Trends in Print and Mail

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On January 17, 2016, U.S. Postal Service (“USPS”) will be raising shipping rates for the first time in 3 years. However, the rate adjustments are only part of the story.

Although the word “Mail” is used in most of their products, the USPS categories Priority Mail and Priority Mail Express as shipping services. That means they are considered competitive products and not subject to the same pricing constraints as First Class Mail, Standard Mail and Periodicals.

A new Postmaster General. The long-awaited Appeals Court ruling on the Exigent Rate Case. Another rate increase. And more inaction by Congress on President Obama’s nominees to the US Postal Service’s (“USPS”) Board of Governors.

These are just a few of the subjects that dominated the mailing industry in 2015, and were covered by our blog – Trends in Print and Mail. Articles about the US Postal Service and rate changes generated the most interest. The readers’ comments on our website and in the LinkedIn groups helped add to the conversation.

2016 looks to be another interesting year. It’s likely that First Class Mail rates will actually decrease this spring. A comprehensive postal reform bill has started to gain interest – in Congress and the national media. With presidential elections taking place, and absentee voting by mail increasing, the USPS will be under close scrutiny. We’ll be sharing our insights and opinions as these events unfold.

In case you missed them, here are the 10 most read posts from 2015:

Senate Causes Crisis for US Postal Service: A Call to Action
The citizens of this country deserve to have a full Board of Governors for the USPS. (Note: This blog generated almost 10 times the number of views as an average post.)

Preparing for the First USPS Rate Change of 2015
Here are 5 steps every mail operations manager can take now to prepare for the first USPS rate change (Competitive Products) of 2015.

Court Ruling Impacts Future Postage Rates
The United States Court of Appeals’ decision supports the Postal Regulatory Commission’s approval of a temporary exigent rate case, while dismissing calculations of the financial losses of the USPS.

2015 Postage Rate Case Update
There have been several events that will impact mailers as the US Postal Service implements the first postage rate case of 2015.

Impact of the US Postal Service New Standards
Mailers need to prepare for the new, slower USPS delivery standards.

Effective Address Management Part 7: Processing Return Mail
Mailpieces that are returned to your company add no value to the relationship with your customers.

Postal Regulatory Commission Ruling on the Exigent Rate Case In English
The PRC orders that the exigent postage rate increase will remain in effect until the USPS recovers an additional $1.91 billion.

Twenty Questions To Ask When Purchasing Equipment
In addition to legal questions and pricing information, here are 20 questions you should ask when purchasing equipment.

The Mismeasure of Mail
"There are three kinds of lies: lies, damned lies, and statistics." - attributed to Benjamin Disraeli. Focusing on Single Piece First Class Mail is a distraction from the real issues facing the USPS.

It’s Process, Not Product
Leverage the new tools available to you, and take your first steps to achieve Total Process Management.

What are you doing on Saturday, March 19, 2016?

If you’re attending the National Postal Forum (NPF) in Nashville, you’re invited to join The Berkshire Company as we lend a hand to Habitat for Humanity.

The NPF is the premier postal industry conference with numerous educational workshops and more than 100 vendors participating in the exhibit hall. It’s also the venue for Postmaster General Megan Brennan and her leadership team to directly address the mailing industry and share the USPS’ plans for the coming year. Mark Fallon, The Berkshire Company’s president, has been an instructor at NPF for the last 20 years, delivering over 100 classes – from “Boot Camp for Mail Center Managers” to “The Ten Secrets of Leadership”.

The NPF is also a great opportunity to network with fellow professionals.

One of the networking events planned for NPF 2016 is working with Habitat for Humanity of Greater Nashville on one of their projects. You can help construct a home in the Nashville area for a local, hardworking family in need. You don’t need to have any previous experience in construction or home repair. All you need is the willingness to help build a place that someone can call “home”.

As individuals, the members of The Berkshire Company team have participated in several Habitat for Humanity projects, including last year at the NPF in Anaheim. It’s rewarding to work alongside Habitat family members and other volunteers, transforming dreams into realities. Now we plan to do even more.

For 2016, The Berkshire Company will be sponsoring the Habitat for Humanity event at the NPF. We’re working with the staff at NPF, Habitat for Humanity, and members of the Nashville Postal Customer Council to coordinate all the activities for the project. With your support, we can make this year’s event a success for everyone, especially the family who will live in the completed home.

You can pre-register to volunteer on the NPF website. After registering for the conference, please remember to select “Networking Events”. If you’ve already registered, you can edit your existing registration and add the event. Round-trip transportation and lunch will be provided by the NPF. There’s a $25 non-refundable fee to participate, and all fees collected will be donated to Habitat for Humanity of Greater Nashville.

Please sign up today to make a difference. Thanks.

The most tangible evidence of addressing errors in any mailing that leaves your company is the volume of return mail. Instead of treating return mail as a nuisance, managers should consider it another tool to improve their address list.

