usps regulations for flats
Postal Officials Ponder Emergency Rate Increases
From the Dead Tree EditionThursday, July 23, 2009
Postal officials are spreading the word that they may seek emergency rate increases next year.
Various scenarios have been bandied about, including one that would raise the price of the 44-cent First Class stamp to 50 cents and other rates by similar amounts. But after several meetings with postal officials, the Direct Marketing Association is telling some members that the Postal Service is more likely to seek an “exigent increase” of only 2% to 3%, including only one cent for the First Class stamp, to help shrink its multi-billion-dollar losses.
Annual increases in most postage rates are generally capped by changes in inflation. Postal officials are realizing that deflation, especially the drop in energy prices since last summer, will probably mean no such rate increases next year, according to accounts coming out of meetings with postal officials. As Dead Tree Edition pointed out recently, USPS will not be able to institute normal rate increases in May 2011 unless the Consumer Price Index rises at an annualized rate of nearly 5% for the rest of this year.
That’s why postal officials are pondering an unprecedented “exigency-based” rate adjustment, which postal regulations allow “only when justified by exceptional or extraordinary circumstances.” Postal Regulatory Commission rules would also require USPS to discuss the circumstances leading to the proposed increases and “whether the circumstances were foreseeable or could have been avoided by reasonable prior action.”
The PRC would hold a public hearing on an exigent rate request and by law would have 90 days to decide whether “such adjustment is reasonable and equitable and necessary to enable the Postal Service, under best practices of honest, efficient, and economical management, to maintain” appropriate service levels.
The Postal Service, which is supposed to break even, is projecting a loss of about $6 billion this fiscal year. To close that gap, which USPS says will grow unless it takes drastic action, postal officials are also discussing plans with mailer groups and postal unions to transition to five-day delivery in the fiscal year that starts in October 2010. That would require Congressional approval.
The closing of thousands of post offices is a possibility, the consolidation of processing and distribution centers has recently accelerated, and USPS continues to shrink its workforce — all in response to declining mail volume that is causing the budget shortfall.
The meetings have also been an attempt by postal officials to shore up union and customer support for legislation that would reduce USPS’ unusually high pre-payments for retiree health care. The Congressional Budget Office estimates H.R. 22 would save USPS about $2.5 billion annually for the next three years.
Postal Service has survived past challenges — and it will again
By DAVID BECKER II
Special to the Herald-Journal
Published: Wednesday, May 27, 2009 at 3:15 a.m.
Last Modified: Tuesday, May 26, 2009 at 6:50 p.m.
The Herald-Journal’s recent editorial, “Postal progress,” begged for balance in both logic and facts about the U.S. Postal Service, our employees and customers. Here’s some food for thought for your readers.
While it’s true that the recession and the Internet are contributing to difficult financial circumstances for the Postal Service, the major cause of loss of mail volume and revenue is the economy. Let’s not all throw in the towel and turn to the Internet without considering some important facts:
* The U.S. Postal Service is our nation’s third largest employer; its employees and customers represent a functioning, viable $900 billion economic cornerstone of our economy in a time when jobs are scarce.
* Eight-two percent of Americans still pay their bills by mail.
* Like other American businesses, the Internet has revolutionized customer service for the Postal Service with usps.com providing 80 percent of the services you get at a post office. In 2008, stamp and retail sales at the Postal Store totaled more than $442 million.
* The Postal Service has the largest fleet of alternative fuel vehicles in the nation: 43,000 in all.
* According to the Environmental Protection Agency, advertising mail accounts for less than 2.4 percent of municipal waste in landfills.
* Postal Service Priority and Express packaging is free, eco-friendly and recyclable.
* Thanks to the Postal Inspection Service and the Office of the Inspector General, delivery of your mail is secure.
* Less than 4 percent of identity theft happens through the mail; the remainder comes from illegal computer access of personal information.
* Without the Postal Service providing affordable, universal, surcharge-free prices, private shipping rates would likely skyrocket.
* Is e-mail cheaper than a 44-cent stamp? Consider the cost of the computer, the Internet service provider fee, the power bill and the ongoing equipment upgrades.
* About one-third of our population does not have Internet access.
* Ideas to charge per e-mail already have been considered by Internet service providers. Without a postal alternative, service providers could charge and raise the cost for each e-mail at will.
* Other forms of communication (TV and the Internet) have a considerable negative environmental impact, sending outmoded models to landfills by the millions. According to the National Safety Council, only 11 percent of computers get recycled, and small-time consumers alone add 10 million computers to landfills each year.
From the telegraph to the Internet, new technology has historically caused many predictions of the end of the Postal Service. But because the Postal Service is able to adapt and change to ensure secure, affordable, universal delivery, it has withstood similar threats to serve our country for almost 250 years.
David Becker II is the Spartanburg postmaster.
Madison Avenue Flirts With 3-D
According to the Wall Street Journal, “Papa John’s International, the U.S. Postal Service and General Electric have begun to incorporate “augmented reality,” or AR — a technology that lets consumers interact with hologram-like images — into their marketing. One well-known example of AR: the yellow first-down lines in TV broadcasts of football games. This week, the Postal Service will start running an ad campaign that touts a flat-rate shipping fee for its Priority Mail service. The online portion of the ad effort includes a “virtual box simulator” on the prioritymail.com site. The simulator allows consumers to hold an object, such as a cup or a book, in front of a Webcam and use the resulting 3-D image to determine the right size box for shipping the object. The push into AR comes as companies have grown dissatisfied with relying solely on static advertising or passive media like TV commercials, which have washed over coach potatoes for years. In pursuit of alternatives, they have pumped money into approaches that encourage consumers to “engage” with their message or product, something ad executives believe helps increase sales.”
Live From the ACMA Forum: Catalog Industry Broken
From: MULTICHANNEL MERCHANT May 21, 2009 11:36 AM, By Jim Tierney
Washington – The catalog industry is broken, according to Robert Bernstock, president of shipping and mailing services for the U.S. Postal Service. Huge postage rate increases have crippled many catalogers, he told attendees at the second annual National Catalog Advocacy & Strategy Forum, put on by American Catalog Mailers Association, and as such, “the business model is broken.â€
The good news is that the USPS wants to help the catalog industry anyway it can. “We can reconstruct the entire supply chain to lower costs,†he said.
What’s more, Bernstock totally engaged the packed room when he suggested taking a “relook at the whole structureâ€â€” from pricing, service, and operational efficiencies. “We want the lowest cost delivery system,†he said. “We need to take a major relook at the whole structure.â€
It’s no secret that catalog volumes is down sharply: Hamilton Davison, executive director, of the ACMA, reminded attendees that catalog volumes have sank 35% in the past two years.
But Bernstock stressed that “We’re not in this for anything other than the catalog industry to be healthy. The USPS is a willing partner in this. We have to increase the value of the catalog to the consumer.â€
“Finding a solution to the ailing catalog industry is a priority,†said Tom Foti, manager of marketing mail for the USPS. “With cost and response there has to be a balance.â€
Right now, there is not a balance there, he said. “We’re going to have to look at the whole supply chain. We have to increase the value of a catalog to the consumer.”
Customized pricing is another possibility, Foti added. Creating a new catalog product would bring “a spotlight on catalogs” and potentially fix an infrastructure with better organization and better business decisions.
“We have to turn the tide on catalogs,†Foti noted. “The value of catalogs often gets lost on the public.”
The United States Postal Service & Power Company?
Switching to electric delivery vehicles would enable the U.S. Postal Service to make millions by selling electricity and to reduce delivery costs by millions as well, a postal expert says.
Batteries for the electric vehicles could be charged during off-peak hours and kept connected to the grid, writes Michael Ravnitzky, Special Assistant to Commissioner Ruth Goldway of the Postal Regulatory Commission, in a paper published today on the PRC’s Web site. When not being used in delivery vehicles, stored power in the batteries could be sold back into the grid at times of peak or unexpected surges in demand.
(A presentation Ravnitzky did recently on the concept can be found here. The paper grew out of an op-ed piece Ms. Goldway wrote for The New York Times.)
USPS’s fleet of 142,000 right-hand drive delivery trucks is nearing the end of its useful life. The vast majority could be replaced by electric vehicles using today’s battery technology, Ravnitzky writes.
“Most daily mail delivery routes are short, repetitive and well-defined, and include many stops, making the postal delivery fleet a prime application for electric drive vehicles. The electrification of the postal fleet could significantly reduce gasoline and maintenance expenses while reducing the fleet’s carbon footprint,†he says.
“Historical experience with electric drive vehicles suggests maintenance cost reductions of at least 30 percent to 50 percent,†he writes. That, and an electricity cost that is equivalent to 80-cents-per-gallon gasoline, suggests annual savings for the Postal Service could be in the hundreds of millions of dollars.
On the revenue side, Ravnitzky sees more opportunity from storing electricity and having it available to the grid on a contingency reserve basis than from actually selling electricity. As such unreliable sources as wind and solar power became more of a factor in the grid, he notes, the needs to store electricity and have it available on a rapid-response basis will grow, he says. He estimates $2000 to $2500 annually in revenue per vehicle from various “V2G†(vehicle to grid) services – which would mean several hundred million dollars if most of the fleet went electric.
“The operators of the electrical grid are essentially running a massive just-in-time delivery system and it can be tricky to keep this system balanced.”
Electric vehicles cost more upfront than gasoline-powered ones, and some investment in battery-charging operations would also be needed, according to Ravnitzky. Mass production of the expensive batteries would reduce the cost and presumably give a leg up to manufacturers developing similar products for the consumer market. Further study is needed to provide detailed information on capital costs, operational savings, revenue potential, and environmental impact, Ravnitzky says.
