BCG Report Projects Significant USPS® Volume Decreases through 2020

Published on March 13, 2010 in Address Quality. 0 Comments

BCG Report Projects Significant USPS® Volume Decreases through 2020
~ Maura Betler

     The U.S. Postal Service may see losses of over $230 billion over the next 10 years, with yearly deficits of around $33 billion by 2020, according to information released earlier this month.

     A report from the Boston Consulting Group (BCG) projects drops in mail volume through the coming decade.  The once highly profitable First-Class Mail™ service volumes will drop markedly according to this study. Currently, First-Class Mail™ accounts for about 85 billion mail pieces each year. Next year, BCG projects that this volume will fall to around $53 billion in 2011, or an almost 40% decrease.

     The language in the BCG report is frank and likely unsettling for the USPS®: “The volume decline…coupled with an increasing cost base, will cause profits to experience steep, unrelenting declines. These declining volumes are unlikely to reverse.”

 

     Providing key input to the BCG study were “senders,” or companies who communicate with their consumers through various methods, including direct mail. Senders are reevaluating their use of printed messages primarily because of the costs of doing so. The senders also hypothesize that once consumers perceive Internet security as bullet-proof, more of those consumers will receive and pay their bills exclusively online.

     Postmaster General John Potter is aware that too many cuts would “seriously impact service” to USPS® customers. As mentioned in my previous blog, Mr. Potter intends to stem losses through significant legislative changes. Some of most talked-about changes would be funding of future retiree health benefits, moving to a weekday-only delivery schedule, and expanding services through retail outlets. In addition to these familiar proposals, Mr. Potter is now suggesting that Congress should grant the Postal Service the ability to close post offices for economic reasons, which is not allowed currently.

Updates for the National Postal Forum

Published on March 5, 2010 in Uncategorized. 0 Comments

We are looking forward to seeing you at the National Postal Forum and wanted to share some updates.

Yesterday, Pitney Bowes National Postal Forum site went live and provides great insight on everything we will be exhibiting at this year’s NPF. For a sneak peak go to http://www.pbtradeshows.com/npf/

If you would like free tickets to the exhibition area please go TICKETS

One further update: You can now register for the NPF Peer to Peer Roundtable discussions – Because of the demand for this highly successful event you MUST pre-register for the Roundtable selection of your choice. A complete listing of the many roundtable options are listed on the Peer-To-Peer registration page here:  http://p2p.npf.org/

Hope to see you soon!

An 8125 Checklist for Mailers

Published on March 5, 2010 in Uncategorized. 0 Comments

An 8125 Checklist for Mailers
In an effort to ensure consistent adherence to existing policies and procedures at its business mailer acceptance docks, plants and Post Offices, the USPS recently published an 8125 Checklist for mailers. Below is a portion of that document. We urge you to click on the link below to access and download the complete document.
http://www.windowbook.com/Mailing/8125-Checklist

To ensure PS Form 8125 is complete and accurate –  Work with your existing software vendors to establish the right parameters so that
the mailings created match the documentaton presented.

Ensure 8125 is completely filled out including:
Drop Ship Appointment Number
Mailer Name
FAST Scheduler ID
Mailer Contact Name
Mailer Contact Telephone
Origin Plant Location

Required mailer fields include:
- Class of Mail
- Type of Mail Processing Category
- Number of Containers, etc.
- Number of Pallets
- Entry Discounts Claimed
- Comments DMM Labeling List Info
- Entry Office in the Destination Entry Post Office section

Go to the link provided for more information and access to the checklist.

