Direct Mail

The U.S. Postal Service will reduce its workforce by 10,000 employees in 2015, the postmaster general said last week.

USPS will not offer early retirement or buyout incentives, Patrick Donahoe said at the National Postal Forum, instead relying exclusively on not filling positions after employees separate from the agency. The Postal Service's workforce currently stands at about 480,000 workers, down from 700,000 several years ago. In the past, USPS has used a mix of attrition and incentivized separation to reduce its workforce. More than 26,000 employees accepted a $15,000 buyout from the Postal Service the last time it was offered.

President Obama renewed his longstanding call to overhaul the U.S. Postal Service in his fiscal 2015 budget, saying the agency must be reformed to ensure its future viability.

Obama recommended restructuring the Postal Service's requirement to prefund the health care of retirees. His plan would defer the fixed payments due in 2014, and part of the payments due in the two years after that. 

Obama also would allow the Postal Service to eliminate Saturday mail delivery immediately, whereas the Senate bill would delay the switch to five-day delivery until 2017.

The U.S. Postal Service doesn't know whether the Flats Sequencing System (FSS) is reducing its costs and doesn't seem to be trying to find out.

Both postal officials and mailers have been hoping for several years that FSS would yield substantial decreases in the cost of handling and delivering flat mail.

But only about 30 percent of flat mail is being processed on the football-field-sized machines, which are failing to live up to expectations and have led to a legal dispute between USPS and the company that built the machines.

The USPS wants to help unbanked and underbanked consumers better manage their money by providing services they don't have access to in their locale, or can't get in their unique financial situation.

On paper it seems like a brilliant idea ... affordable banking-like services and payday loans for those who need them and can't get them, and a new source of income for the government's struggling delivery agency. There's just one problem with the premise-it's never going to work, and it might even cost the USPS money, for three reasons.

With increased efficiencies in manufacturing, along with the ability to hold ever-increasing content due to technology (think video chips that can hold hours of content used within the mail piece), direct mail is still a viable and critical component in multi-channel campaigns.

However, with the advent of these advances, keep in mind direct mail basics in order for you to garner the greatest ROI possible.

The U.S. Postal Service has raised the price of a first class stamp to 49 cents as of Sunday. It's the biggest price hike from the postal service in more than a decade.

The increase that took effect on Sunday raised the price of a first class stamp three cents. The price of a postcard stamp also increased by a penny. The U.S. Postal Service says when it comes to these price increases, it had no choice. "The Postal Service is not tax supported," explained Richard Watkins, a USPS spokesperson.

A proposed compromise toward ending Saturday U.S. mail delivery is falling flat with unions while getting the support of a Senate committee chairman leading a push to advance stalled postal legislation.

The idea is meeting resistance from postal unions, which want to keep Saturday delivery and the jobs that go with it. Legislation that would relieve the money-losing service of billions of dollars in annual health care and pension obligations and allow other changes is stalled in both chambers of Congress.

The U.S. Postal Service's 2014 promotions calendar reprises popular programs with some new wrinkles aimed at increasing use of First Class, shipping and digital technology. The biggest rate discount being offered, 15 percent, is for a spring promotion for First Class marketing pieces. 

One of the bright spots in the Post Office's 2013 earnings report was the 8 percent rise in its shipping business, and one 2014 promotion offers an additional discount for exceeding a threshold for Priority Mail resulting from direct mail efforts.

The cash-short United States Postal Service, which has failed to win congressional approval to stop delivering mail on Saturdays to save money, has struck a deal with the online retailer Amazon.com to deliver the company's packages on Sundays-a first for both, with obvious advantages for each. 

For the Postal Service, which lost nearly $16 billion last year, first-class mail delivery, particularly on Saturdays, is often a money loser, whereas package delivery is profitable.

The deal, announced on Sunday and taking effect immediately, in time for the holiday shopping season.

Capitalizing on strong growth in its shipping business, the United States Postal Service (USPS) has launched major changes to its Priority Mail line-up, with improved features including free insurance, improved USPS Tracking and day-specific delivery.