Perhaps his vision could be employed to provide a simultaneous bailout for three needy recipients – American car companies, the U.S. Postal Service, and the environment.
Postal Service Expects Steeper Declines
The U.S. Postal Service has cut 25,000 jobs this year and mail volume will continue to drop into 2010 as it struggles to break even and return to profitability, Postmaster General John E. Potter warned today. The bleak outlook comes as the agency expects a $6.5 billion loss this year that — with cutbacks and increased borrowing — can be trimmed to $1.5 billion.
“Unfortunately, I wish I could say we’ve hit bottom, but we haven’t yet,” Potter told reporters at the start of this week’s National Postal Forum, a mailing industry convention.
USPS anticipates delivering 180 billion pieces of mail this year, far below the record 213 billion delivered in 2006. Worse, Potter says mail volume will likely bottom out at closer to 170 billion pieces per year.
“Folks are looking at alternatives and there are some that simply will not return,” he said. The agency has commissioned a survey of its largest customers in hopes of anticipating future workloads.
As if the migration to e-mail and e-commerce wasn’t bad enough, the collapse of the housing and financial sectors have made the Postal Service fall faster and farther. Fewer housing starts mean fewer new addresses created each year. Potter said new addresses will drop from an average of 1.9 million per year to 1.1 million. The financial sector, which has long relied on the mail to transact and communicate with its customers, has also cut back on mail significantly. Last week’s 2-cent increase for the price of first-class postage might also make it difficult for some customers, and Potter said the bump will not be enough to offset losses.
“What we really need to be talking about is how to do we find a path back to break even and then beyond break event to profitability,” Potter said. He’s seeking permission from Congress and the Obama administration to delay billions of dollars in payments to an employee retirement fund, money that could help offset current losses. The service has also cut more than 10,000 city carrier routes in the last several years, saving about $100,000 per route and the eliminating the need for some vehicles.
Then there’s the possibility of trimming a day of service, a suggestion Potter threatened earlier this year might be necessary someday soon. Lawmakers have all-but killed the cutback for now, but Potter discussed it as a realistic solution during today’s conversation with reporters.
“With some minor exceptions, people have told me that if they have to adjust their operations, they can,” he said.
Still, “Until people hear from us…they should count on getting the same great service that they’ve always got.”
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
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.
Fred Smith Talks Green: Helps the environment and Fedex’s bottom line
BILL DRIES | The Daily News
Fred Smith is going green. In the case of the FedEx founder, however, it’s a different shade – something like military fatigue green.
Smith is reframing the push for alternative fuels and energy from a discussion of “what ifs†to a national security issue.
Electric vehicles and biofuel incentives are part of a plan Smith admits is controversial. It includes nuclear energy, a carbon tax and maxing out domestic oil exploration.
Smith is co-chairman of a coalition of corporate executives and retired military generals called the Energy Security Leadership Council. The other co-chairman is retired general and U.S. Marine Corps commandant P.X. Kelley.
In two speeches this year, one at the National Press Club in February and the other to a conference at the University of Memphis last month, Smith continued the ESLC bid to set specific goals for American energy independence and take the green movement from theory and individual practice to national policy.
After terrorism and nuclear proliferation, Smith and the council rank the nation’s dependence on foreign oil as the “largest national security risk in front of the United States.â€
Smith and Kelley wrote a column for The Washington Post in the summer of 2006 that began with a question.
“Could a mere 4 percent shortfall in daily oil supply propel the price of a barrel to more than $120 in a matter of days?†they wrote. “Such a rapid rise in fuel costs would have profound effects that could severely threaten the foundation of America’s economic prosperity.â€
Two summers later, they turned out to be off the mark by only $27 a barrel.
“People forget that while subprime mortgages and CEOs and all of these other risky instruments and problems with Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac and all of the other things you’ve read about were the bonfire that’s consumed our economy, the match that lit it off was $147-per-barrel oil, which reached its peak last July,†Smith said at the April 20 supply chain conference at the University of Memphis’ FedEx Institute of Technology. “Each of the five major recessions since the first oil embargo in 1973 have been coincident with a significant hike in fuel prices.â€
Toward the end of the Bush administration last year, the ESLC was instrumental in helping win passage of the first increased standards for fuel efficiency in cars in 20 years.
“We spent 20 years from the last time the country increased fuel efficiency standards, which all of my free market friends argue against with me,†Smith said. “Nobody is more free market than I am. FedEx is a creature of deregulation. … This is not purely an economic issue. It’s a national security issue.â€
Interests to protect
The five recessions and the five corresponding spikes in fuel prices span the life of FedEx, the cargo innovator Smith founded in Little Rock in the early 1970s and that, soon after, moved to Memphis.
FedEx uses a lot of oil in its air and ground operations. The company has almost 700 aircraft in its entire operation and runs more than 80,000 vehicles of different types, Smith said. Aviation is the most energy intensive use FedEx has.
