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CUSTOM-MADE FOR SHIPPING SUCCESS
If your company is looking for a “fresh”
way to ship its products to customers,
Priority Mail with customized packaging
is a cost-effective solution.
Gramling Farms of Gramling, SC, sells
peaches, strawberries and apples at farm
stands and through its website at www.gramlingfarms.com. As their online business
began to bear fruit, owners Erik Nix and
Henry Gramling needed a reliable, cost-effective
shipping solution that guaranteed
their succulent products would arrive in
perfect condition.
The Postal Service worked with the
company to create a customized Priority
Mail Flat Rate Box to Gramling’s specifications.
The customized box really helped seal
the deal. Gramling added a foam insert that
would protect the fruit during shipping.
“Because it’s flat rate we know exactly
what shipping will cost and there’s
no more damaged fruit,”
says Nix.
Priority Mail with customized
packaging — it’s a peach
of a deal! Chances are if you
have a product, USPS can
design a customized box for
it. Want to learn more about
how Postal Service customized
packaging can give your
business a fresh approach to
shipping? Send an e-mail to
packageservices@usps.com.
USPS EXPANDS MAIL-SORTING TECHNOLOGY TO IMPROVE SERVIE, REDUCE COSTS
Automation revolutionized the way
the Postal Service processed letter
mail. Delivery Point Sequencing
took it a step further — placing letter
mail in the order of delivery. Now, that
same kind of technology will be applied to
sorting flats — large envelopes, magazines,
catalogs and circulars.
Known as the Flats Sequencing System
(FSS) program, the initiative approved by
the Postal Service Board of Governors allows
the agency to move forward with plans
to employ sophisticated equipment to sort
flat-mail pieces for letter carriers, who now
must manually sequence this mail before
leaving the office for their routes.
“Using technology to sort flat mail into the
order of delivery for letter carriers will increase
efficiency in the office and allow carriers
to begin delivering to their customers
earlier in the day,” said Walt O’Tormey, vice
president of Engineering for the Postal Service.
“The Postal Service experienced significant benefits in
the 1990s by automating the processing and sequencing
of letter mail, and we hope to extend these improvements
to processing flats.”
The FSS equipment is designed to sequence flat mail at
a rate of approximately 16,500 pieces per hour. Scheduled
to operate 17 hours a day, each machine will be capable of
sequencing 280,500 pieces a day to more than 125,000
delivery addresses.
Phase I of the program calls for an initial order of 100
FSS machines to be deployed to 33 postal facilities beginning
in the summer of 2008.
A prototype FSS was installed last year at the Indianapolis,
IN, Mail Processing Annex, where it was tested sorting
mail in delivery sequence for carriers in that area. A fullsize
pre-production machine will be installed at the Dulles,
VA, mail processing facility, where it will operate six days a
week for one year (August 2007 to July 2008).
As this test proceeds, the Postal Service will study and
measure the system’s effect on downstream transportation,
logistics, work methods and other long lead-time activities
required to support deployment in 2008.
“Delivery remains our largest cost, accounting for 43
percent of all expenses,” said O’Tormey. “That, combined
with costs to serve almost 2 million new addresses each
year, means we must pursue every opportunity to improve
our efficiency and the service we provide to customers.”
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