Post Master General Proposes Dramatic Service Cuts

Published on March 4, 2010 in Uncategorized. 0 Comments

Post Master General Proposes Dramatic Service Cuts
Tuesday, March 02, 2010

~ Maura Betler

Despite record service levels and customer satisfaction scores, the Post Master General John Potter today announced severe losses. Mr. Potter says that without making cutbacks and taking necessary restructuring measures, the USPS could face a collective shortfall of $238 billion by 2020.
In a statement earlier this year, the USPS® points to the “…2010 first-quarter financial results” and the “recent recession, as well as continued migration of mail to electronic alternatives” as ongoing contributors to the agency’s financial woes.
In his March 2, 2010 statement, Mr. Potter proposed several cost-cutting measures:
• Restructure retiree benefits.
• Adjust or eliminate Saturday deliveries.
• Modernize customer access at retail stores and from the Internet.
• Restructure and revise pricing of services to reflect market demand.
• Introduce more products and services consistent customer needs and requests.
Finally, and not unexpectedly, Mr. Potter proposed a “modest exigent price increase,” effective in 2011.

The Dilemma of the 5 Day Postal Work Week

Published on February 17, 2010 in Intelligent Mail. 0 Comments

Over the past months we have heard a fair amount of buzz about the USPS moving to a 5 day work week to their continued  efforts in cost cutting.   As a marketer, I have to admit not loving the idea – particularly with the new tracking that IMB can now provide – the business to consumer model of planning campaigns to  hit homes about a certain sale, promotion, event….on the week-end – providing a certain optimal driver.  However, I am sure that is not what comes to the minds of those focused on the bottom line – driven to see the color black sometime before retirement. 

Over the past few days I read an article featured in DMNews titled ‘ Despite Budget, USPS CFO Backs 5 Day Week’.    Evidently in Obama’s 2011 budget report it makes mention of the traditional six day delivery week, and according to the Postal Service’s CFO – this appears to be nothing more than ‘routine language’.   http://www.dmnews.com/despite-budget-usps-cfo-backs-5-day-week/article/163693/ 

Capitol Hill appear to be thinking differently and continues to suggest taking alternative action to cut overhead and costs  – and many in Congress feel this may well end up impacting the USPS even more negatively as key consumer marketeers are driven to explore alternative marketing methods to support integrated week-end campaigns. …   And the general public view on never having to hold the barking dogs back as the postal carrier climbs the porch to deliver the Saturday post.

John Potter, Postmaster General, continues to keep an open mind to the alternatives and while determined not to increase postal rates – balances the impact of rate increases – to that of a shorter delivery week.  Given these two options, a rate increase may end up driving postal volumes towards a continued downhill spiral – but are they really at the core of it all?  OK Mr. Potter, I realize email marketing, online bill payment  and social media have all taken their toll on mail volumes – but how many of us delete promo based emails immediately as that appear, and while I may be a ‘fan’ of various retailers on Facebook – can this ever take the place of a personalized direct mail piece?  More and more marketers are moving back to basics – direct mail may never be utilized for the mass mailings of yesteryear – but First class and standard class mailings with postal discouunts are a pretty good runner up for revenue….and yes, while the USPS may never see the volumes prior to the internet – there is still plenty of us pulling for you to succeed and allocating on-going budget for direct mail.

I would love to hear any perspectives  from our major mailers – do you have any strong thoughts for or against the reduced delivery week?….and if the alternative is higher postage…then it may be that there is little choice.  By the way, I am planning on attending Friday’s USPS web conference discussing the 5 Day Delivery Week with an open mind…and will provide an update about that next week for those of you unable to attend.