FedEx Executive Vice President William J. Logue told a U.S. Senate committee in 2007 that FedEx Express alone consumed more than 1.3 billion gallons of fuel in fiscal year 2006.
And Smith said that has propelled the company’s own quest through the years to find and even encourage research and development of more fuel-efficient vehicles as well as those that use alternative fuels.
The speech at the University of Memphis was the first part of an unusual two-day set of public comments from Smith. The next day he attended an executive session of the Memphis City Council at the council’s invitation. The council solicited Smith’s advice on how government could operate more efficiently.
His answers to those questions were specific and he was careful not to stray far from the questions.
Smith’s remarks on green as a national security issue were heavy on specifics even though Smith was talking extemporaneously.
“Over half of our $600 billion-plus military budget every year is spent for the sole purpose of protecting the oil trade,†Smith said as he noted complaints about the cost of a carbon tax, which he favors. Smith said there are no similar concerns about “having to have a military establishment of the size that we have that’s gotten us involved in two wars in the Middle East, which is almost exclusively because of our dependence on petroleum coming from that part of the world – not totally – but almost exclusively.â€
Smith, who backed John McCain in the 2008 GOP presidential primaries, even went back to the 1950s Eisenhower administration benchmark that set anything above a 20 percent dependence on foreign oil as a “grave national security risk.†That dependence is now at 60 percent.
“That might be in a perfect world not a problem. But we don’t live in a perfect world,†Smith told the group of about 100 people at the University of Memphis. “And, unfortunately, contrary to a great deal of what you hear about in terms of the oil business, it’s not our great integrated oil companies like Chevron and Exxon who control most of the oil.
“Ninety-percent of the proven oil reserves in the world belong to national oil companies. And many of those national oil companies are outright hostile to the United States, or at least indifferent to our standard of living and our national interests.â€
An electric plan
Smith’s suggestion as well as that of the leadership council includes a goal of converting the nation’s short-haul commercial vehicle fleet to electrically run cars and trucks. That goal also would include personal cars and trucks.
“The United States should as a matter of national policy move toward a largely electrified short-haul transportation system,†is how Smith put it.
In a February speech at the National Press Club in Washington, Smith said electrification would be a “sea change†made possible in part by technological advances in the past 25 years that have given longer life to batteries. But he said the transition still will be difficult.
“We cannot encourage the purchase of electric cars and then not have the generation capacity to power them, the transmission capacity to deliver that power to the consumers who need it, or the smart grid technology that will be required to handle those cars as we plug them in and out of the grid,†he said.
At Syracuse University in New York, Patrick Penfield has been writing for several years about the emergence of this turn in the green movement.
“In the next several years, you will be hearing more about supply chain sustainability or the green sustainable supply chain,†he wrote in August 2007.
The assistant professor at the Whitman School of Management at Syracuse also cast the validity of the move in different terms.
“The whole idea of a sustainable supply chain is to reduce costs while helping the environment,†he wrote.
It’s no accident that reducing costs is mentioned first.
On the second day of the green supply chain conference at the University of Memphis, Mike Bruns, the president of Memphis-based Comtrak Logistics, said lower fuel consumption is at the root of green considerations for him and others in the freight business.
“I guess I could sit here and tell everybody that I’m a real believer in green – and I guess I am,†Bruns said. “But I’m really a believer in making money. And it’s generally interesting that everything we’re doing to make some money at Comtrak has everything to do with being more green.â€
At the same panel discussion, Mark Schulze, a vice president of BNSF Railway Co., one of the city’s major rail presences, was more direct.
“I haven’t seen one decision made yet that was environmentally based,†he said. “It gets down to cost and on-time performance. … But there is a mandate to lower our diesel fuel consumption, which will benefit us with (fewer) greenhouse gas emissions.â€
Price-driven alternatives
Penfield told The Memphis News that converting to such a green supply chain will be “long and arduous.†He also said interest and commitment could wane in direct relation to the price of gas.
“When gas prices are high, there’s actually a benefit to the greening of the supply chain,†Penfield said. “When gas prices are low, that whole impetus is taken away. Nobody wants to talk about it. Nobody really wants to figure out ways to help the environment.â€
Smith, however, saw differences in last summer’s gas price spike. There was the part that China and India played in upping the demand for gasoline.
“Prior to last summer’s run-up, you could anticipate that the crisis would come, demand would go down and you’d come back and to some degree it would be business as usual,†Smith said. “On the supply side, there really was little alternative to the continued consumption of fossil fuels. But in the interim … the development of battery technology fueled … by the proliferation of laptops and PDAs and cell phones has created a whole new generation of batteries that have the amount of storage that will allow the daily use of a personal automobile to be tolerant by batteries.â€
That means traveling 40 miles on a single charge.
