Postal Service’s Los Angeles district.
Irate residents and business owners in Northridge, Cheviot Hills, Santa Monica and West Hollywood have complained to the office of Rep. Henry A. Waxman (D-Los Angeles) about the loss of the familiar blue boxes, which many considered fixtures, like streetlights and telephone poles.
For more than 20 years, Mary Gonsalves’ customers could pop letters and bills into the two U.S. mailboxes in front of her Postal Center & More store in West Hollywood, and Gonsalves could count on letter carriers picking up bulky mail from her three times a day when they cleared the boxes.
Now, Gonsalves must close her store for part of the afternoon to drive packages and other mail to a post office in time for the final 5 p.m. pickup.
“It is an inconvenience,” she said. “I don’t feel I should send my disabled and senior customers tramping up to the post office.”
Postal officials say the mailbox removals are part of an ongoing effort to reevaluate mail collection and delivery routes nationwide, a process accelerated by the economic downturn. Surveys found that each of the removed boxes in the L.A. area collected fewer than 25 pieces of mail a day over a six-day period, Harrison said. Twenty-five pieces is the minimum required to make a collection point economically worthwhile, he added.
A spokeswoman for Waxman said the office is considering complaints on a “case-by-case basis” in the hope of getting some boxes reinstalled.
David Meltzer, who lives near the Grove shopping center in the Fairfax area, rued the removal of a box half a block from his home. But what really irked him, he said, was the treatment he got when he called both a nationwide “800″ postal service number and a local post office to find out the locations of remaining boxes.
“In essence,” he said, “they told me to go look around, 10 blocks one way, 10 blocks the other. Maybe that’s good for my heart but not for my attitude. . . . They didn’t make an effort at all to mitigate the pain.”
Meltzer said the nearest post office is 12 blocks from his residence.
The number of mailboxes nationwide has dropped to 187,000 from about 204,000 in September 2007, said Don Smeraldi, a spokesman for the postal service’s Pacific area, which includes California and Hawaii.
Spurring the removals has been a profound shift in how people communicate. E-mail and social networking Internet sites have contributed to steep declines in paper mail. The biggest reduction, Smeraldi said, has been in single-piece, first-class mail.
Complaints about mailbox removals have spread around the region, including Orange County and parts of Southeast L.A.
In Lakewood three years ago, residents in one neighborhood successfully lobbied to get their blue box back, arguing that it was a community meeting place.
Jonathan Weiss, a Cheviot Hills resident, said he had filed under the federal Freedom of Information Act a request for information about the postal service’s collection surveys conducted in his neighborhood. All five mailboxes closest to him, many used by elderly neighbors who still prefer paying bills by mail, were taken out, Weiss said.
“They removed every single one in my neighborhood, instead of taking out half of them,” he said. “I think it makes no sense.”
May 11 Pricing Change – Update
DMM Advisory
Pricing and Classification — keeping you informed about the prices and mailing standards of the United States Postal Service
Today the Postal Regulatory Commission confirmed that our new Mailing Services prices are consistent with the Postal Act of 2006, except for the annual mailing fees for Confirm mailing agents. You can find the new prices, and other information to help you prepare for the May 11 pricing change, at usps.com/prices/pricechanges.htm.
We will use the DMM Advisory to keep you informed.
The Domestic Mail Manual (DMM) is available on Postal Explorer (pe.usps.com). To subscribe to the DMM Advisory, send an e-mail to dmmadvisory@usps.com. Simply indicate “subscribe” in the subject line.
ID theft soaring as woes worsen
By Lois M. Collins
Deseret News
Most of the investigators who deal with identity theft in the Utah Attorney General’s Office no longer get mail delivered to their homes. They rent post office boxes. And one, chief deputy attorney general Kirk Torgensen, spent an afternoon anchoring a locking mailbox in concrete in front of his house.