PostalOne! System Now Restored

Published on February 10, 2010 in Uncategorized. 0 Comments

The PostalOne! System, which has been down since 5:50 p,m. EST, Friday, February 5, is now up and running. Mailers can now submit electronic mailing information, and both mailers and acceptance sites are able to access mailing reports, balance, fees and transaction information. Mailers also will start receiving Full-Service feedback, such as address correction information. Upon restoration of the PostalOne! System, acceptance sites are following the procedures below to process postage statements:  For mailers who normally submit hardcopy postage statements, acceptance employees will enter the hardcopy statements presented during the outage.  For mailers who normally submit postage statements via Postal Wizard, acceptance employees will compare the hardcopy postage statements submitted during the outage to the Postal Wizard statements that appear on the dashboard to finalize those that do appear. If a hardcopy statement was submitted during the outage and does not appear on the dashboard, acceptance employees will enter the hardcopy statement that was provided.  Mailers who intended to send mailing information electronically (using Mail.dat or Mail.XML) during the outage, should submit their electronic mailing information upon system restoration for the mailings presented during the outage period. Acceptance employees will compare the hardcopy statements that were provided during the outage to the electronic statements appearing on the dashboard to ensure all mailings are presented and will finalize the electronic statements. Mailers are encouraged to work with USPS acceptance employees to verify that all jobs submitted for the outage period ─ Friday, February 5 through Tuesday, February 9 ─ appear correctly on the PostalOne! dashboard.  The Mailing Date will reflect the actual date of mailing and will not be changed to the date the mailing was processed in the PostalOne! system. CAPS – The CAPs website is now available. CAPS Debit Account customers, need to verify with their bank whether or not they have a filter on their bank account and if the debit filter threshold is sufficient to cover mailings presented through the outage period. There is a possibility that mailing transactions or Business Reply Mail (BRM ) invoice postings may exceed the bank threshold once acceptance sites start entering postage statements and/or invoices. The debit threshold filter could cause the debit to be returned (i.e. debit bounce). CAPS Trust Account customers need to ensure that their CAPS accounts have sufficient funds on deposit for all postage statements presented and all hard-copy BRM or Postage Due invoices they have received during this outage. Local Trust Accounts – All deposits made through retail units to local trust accounts should now display in the PostalOne! System. Customers are encouraged to verify their account balance in PostalOne! reflects deposits made during the outage. FAST Update – FAST Web Services functionality has been restored. FAST Mailer Rating was temporarily deactivated, as of 5 p.m. EST Friday, February 5, through 11:59 p.m. EST, Wednesday, February 10, to accommodate the outage. Mailer rating will resume on Thursday, February 11. eVS Update – eVS manifests received via the Product Tracking System during the outage are now being loaded into the PostalOne! System for payment and reconciliation. For questions or concerns, feel free to contact your local Business Mail acceptance personnel or the PostalOne! Helpdesk at: 800-522-9085

The following instructions are provided for continuation of operations during the PostalOne! system outage that began Feb. 5.

Published on February 8, 2010 in Uncategorized. 1 Comment Tags: .

PostalOne! Contingency Plan for Feb. 5, 2010 Outage – External Customers

The following instructions are provided for continuation of operations during the PostalOne! system outage that began Feb. 5.

The PostalOne! system is not expected to be operational until end of day, Feb. 9. The PostalOne! system is not available for either internal or external user access. Internal users will not be able to access electronic documentation or enter postage statements. External users are not able to submit electronic information or access any reporting information including Full Service ACS. Although the FAST system is operational, external users will need to use the online FAST application to schedule appointments.

Communications:
USPS Headquarters Business Mail Acceptance will continue to provide field communication and updates to both Business Mail Acceptance and external customers through various distribution channels to include:
Internal – email address lists for Area Marketing Managers, Area Customer Service Program Analysts, Mgrs. Business Mail Entry and the BMA Newsletter, and P & C Weekly.
External – Customer Relations, PostalOne! User Group, MTAC, PostalOne! Help Desk customer list, and DMM Advisory.

This contingency plans applies to ALL sites using the PostalOne! system for Business Mail, including BMEUs, DMUs, and Post Offices. Mailings will be accepted with as little impact to the mailer as possible.

Acceptance Process:

Maintain a site log of all hardcopy statements for mailings being submitted during the outage.

Hard Copy Postage Statements
• Acceptance personnel will inquire with each mailer to ensure they have adequate funds on deposit to cover mailing(s) or refer to printed balance report if available. Sites should record checks on a manual log and forward to retail operations for posting in POS.
• Hard copy postage statements for mailings accepted during an outage will be completed, logged and retained in a secure location for posting when the system is restored to service.