FedEx teamed with the Environmental Defense Fund in 2004 to launch the first commercial hybrid truck. Smith calls it a PUD – pickup and delivery vehicle. It’s a step-in delivery van that has 700 cubic feet of space. It is 42 percent more efficient than diesel-powered delivery vans and its emissions are 90 percent less. The FedEx fleet uses 300 of them.
“The problem with the vehicle is it is more expensive than the conventional diesel,†Smith said.
It’s more expensive by about $30,000.
“When the price of fuel was up to $4 or $5 per gallon for diesel, you actually were getting close to getting a reasonable return on investment for that,†he added. “But as fuel has come back down – and it will go back up in all probability – it’s very hard to justify.â€
Victoria Mills, the managing director of the EDF’s corporate partnerships program, said the FedEx request for proposals on the hybrid trucks was nevertheless an important step.
“That’s where the transformation started,†she said. “Then within two years, no fleet trade show was complete without a hybrid offering.â€
By the EDF’s count, the 300 hybrid PUDs FedEx has are among 1,200 hybrid trucks either on the road or on order in North America. The FedEx fleet of hybrids is one of 85. And there are 36 makes and models.
“What we’re seeing is not just rising orders, but a diversification in the marketplace,†Mills said by phone from Boston. “That reflects confidence in the technology and a much broader trend in business to address climate change.â€
Seeking a standard
Penfield said at least for now, the diversity has a downside as well.
“We want to move to batteries. But these different automobile manufacturers are all using different batteries,†Penfield said. “How do you charge it up?â€
Penfield talked about charging stations for battery powered vehicles being used in Israel in which motorists simply swap spent batteries for newly charged ones.
“The problem is getting everybody to use that battery,†he said. “That’s an issue. There’s no standard. … Nobody has a path to follow.â€
Smith told the National Press Club in February it’s important that whatever standards are set for a national grid don’t create a new dependence on imported technology.
“The investments – private and public – involved in electrification could have a tremendous positive effect on the American economy – if we do everything in our power to encourage the creation of new manufacturing capacity and jobs here at home,†Smith told that gathering. “That means, among other things, reducing the corporate tax rate and changing the tax code to allow the expensing of capital equipment. If we are going to drive battery operated cars, let’s make sure that as many of them as possible are built here in the United States.â€
Mills concedes Penfield’s point about the impact changing oil prices have on the demand for hybrids as well as the expense of hybrids at this point.
For business owners who run or manage fleets of vehicles, the main issues are if the new additions to the fleet pay for themselves and over what period of time.
Mills and Smith agree that until the gap in price between conventional short-haul vehicles and the hybrids is bridged, government incentives are essential.
“The difference between having incentive help and having no incentive help can be five to 10 years off the payback of one of these trucks,†she told The Memphis News. “New York, for example – their program will fund 80 percent of the incremental cost of a hybrid truck. At the federal level, money from the stimulus bill has gone into what is called the Diesel Emission Reduction Act (DERA).â€
The DERA regulations have spun off a business of organizing hybrid or alternative-fuel fleets for companies integrating them into their overall fleets and capturing the federal incentives.
Tennessee Gov. Phil Bredesen took a test drive last month in an electric car made by Nissan. The Japanese carmaker with a Tennessee presence plans to begin selling such cars for commercial and government fleets in the U.S. next year.
Bredesen has proposed a network of public charging stations for electric cars in a partnership that would involve state and local governments as well as carmakers. At the test drive, he also talked of research on solar-powered charging stations in Nashville, Chattanooga and Knoxville. Bredesen said he hopes to garner some of the federal stimulus funds for the effort.
California recently enacted a voucher program for short-haul vehicle fleets that contributes $10,000 to $40,000 per vehicle for new hybrids.
“Over the road†longer-haul trucks remain problematic if the goal is no diesel fuel.
“We don’t see in the near term any technology that will displace the use of diesel power plants,†Smith told the Memphis audience. “But we have many initiatives to reduce the energy consumption of our over-the-road vehicles.â€
Hybrid technology for over-the-road vehicles still involves using conventional diesel fuel, Mills said.
“That was originally the last place people thought to look for hybrid applications,†she said. “But, in fact, Walmart has been testing out some hybrids in long-haul applications, just because when you drive that many miles, smaller percentage gains in fuel economy add up to huge cost savings.â€
In one case, the hybrid part “simply captures the energy from braking and stores it in a battery where it can be used to supplement energy from the diesel fuel.â€
Here to stay?
For all of the technological changes being explored and garnering attention as well as financing for now in the corporate world, Smith said oil isn’t going to vanish as the fuel that runs America.
“It’s unrealistic to think that the demand for petroleum is going to decline from 80 million barrels per day or thereabouts, which it was last summer, and go to the point where petroleum is going to be irrelevant,†he told the Memphis audience last month. “We should be producing the maximum amount (of oil) that we can in this country.â€
It is a point in the leadership council’s set of recommendations that he admits, “We don’t get as high a grade on … from environmentalists.â€
Smith said an “enormous amount of resources†beneath the outer continental shelf could be produced in an “environmentally sensitive†way.