They know just how vulnerable paperwork makes people in this age of identity theft, a time when too many teens go to buy a first car and find they’ve already got a long debt history they didn’t create and too many adults show up begging for help because their good credit has been stolen — some long after the fact because they don’t routinely monitor their accounts.
It’s hard to put a number on how many have had their identities stolen and to what degree, Torgensen says. But Tami Nealy of LifeLock says research indicates that the number of people trolling the Internet for personal information has increased about 38 percent since last September, about the time it became clear the economy was souring. It’s unknown what they’re searching for or how they intend to use personal data they find, but that’s a pretty good reason to be extra vigilant about preventing identity theft, experts agree.
The Federal Trade Commission has seen a 16 percent uptick in the number of Utah cases reported, said Nealy, who adds it’s probably an undercount, since many people don’t know to file with the FTC.
Often, the identity thief is someone you know well — a friend or brother or even a daughter. Much of it is not random; for instance, Postal Service spokesman Ron Hubrich notes that the FTC says fewer than 2 percent of identity theft cases cite stolen mail as the source of the purloined information. The source is much more likely to be someone you know. You have to be cautious on a lot of fronts.
And tough economic times always seem to increase certain crimes, says Richard Hamp, who prosecutes identity theft for the Utah Attorney General’s Office.
“We’re going to see a huge increase in ID theft,” he predicts. “It’s easy to commit and has a high return. People who are walking the edge criminally are going to fall off” in the bad economy.
Investigators are already seeing more of certain scams, like phishing, where you get an e-mail from your financial institution telling you that for security purposes you need to log in (they thoughtfully provide a bogus link) and “verify” yourself with your account number and other identifying information. Reputable institutions don’t ask for that stuff online. There are other variations that text your cell phone or call you and ask for the data.
And if you don’t think you need to be proactive, Nealy urges you to consider this: Not long ago, many universities used Social Security numbers for personal identification numbers. So did health and life insurance companies. If you got tired of writing it down for everyone who wanted it — the local pharmacy and grocery store that cashed your check, your doctor, lawyer, alumni association and interior designer, all of whom you gave it to at some point — you could have it printed on your driver’s license or even your checks. Many of us did.
It’s out there. And here’s another chilling fact: If someone randomly puts together a Social Security number for illicit work purposes and it happens to be yours, checking your credit report will not tell you about them.
Say your name is John Doe. The thief is using the name Jane Scofflaw. When you ask for your credit report, the credit bureau will simply pull the material attached to John Doe and send that to you. They’ll never tell you Jane Scofflaw is also using that same number. If someone’s using both your name and number, you may pick up on it, though. And that’s actually the scarier scenario for you, says Hamp, who helped push a law that makes ID theft a felony, not a misdemeanor.
“Where the name and number match, that’s particularly deadly, because law enforcement, etc., is looking for mismatches. It costs more to buy a name-number match because computers will not catch it. And if you’re an ID theft victim, the burden is on you to fix it. That’s much harder with a match.”
No Utah law forces someone to tell you your data may have been compromised. When last summer University Hospital announced that personally identifiable information was potentially compromised by a car break-in, it was a gesture of goodwill. Ditto when mortgage finance giant Countrywide made a similar announcement. Companies do it because they know it helps rebuild customer trust, perhaps, but Utah is not a state that mandates such disclosure.
Utah was, however, among the first states to enact a credit-freeze law, with a mandate that you be able to thaw your credit quickly to complete a transaction. There’s a fee to freeze and to thaw, but it provides pretty solid credit protection, Hamp said.
Adds Torgensen, they had to fight for it. “It can’t be done,” “It’s too burdensome,” he says they were told. “Well, it could be done and it was. It works fine.”
Utah also has the distinction of being the first state that made a fuss about children’s Social Security numbers being compromised, he says. The attorney general’s office and Workforce Services teamed up for a pilot project that found a disturbing number of children who were no longer the sole possessors of their numbers. And when a Social Security number is used fraudulently, such as for a job — that’s the largest category of ID theft — it’s not something the IRS makes a fuss about, he said.
