What are your plans for the upcoming National Postal Forum (NPF), May 6 – 10, 2018 in San Antonio, TX?
The Berkshire Company is excited to announce the publication of the 2018 edition of our popular eBook - 110 Tips to Improve Your Mail Center.
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United States Postal Service / Operations Management / National Postal Forum / U.S. Postal Service
In January 2018, Aetna settled a lawsuit for $17 million over a data breach. In March 2018, a class-action lawsuit was filed against CVS, Fiserv and other parties for a similar data breach. The cases are related – the privacy compromises occurred because personal health information (PHI) could be seen through the window of the envelopes used for mailing notices to people with HIV.
On Thursday, March 22, 2018, a bi-partisan group of Senators filed S. 2629, “The Postal Reform Act of 2018: Improving Postal Operations, Service, and Transparency”. The bill’s co-sponsors will be familiar to mailing industry veterans – Tom Carper (D-DE), Jerry Moran (R-KS), Heidi Heitkamp (D-ND), and Claire McCaskill (D-MO).
When you sort the pieces that arrived in your mailbox today, take a good look at the return addresses. Most of the mail you received wasn’t printed by the company whose name appears in the upper left-hand corner. Instead, it was manufactured – and probably mailed – by a print-mail service provider (PSP).
I often visit my local post office on Saturdays. There are several reasons for this habit. First, I travel during the workweek, so it’s convenient to pick up my packages, drop off mail, and sign for any Certified Mail letters. Next, it reminds me of being a kid and stopping by the Woburn Post Office to say “Hi” to my father, who was usually working the window on Saturday mornings. And lastly, I enjoy watching my fellow postal patrons interact with the clerks.
There’s still snow on the ground in my backyard, but I’m thinking about the warm weather down in Texas. That’s because I just received my catalog for the 2018 National Postal Forum (NPF) – May 6 – 9, 2018 in beautiful San Antonio.
On February 9, 2018, The U.S. Postal Service (USPS) released the financial results for the first quarter of their fiscal year (October 1, 2017 to December 31, 2017). No one anticipated good news, but the numbers were worse than expected. The USPS posted a net loss for the first quarter of $540 million, compared to net income of $1.4 billion, for the same period last year. The first quarter is usually the strongest quarter with the added volumes of shipping and mailing for the holidays.
There are diverse types of mail centers ranging from small inbound operations staffed by 3 employees to large production operations that print and mail a million pieces a day. No matter what type of work you process, the layout and design of your mail center has a direct impact on your effectiveness and efficiency.
The 5 key principles and concepts when designing a mail center are:
On Sunday, January 21, 2018, the new US Postal Service (USPS) postage rates and rules go into effect, so mailers need to take action to be properly prepared. For most mailers, the first day of mailing under the new rates will be Monday, January 22, 2018. The new rates represent about a 1.9% increase over the current prices for mailing, or “Market Dominant” products and 3.9% increases for shipping, or “competitive” products.