He also said, “Nuclear energy should be a huge part of the equation,†noting the use of nuclear power at FedEx’s facilities in Paris, France. “It’s the only completely emission-free power source.â€
Penfield isn’t so sure about the future of petroleum.
“I think eventually something is going to happen where it will be a pretty dramatic situation,†he said. “There’s going to come a point in time when we do run out. With the population increasing the way it is and these different countries booming, it’s going to be very, very difficult to attain the stuff.â€
He sees a “tipping point,†or point at which the research and development of green alternatives becomes a direction for corporations in possibly the next two to three years, with some important questions still to be answered in the research.
“Does it make sense to switch? Does it make sense to change the infrastructure? If prices of gas are low, it’s going to be a hard thing to convince people to switch. It really is. I hate to say that,†Penfield said.
Mills has a different view.
“I believe we’ve reached that tipping point and gone beyond it,†she told The Memphis News. “I believe that people have internalized expensive and fluctuating fuel prices as a business risk that they need to manage. I believe that people are seeing environmental innovation and efficiency improvements are going hand in hand – getting them where they need to be to address security objectives, to address climate objectives, to address business objectives.â€
3rd Circuit: When Serving Post Office, Don’t Rely on Mailbox Rule
OK, so how ironic is this!!!!
Shannon P. Duffy
The Legal Intelligencer
May 12, 2009
If you’re filing a claim against the postal service, don’t just drop it in the mail because the courts won’t apply the ordinary presumption that a letter mailed is a letter received.
In a holding fraught with irony, the 3rd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals has declared in Lightfoot v. United States (pdf) that the so-called “mailbox rule” cannot be invoked against the U.S. Postal Service to save an otherwise time-barred claim.
Instead, the court said, a plaintiff pursuing a claim under the Federal Tort Claims Act has the burden of proving that the federal agency was “presented” with a timely administrative claim, and that proof of mailing is not enough.
“The term ‘presented’ in the filing of an administrative claim means more than merely mailing the claim,” visiting Judge Richard G. Stearns of the District of Massachusetts wrote for a unanimous 3rd Circuit panel.
In the suit, plaintiff Cedric Lightfoot claims he was sideswiped by a postal van while driving on Broad Street in Philadelphia in October 2004.
Everyone agreed that Lightfoot’s lawyer, Frank S. Pollock of Brownstein Vitale & Weiss, filed a timely initial claim with the USPS by certified mail just before the second anniversary of the accident.
The dispute erupted over whether Pollock had filed a timely request for reconsideration within six months after the USPS denied his initial claim.
Pollock filed an affidavit in which he swore that he had signed a final copy of the request for reconsideration before giving it to his secretary to be mailed first class.
But Assistant U.S. Attorney Paul W. Kaufman offered an affidavit from an in-house lawyer at USPS that said he never received it.
Senior U.S. District Judge Jan E. DuBois sided with the government, finding that while the government has waived its sovereign immunity to allow suits under the FTCA, the waiver is a limited one and that the burden remains on the plaintiff to demonstrate strict compliance with the law’s administrative provisions.
“Where a plaintiff fails to comply with the presentment requirement or limitations periods in the statute, a district court lacks subject matter jurisdiction over the FTCA claim,” DuBois wrote in a March 2008 opinion.
On appeal, Pollock argued that DuBois erred in refusing to apply the “mailbox rule” to his claim for reconsideration.
But Stearns, in an opinion joined by 3rd Circuit Judges Theodore A. McKee and D. Brooks Smith, found that the federal courts have been nearly unanimous for more than a quarter century in rejecting such arguments.
In 1981, Stearns noted, the 9th Circuit in Bailey v. United States refused to “accept appellants’ invitation to rewrite the [FTCA] and in effect repeal the regulation by holding that mailing alone is sufficient to meet the requirement that a claim be ‘presented.’”
Just three years ago, Stearns said, the 9th Circuit noted that, since Bailey, “virtually every circuit to have ruled on the issue has held that the mailbox rule does not apply to [FTCA] claims, regardless of whether it might apply to other federal common law claims.”
That strong weight of authority was enough for Stearns, who wrote, “We now join these sister courts in rejecting the mailbox rule and holding that a plaintiff must demonstrate that the federal agency was in actual receipt of the claim, whether on initial presentment or on a request for reconsideration.”
In a footnote, Stearns rejected Pollock’s reliance on Glover v. United States, a 2000 decision from the Eastern District of New York that drew a distinction between the requirements for an initial presentation and a request for reconsideration.
” Glover is not persuasive,” Stearns wrote, noting that the 10th Circuit has already explicitly rejected Glover ‘s rationale and held that “nowhere is there any indication that what constitutes presentment of a request for reconsideration is different from presentment of the claim itself.”