If the state sees it, though, it sends a warning letter to tell parents to check if the child has a credit record he shouldn’t. If so, there are steps to take to clear it up in a timely fashion before a child is rejected for a student loan.
“The worse thing you want to do is not know,” Torgen?sen said. “The earlier you find out, the easier it is to fix. And even then, when you’re proactive, it’s a lot of work. That’s a pet peeve of mine.” Unfortunately, he said, victim advocates were eliminated by budget cuts. While nothing’s foolproof, there are steps concerned people can take to protect themselves. Use a fraud alert, for instance, and if you’ve provided your cell phone number, you might get a call while you’re standing in line at the grocery store to see if you’re really trying to buy a car across town.
The underwriter will ask questions that verify it is your credit, such as who holds your mortgage and what’s your payment. Then you can say you did apply for that credit or you did not. But not all creditors subscribe to the credit bureaus, so it’s not foolproof.
When you apply for your free credit report, do it through annualcreditreport.com. It’s the only source of the free, authorized report.
E-mail: Lois@desnews.com
Sources on the Web Utah Attorney General’s Office:
www.idtheft.utah.gov Credit reports: www.experian.com, www.transunion.com and www.equifax.com.
A great PCC event!
Today the Greater Philadelphia PCC held a general membership meeting and explored two very informative topics. The Greater Philadelphia PCC meets with all of its members at least three times during the year to provide valuable postal information for the membership so they can stay as up to date as possible in the ever changing world of mail.
The first topic was MoveUpdate and Address Standardization co-presented by yours truly. During this presentation we explored the importance of maintaining your mail file and the various methods that are available to mailers to help with this initiative. Steve Rose, a veteran USPS employee with 42 years experience, started with explaining how important address stadardization and address validation were to ensuring that your mail will be delivered to your intended recipient. He also let us in on the fact that CASS cylce M will be coming online soon as a mandatory component to acheive automated postal rates in the future. This new CASS M will require mailers to not only validate the main address, but also the secondary address. This new mandate will help the USPS process mail that is being delivered to companies in highrise buildings or individuals in Apartment complexes more efficiently. Currently there is a problem when this information is omitted from the mailing address for the USPS to automate the processing of this mail for delivery. Next, I discussed the MoveUpdate standards that went into effect in November and went through the various methods that are available for mailers to stay in compliance. This process is crucial not only to stay in compliance with USPS standards, but also to stay in contact with customers. The cost impact is also a consideration; if a mailer is not updating their list then they are probably wasting money in postage and printing because the mail is not making to their intended audience.  What this all means for mailers is that now you will increase your probability of getting that advertisement, bill, or general correspondence into the intended recipients hands in the most efficient manner. Follow this link to view the slides. http://www.fmidm.com/Documents/MoveUpdate.ppt
The next topic was the “Value of Mail”. This presentation dealt with how the mail recipients feel and act towards their incoming mail. There was a study commissioned by the USPS to survey people and ask pointed questions to find out how they view incoming mail, what they do with their mail and what makes mail relevant. The findings were very interesting for anybody who utilizes direct mail in their marketing mix. To summarize, the surveys showed that people looked forward to receiving mail and that in most cases they retreived the mail everyday. It also found that there was usually one person in the household that viewed retreiving the mail as their “job”. This person was also most likely to be the one that did the household shopping and was incharge of the household finances. Further, the survey uncovered that individuals will sort their mail everyday, but they do neccessarily open it right away. The key factor to determining whether a piece is kept or trashed had to with relevance. The individuals needed to feel that the piece was relevant to something in their life or that fulfilled a need. To view the entire presentation, follow this link. http://www.fmidm.com/Documents/ValueOfMail.pdf
All in all it was a great and informative day. If you have any questions about the topics, the PCC , our our services please contact us:
lformica@fmidm.com
eformica@fmidm.com
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