Postal Wizard
• Postal Wizard users will be required to submit hard copy postage statements. These hardcopy postage statements will be completed, logged and retained in a secure location for posting when the system is restored to service.
• Acceptance units will handle statements according to instructions for hard copy statements.
• If a Postal Wizard user arrives at acceptance and has previously submitted a statement in Postal Wizard, assist mailer in completion of hard copy statement.

eDoc Submission – Mail.dat / Mail.XML
• Mailers will be required to submit hardcopy postage statements and a qualification summary report for each of their mailings. Mailers will need to provide hardcopy postage statement(s) and qualification summary reports for the previous day’s mailings, the current day and subsequent days mailing(s) if necessary.
• A mailer may provide a mailing log and other supporting documentation in hardcopy or via access to electronic viewer if available for Postal clerks. Clerks should only request documentation that is necessary for verification or other required function. It is not necessary for the mailer to submit hard copy of all documentation if it is not needed for verification.
• The hardcopy statements will be completed, logged and retained in a secure location and will be used to validate against eDoc submitted when the system is restored.

Special Postage Payment Systems
• Mailers who have an authorized DSMS agreement may provide a mailing log by day in lieu of hardcopy postage statements. This log must include at a minimum the elements: Job ID#, permit, total pieces, and total postage. The clerk needs to annotate the date of mailing for each line item on the log.
• Mailers that have special postage payment system agreements (SPPS) in place will follow the contingency plans identified in the SPPS agreement.

System Restoration (What are you going to do when PostalOne! is restored):

Ensure that all statements are processed as soon as possible after system is restored.

Hard Copy Postage Statements
• Ensure that all normally submitted hardcopy statements are entered into the system and processed as soon as possible after system is restored. Compare system hardcopy entries to site log to determine all statements have been entered.

Postal Wizard
• When the system is restored, before entering the hardcopy of statements from mailers that normally used Postal Wizard, acceptance unit must compare statement to statements that are on the PostalOne! dashboard. If statement was previously submitted through Postal Wizard prior to system outage and is on dashboard, process electronic statement from dashboard. Compare Postal Wizard entries to site log to determine all statements have been entered. Those statements that do not appear on the dashboard must be entered manually.

eDoc Submission – Mail.dat / Mail.XML
• When the PostalOne! system is restored, notify mailers to submit eDoc and the clerk will process the mailings using the electronic statement and documentation to compare to the mailings listed on the log to ensure that statements are submitted for any mailing accepted.
• If mailer had submitted eDoc prior to the system outage use the documentation on the dashboard to match to the log and process statements accordingly. Compare eDoc submission to site log to determine all statements have been entered.

Recent Article – The Future is Bright for Intelligent Mail

Published on January 26, 2010 in Uncategorized. 0 Comments Tags: , .

A few weeks ago we were approached by BtoB magazine to provide a brief article on the subject of Intelligent Mail. If you are a reader of this publication you will already be aware that this is a magazine for ‘Marketing Strategists’. It is exciting to see this growing interest in the value that Intelligent Mail offers outside of just mail production. For companies, it means leveraging your existing investment in the IMb to drive more benefits that can be seen in marketing, billing and customer service just to name a few.
In the article my colleague, Kevin Conti writes, ‘Forward-thinking mailers will view all these Intelligent Mail programs as a competitive advantage to grow their businesses while reducing operating costs. Progressive list processing and mailing services companies have developed business cases around new Intelligent Mail Bar Code-based products and services, such as “virtual returned mail,” that may expand their market shares, differentiate their services and create substantial savings by eliminating time and material waste.’
Kevin also provides a best practices checklist that provides some great food for thought. Here’s the link to the article that provide for a quick and interesting read. BtoB Online Artlcle

Intelligent Mail Volume Triples in Four Weeks

Published on January 14, 2010 in Intelligent Mail. 0 Comments Tags: .