Pollock, in an interview, said he was disappointed that the 3rd Circuit never addressed his most compelling arguments, but instead had relegated the discussion to a footnote with no real analysis.
The importance of Glover , he said, was that the trial judge in that case recognized that while the mailbox rule cannot apply to an initial claim, it made sense to do so for reconsideration.
The initial claim is designed to give notice to the federal agency and is mandatory, Pollock said, but the Glover court recognized that requests for reconsideration are governed by non-mandatory procedures that are designed to give the agencies an opportunity to take a second look at a rejected claim to facilitate settlements.
The issue in Lightfoot’s case was identical to Glover, Pollock said, because everyone agreed that the initial claim was timely filed.
The lesson to be drawn from the 3rd Circuit’s ruling, Pollock said, is that lawyers should always use certified mail when filing FTCA claims and that it is sometimes better to simply file suit than to ask an agency to reconsider denial of a claim.
10 Geeky Ways to Deliver Mail: U.S. Postal Service Technology
By Chris Sweeney
Published on: May 4, 2009 in Popular Mechanics
The USPS has a deep sense of history—since the first Postmaster General was put in place in 1775, the USPS has changed its structure and delivery methods numerous times thanks to war, economic turmoil and emerging new technologies. Here, we look at 10 of the geekiest ways the postal service has delivered the mail.
Mule Mail
19th century-present
(Photography courtesy of the Smithsonian National Postal Museum)
Mule Mail 19th century to present
Animals have always played a major role in delivery services—from the Pony Express to horse-drawn carriages—but only one beast is still hauling mail today. A handful of donkeys and deliverymen still embark on a six- to eight-hour journey through the Grand Canyon five days a week to deliver mail and other supplies to residents of Supai, Arizona. This is the last route being serviced by mules.
Pneumatic Mail Tubes
1893-1953
Pneumatic Mail Tubes 1893-1953
New York, Boston, St. Louis, Chicago and Philadelphia all relied on an underground system of pneumatic tubes to move mail during the early 20th century. The two-foot long canisters held 600 letters as they moved through the tubes at speeds up to 35 mph. There were about 27 miles of pneumatic tubes running through New York City, including routes stretched across the Brooklyn Bridge, linking Manhattan with Brooklyn. The proliferation of delivery trucks and expanding urban centers contributed to the demise of this system. Private contractors leased the pneumatic tubes to the USPS, and by 1934 rates were as high as $19,000 per mile per year. Today, many of the tubes remain intact under city streets.
The Snowbird
1921
The Snowbird 1921
Though this vehicle was never officially part of the USPS fleet, a handful of carriers relied on the Model-T Snowbird attachment kit to plod along snowy routes, providing an alternative to horse-and-sleigh. Snowmobiles are still used in places like Minnesota, Wisconsin and Alaska for winter deliveries.
Highway Post Office Bus
1941-1974
The Snowbird 1921
This post office on wheels was inspired by railroad service and designed to reduce lag time by allowing postal workers to sort parcels while in transit. The first batch of buses, built by the White Motor Company, came equipped with distributing tables, letter cases and enough space to hold 150 mail sacks. Advances in automated sorting and a major restructuring of the postal system eliminated the need for on-the-go organization. In the early 1970s the decision was made that mail would be sent to a central location where high-speed sorters would route it.
Victory Mail
1942-1945
Victory Mail 1942-1945
In order to keep correspondences flowing between soldiers and the home front without sacrificing precious cargo space, the postal service introduced stationery that was shrunken into microfilm before being shipped. Upon arrival, the letters were enlarged to a fraction of their original size, sorted and delivered. A single sack of V-Mail was the equivalent of 37 sacks of regular mail, although letters were limited to 700 words.
10 Geeky Ways to Deliver Mail: U.S. Postal Service Technology
The U.S. Postal Service (USPS) is facing a potential $6 billion deficit in 2009. Earlier this year it asked Congress to consider cutting a day of delivery from its six-day schedule. On May 11 the price of stamps will jump another 2 cents, and in Idaho, the last continental route serviced by bush plane is about to be cut. The USPS has a deep sense of history—since the first Postmaster General was put in place in 1775, the USPS has changed its structure and delivery methods numerous times thanks to war, economic turmoil and emerging new technologies. Here, we look at 10 of the geekiest ways the postal service has delivered the mail.
The Mailster
1957-1967
The Mailster 1957-1967
The Mailster was a three-wheeled vehicle that weighed 500 pounds, boasted 7.5 hp and allowed each delivery person to haul an unprecedented 500 pounds of mail. Its compact size and maneuverability were ideal for getting around recently developed suburban areas. By the end of the 1950s, one-third of the USPS fleet was comprised of this vehicle. While higher-ups in the postal service were more than enthusiastic about the Mailster’s potential, the people actually driving it hated it, according to Nancy Pope of the Smithsonian National Postal Museum. Complaints from letter carriers assigned to Mailsters ranged from the front wheel getting stuck in trolley tracks to constant breakdowns, Pope says, and even one report of a massive dog toppling the vehicle. After many complaints and malfunctions, the postal service opted for the more reliable and sturdy Jeep to serve as the centerpiece of its fleet.