If a company has done a good job with cleaning their addresses, then their return mail will be below 1%. However, if that company mails out 50,000 bills a day, that still means 500 envelopes will be returned each day. Over 10,000 pieces will be returned in a month. That’s a lot of mail.

So, what should a company do? We recommend a multi-step approach:

Last year, I wrote a letter to my United States Senators (Elizabeth Warren and Edward Markey) about the need for the Senate to confirm President Obama’s nominees to the U.S. Postal Service (“USPS”) Board of Governors. Senator Warren’s staff didn’t think that my letter warranted a response. One of Senator Markey’s aides called my office to share the senator’s support for this issue. He believed that some of the nominees would be confirmed during the “lame duck” session after the elections.

None of the nominees were confirmed. In fact, no votes were taken on the Senate floor.

The situation has only gotten worse. Due to term expirations, the Board of Governors was no longer going to have enough members to constitute a quorum for votes. Last December, using an astute parliamentary procedure, the Board of Governors created a “Temporary Emergency Committee” of the remaining governors. The committee would have all the powers of the entire Board until enough members were confirmed to reconstitute a regular quorum.

And the Senate continues not to act. The Committee on Homeland Security held hearings and confirmed the nominees in July. But there have been no votes on the Senate floor.

This December, two more governors – Ellen Williams and Louis J. Giuliano – will have to leave the Board. Their terms actually ended last year, and they’re currently in the “holdover year”. That will leave only one appointed governor on the Board. One.

It’s clear my letters didn’t have the impact needed to cause the Senate to confirm the appointees. We need more letters. We can’t rely on union leaders or industry lobbyists to raise this issue. We need to take action as individual voters and constituents.

There are over 500,000 employees of the USPS, and 8 million people who work in the mailing industry. If we each take the time to send a letter to our United States Senators, they will have to respond. If you don’t know how to contact your senator, you can find it on the Senate directory. Of course, if you mail the letter to their local office in your state, it will have even more impact.

Below is a template for the letter. Copy, paste, print and post. Add some personal comments of your own. If you can afford the extra $0.49, send a copy to your local newspaper or television station. Engage the media in our cause.

Together, we can demonstrate the power of mail and the importance of the U.S. Postal Service.

Using software certified by the US Postal Service (USPS), like the Coding Accuracy Support System (CASS) and NCOALink, companies can format and update their customers’ addresses. To take the next step, mailers have access to additional USPS tools to improve address quality, including the Address Element Correction (AEC) and Address Change Service (ACS) programs.

Mailers may have pieces that were delivered by the USPS, however the addresses don’t generate a Delivery Point Validation (DPV) when run through CASS software. That means the mailer is foregoing postal discounts and is unable to take advantage of all the Full Service IMb benefits. The best USPS programs for this situation are AEC and AEC II.

AEC is best described as “CASS Plus”. With input from the mailing industry, the USPS developed specialized programs that break down the elements of the address, and perform a series of evaluations and comparisons. Through these logarithms, the AEC software is able to add missing elements and correct many errors that commercial software can’t resolve.

For the tougher addresses, mailers can request the AEC II service. Under this program, the addresses are sent to the local USPS delivery unit for resolution. The USPS is then able to tap into their proprietary "Delivery Force Knowledge" system. In other words, they ask the letter carriers responsible for that address for their help. That’s right, a human being with actual knowledge of the problem address – not software – corrects the list.

For unidentified moves, mailers should consider the Address Change Service (ACS) program. With ACS, if an address on a mailpiece is incorrect, the USPS sends the mailer an electronic file with the change of address or other reasons for non-delivery. To participate, the mailer needs to enroll and then modify their address block or mailing label. When the modified pieces are processed by the USPS on the Postal Automation Redirection System (PARS) or Computerized Forwarding System, an ACS notification is generated. The notifications are forwarded to the National Customer Support Center, and then consolidated into a file for the mailer.

There are 4 different methods for implementing ACS:

One aspect of effective address management that needs to be considered is establishing and following a production process with high integrity. In other words, there are controls in place that make sure the correct document goes into the correct envelope with the correct address. Accuracy during production impacts address management by reducing volumes of return mail and ensuring accuracy in postal documentation.

Most return mail received by companies is caused by address issues. The address may be incomplete, incorrect or the recipient may have moved. Many of those issues may be avoided using software to clean addresses when they’re entered into the system, on a regular schedule or directly before print.

Mail may also be returned because of errors in the production process. Smeared ink may make the address illegible. Improper folds can cause the address to not appear in the envelopes’ window. Double-stuffs can change the order of pages – or even worse – insert someone else’s information into the wrong envelope.

Accurate management of the print and mail stream determines the correctness of the documentation filed with the US Postal Service (USPS). Damaged pieces must be removed from the “Mail.dat” file. Postage due amounts, potentially including discount qualifications, need to be recalculated. Under the new Mailers Scorecard Program, all of this will now be tracked by the USPS.

There are different methods of implementing a high-integrity production system. Common characteristics of the best systems include: