one code
Modern Day Boston Tea Party using the mail
TEA PARTY
TAX DAY PROTESTORS ARE USING THE MAIL
One of the many protest mailings sent in February.
Remember the Boston Tea Party?
One of the many protest mailings sent in February.
The 21st century equivalent is at hand. A grassroots organization that normally uses the Internet to protest government objectives and initiatives is mailing teabags to the White House and members of Congress. The campaign began in February and will continue through April.
Teabags are lumpy, and tea leaves escaping from envelopes can look suspicious. So the Postal Inspection Service has responded to concerns about some of the mailings.
USPS: Too much discretion in price setting?
Commissioner Goldway compares USPS finances to the banking industry
The Postal Regulatory Commission yesterday approved the Postal Service’s market dominant product price adjustments scheduled to take effect next month. The approval came despite concern about changes the USPS made in the method for setting workshare discounts, specifically “de-linking†the prices for single piece first class mail from those for presort First-Class Mail.
Commissioner Ruth Goldway dissented from the PRC opinion- here’s some of what she had to say:
It strikes me that there are close parallels between what is happening to the Postal Service financially, and what has been happening to the banking industry. The banking industry was given wide discretion to lend how and on what terms it chose. The assumption was that this was safe because the managers’ discretion would be bounded by certain basic principles (e.g., that investors would have knowledge of the kind of securities marketed, and the risks would be publicly known either through an SEC filing or prospectus) and accountability would be provided by a diligent board of directors.
It is now clear that these basic principles and institutional safeguards were allowed to become mere window dressing. I fear this to be the direction in which postal regulation is headed. Congress intended that there be a certain economic “rhyme and reason†to both class prices and product discounts; hence, provisions such as section 3622(c)(2) (attributable cost floor) and section 3622(e) (discounts match avoided costs).
Are these on the way to becoming window dressing? The uneconomic approach to rate setting can be a factor contributing to the Postal Service slide into financial distress. If the Postal Service is to be excused again for violating 39 U.S.C. § 3622(e), the reasons given must be carefully chosen so that the Postal Service, and the postal community, do not get the impression that there is not now, and never will be, any enforceable standard for workshare pricing.
Holy IMB suspensions
Make sure your mail processors have been approved for the full service IMB or you might miss out on potential discounts come November!
Intelligent Mail Readiness Alert
Intelligent Mail® Readiness Alert: Meeting critical dates this month will determine whether you will be ready for Intelligent Mail Full Service by November 2009. The USPS is changing its focus from helping companies getting PostalOne!® to those companies already using PostalOne!® and getting them ready for Intelligent Mail Full Service.
Cambridge, MA (PRWEB) March 12, 2009 — Business Maiilers who are interested in participating in Intelligent Mail® Full Service by November 2009 when the initial published rate discounts start, should have started PostalOne!® CAT (Customer Acceptance Testing) no later than March 31, 2009. The Postal Service will begin to shift resources from currently helping companies with their PostalOne!® CAT and Parallel testing applications to Intelligent Mail® Full Service readiness and certification. They will start putting fewer resources into companies that want to get into PostalOne!® and more resources on those companies using PostalOne!® to complete Intelligent Mail Full Service testing. The Postal Service will start shifting their limited resources into certifying companies that have already started with eDocs to be Intelligent Mail® Full Service certified.
The USPS is planning to help the early adopters of Intelligent Mail® eDoc acceptance (those companies that are already eDocumentation certified) to complete Full Service readiness by November 2009. In short, if you have not started with eDocumentation using Mail.dat upload (not just the Postage Statement Wizard) with the USPS by March 31, 2009, your company may not be considered one of the “Early Adopters”. As a result, your organization may be at risk of meeting delays for Intelligent Mail Full Service approval and acceptance by November 29, 2009, when the discounts begin.
From the USPS NPF Intelligent Mail® IM University in Addison, IL 02/24/09.
Mr. Tom Day, SVP of Intelligent Mail® & Address Quality, Ms. Pritha Mehra, VP of Business Mail Entry and Payment Technologies, Mr. Bob Galaher, Manager Business Mail Acceptance USPS Headquarters announced at the above conference, that the USPS resources available to process Intelligent Mail® CAT and Parallel testing applications will shift to helping companies that have already started with eDocumentation to finish being USPS Intelligent Mail® Full Service certified. The USPS is making system changes on May 18, 2009 and the resources will be stretched to their fullest. Therefore, they are suspending Intelligent Mail® CAT and Parallel testing applications as of March 31, 2009 until resources once again become available.
What does this mean to U.S. Postal mailers?
It means if the mailers have not started their application for CAT and parallel testing by March 31, 2009 they may NOT be able to participate in the USPS Intelligent Mail® Full Service solution in November 2009.
Subscribe
Recent Comments
- Congress Won’t Let The Post Office Be Successful | I Acknowledge Class Warfare Exists on Less mail equals more opportunity
- https://twitter.com/#!/gadgets_micro/status/157834439186071552 on 3D Printing close to becoming a household reality
- Adam Hartung, Chicago, IL on Are You Disruptive?
- Tweets that mention Why Direct Mail Will Always Be In Style | Going Postal -- Topsy.com on Why Direct Mail Will Always Be In Style
- Tweets that mention Less mail equals more opportunity | Going Postal -- Topsy.com on Less mail equals more opportunity