Missile Mail
1959
Missile Mail 1959
In the years following the second World War, the volume of mail increased by more than 30 percent. Postmaster General Arthur Summerfield called for a new means of delivery to satisfy the growing demand—from this, Missile Mail was born. On June 8, 1959, the Navy submarine USS Barbero launched a Regulus cruise missile filled with 300 commemorative letters off the coast of Florida. The missile made a flawless descent after soaring for 22 minutes, but the letters still would have needed to be removed, transported, sorted and routed had it been an actual delivery. Following a successful demonstration, Summerfield declared, “before man reaches the moon, mail will be delivered within hours from New York to California, to Britain, to India or Australia by guided missiles. We stand on the threshold of rocket mail.” Despite the success of the initial experiment, the USPS never revisited the idea of missile mail.
Segway
2002
(Photograph by Justin Sullivan/Getty Images)
Segway 2002
Soon after it was unveiled in 2001, the Segway was introduced as an experimental vehicle into the U.S. postal fleet. By attaching courier bags, the Segway promised to reduce physical strains associated with lugging sacks of mail while increasing the rate of delivery. But experiments in Virginia quickly proved that it wasn’t efficient for deliveries. While a sidewalk in disrepair or curb can be tricky enough on a Segway, a flight of steps is impossible. Also, in areas where a letter carrier would just walk across front lawns, they were now forced to go up and down every driveway. The postal service eventually abandoned experiments with the Segway.
USPS and EVs
2006
USPS and EVs 2006
The USPS has had their eyes on electric vehicles for a few years, with a number of plans still in motion. In 2006 the USPS tested a 2-ton van developed by the Azure Company, but the test was short-lived and inconclusive, according to a postal service spokesperson. In April, Chrysler announced its intent to apply for a federal grant that would allow it to build a fleet of electric postal minivans. Ruth Goldway of the United States Postal Regulatory Commission has also been pushing for stimulus money to go toward transforming the postal fleet to electric. By converting 142,000 delivery trucks, Goldway wrote in a New York Times editorial, the USPS would save 68 million gallons of gasoline.
Hydrogen Fuel Cell
Hydrogen Fuel Cell Present
Within the next 10 years more than 140,000 postal vehicles will be retired, leaving vacancies that need to be filled. The USPS is currently testing a third-generation GM hydrogen fuel cell vehicle that’s based on the Chevy Equinox. While hydrogen vehicles have much potential, says Darlene S. Casey, a USPS spokesperson, they have a long way to go, particularly when it comes to the necessary infrastructure.
1. RE: 10 Geeky Ways to Deliver Mail: U.S. Postal Service Technology
I feel slightly deceived by the title 10 Geeky Ways to Deliver mail. I thought we were talking the way the modern Post Office delivers mail. PM needs to do a story about OCRs,DPS, DBCS with PARS and intelligent barcodes. Although I did find the pneumatic tubes interesting.
2. RE: 10 Geeky Ways to Deliver Mail: U.S. Postal Service Technology
Why would they even invest in the Chevy Equinox? That vehicle is just way too large to be useful as a mail delivery vehicle. One question I have is could the new 2 person model segway be useful for mail deilvery or maybe even smart cars or mini-coopers? USPS think smaller and efficient, not bigger with heavier payloads! The smaller vehicles could also be hybrids or fuel cell too if the technology is there or maybe even convert them to CNG. I would highly recommend they re-work their trucking fleet to run CNG or Bio-diesel too!
3. RE: 10 Geeky Ways to Deliver Mail: U.S. Postal Service Technology
*USPS is a private, not government entity. *All of the huge SUVs would be stupid for mail delivery. Too large to manuver.
4. RE: 10 Geeky Ways to Deliver Mail: U.S. Postal Service Technology
Website: http://www.findingdulcinea.com/news/on-this-day/May-June-08/On-this-Day–U-S–Postal-Service-Attempts–Missile-Mail–for-First-and-Last-Time.html
Nice feature ! According to this story, missile mail was never expected to be feasible, but rather was a way for the Dept of Defense to show off our missile capability during the cold war. http://www.findingdulcinea.com/news/on-this-day/May-June-08/On-this-Day–U-S–Postal-Service-Attempts–Missile-Mail–for-First-and-Last-Time.html
5. RE: 10 Geeky Ways to Deliver Mail: U.S. Postal Service Technology
the Postal Service is full of idiots. They waste money and are losing billions of dollars. This article is a perfect example of why they are doing so poorly. Typical Government entity, overpaid and wasteful.
6. RE: 10 Geeky Ways to Deliver Mail: U.S. Postal Service Technology
i wish my mail carrier would read this. my mail keeps arriving soaking wet. bring back the burro!
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