A colleague of mine sent me these headlines and OK…my curiosity got the best of me…so I googled the headline and found the announcement on the USPS news site – so I guess the numbers must be real!

http://www.usps.com/communications/newsroom/2010/pr10_0113.htm

The article goes on to say that ‘Sixty Percent More Mailers Sign On to the Full Service Program’

To save you the time of accessing the details, I have included the contents in this posting:

It took seven months to hit the 1 billion mark, but only four more weeks to hit 3 billion. That’s the number of Intelligent Mail Full Service mailpieces processed by the U.S. Postal Service since the program’s implementation last May. The milestone mailing entered the postal distribution network the week of Jan. 4, and the actual number was confirmed yesterday. The number of Intelligent Mail Full Service mailers increased to 171, a 60 percent increase from mid-December. To date, Intelligent Mail Full Service has generated $1 billion in revenue. “The month of December has been one of exceptional participation and performance,” said Tom Day, senior vice president, Intelligent Mail and Address Quality. “The PostalOne! system handled more than twice the previous peak of eDoc postage statements and did so with 98 percent being processed in 30 minutes or less. Mailers are realizing the benefits of Full Service Intelligent Mail, and are doing so in a stable operating environment.”

In Q4 we at PBBI saw a lot of activity and while many of us were expecting to hear the sounds of very unhappy mailers that weren’t getting their earned discounts, all was quiet.    So, it appears as though the USPS was ready after all.  Not to suggest that there weren’t challenges, but all in all; the USPS with significant support from many mailers, seems to have pulled it off. 

Please share any ups and downs you may have experienced in implementing Full Service IMB within your organization ….and….let’s see if this rate of growth continues  in another four weeks!!!

How Intelligent Mail can drive business results – Part II

Published on January 13, 2010 in Intelligent Mail and USPS Compliance. 0 Comments Tags: , , , , , , .

In 2010, most print and mail managers are making plans to switch over to the new Intelligent Mail® barcode as the postal savings alone could represent hundreds of thousands of dollars. Your company’s transition to Intelligent Mail® will generate millions of data points that can help you improve marketing, enhance customer service and streamline billing and collections. Last week, we looked at how this data could improve marketing and customer care.  Today, we explore the value in operations and billing.

Operations: Make Smarter Decisions

Reduce Cancellations. Every week, utilities, telecoms and others spend thousands of dollars turning off service, only to reinstate customers a few days later when payment is received. These costs—including the corresponding strain on customer relationships—can be avoided in many cases, because you can gain visibility of incoming payments up to three or more days in advance.

Manage Risks and Decrease Fraud. When high-value mail such as checks and credit cards do not reach their intended destination, that could signal theft or fraud. The ability to trace delivery from beginning to end offers companies a powerful tool that can help manage risk and identify issues before they become a liability.

Save Millions on Returned Mail. The true cost is far greater than many executives care to admit. When you add up the print and mail costs for the initial mailer, the increased call volumes, handling of returned mail, and the subsequent remailing costs, you could find yourself spending between $3.00 and $11.00 per piece. And that’s not counting the lost sales opportunities, communication delays, customer dissatisfaction and delayed revenue. With Intelligent Mail®, the data needed to update addresses and reduce undeliverable mail is already in-house.

Billing: Follow the Money

Expedite Invoicing. When an invoice reaches its intended recipient late – or not at all – your revenue stream may suffer. The United States Postal Service estimates that 34 percent of mail contains address errors that could delay or prevent proper delivery. With this new barcode, you’ll receive address corrections and can update records before the next invoice is sent.

Improve Lockbox Performance. Time is money, and the time it takes for your lockbox service to process and post remittance checks can cost thousands of dollars in interest revenue. By monitoring the flow of payments from the time they leave your customers’ hands to the time revenue is posted to your account, you can identify potential gaps in the process and take the necessary corrective action.

Collect More Effectively. With precise knowledge of when customer remittances enter the postal system, you can eliminate excuses (“the check is in the mail”) and prioritize who and who not to contact—saving five dollars or more for every call you can avert. You can also suppress production of unnecessary dunning notices, which leads to big savings.

The new Intelligent Mail® barcode is required under postal regulations in order to qualify for the lowest postal rates, but the value outside of the mailroom is even greater. Bridging the gap between the mailroom and critical business operations, solutions such as MAIL360TM and AuraTM software turn barcode data into actionable information. If you have other ideas on how this new event-based intelligence can drive business results, please add to the conversation!