PrintMEMO TO MAILERS - DECEMBER 2004 (text)
UNITED STATES POSTAL SERVICE
VOLUME 39 NUMBER 12
DECEMBER 2004
WHAT’S INSIDE
CLICK-N-SHIP
POSTALONE!
NATIONAL POSTAL FORUM
MAILING STANDARDS
POSTAL NEWS BRIEFS
BUILT FOR HOLIDAY CONVENIENCE
Build it — a better parcel just in time for the holiday mailing season — and customers will come to rely on the ease and convenience of using Priority Mail Flat Rate Boxes. With these new boxes, available at most Post Offices and online at USPS.com, customers are able to mail Priority Mail packages — regardless of weight or destination — for just $7.70 each.
This new Priority Mail option is available as a two-year test. The flat-rate boxes don’t have to be weighed and there are no zone chart and rate calculations required.
Customers can get the value of Priority Mail in two convenient shapes at one consistent price. “Services that are easy to access and simple to use provide real value for our customers,” says Stephen Kearney, vice president of Pricing and Classification for the Postal Service. “We look forward to testing the convenience of flat-rate pricing for Priority Mail packages, especially among small businesses and consumers.”
The Priority Mail Flat Rate Boxes are available in two shapes: 11-7/8 inches by 3-3/8 inches by 13-5/8 inches (ideal for garments, board games, books and other relatively thin items) and 11 inches by 8-1/2 inches by 5-1/2 inches (perfect for shoes, model cars and taller items).
Kearney says knowing the $7.70 price in advance should help customers ship packages quickly and easily, making the boxes very convenient for the holiday season.
Paying the flat-rate Priority Mail box postage also is simple and convenient. The price is $7.70 regardless of the weight or destination. For the ultimate convenience, customers can use Click-N-Ship, offered online though USPS.com, to print a shipping label and pay the $7.70 postage, and use Carrier Pickup Online Notification to let their Post Office know they have a package to be collected when their letter carrier delivers their mail the following day.
Customers also can use two $3.85 Jefferson Memorial stamps, a postage meter indicia or any combination of U.S. postage stamps.
“The new flat-rate box options for Priority Mail are as simple as 1-2-3,” says Kearney. “One consistent price, two conveniently sized boxes and three words that sum it all up — quick, easy, convenient.”
CLICK-N-SHIP OFFERS INSURANCE
Package insurance is available online for individuals and small businesses using the Postal Service’s premier shipping services at www.usps.com.Customers who use Click-N-Ship to buy postage also can purchase up to $200 worth of insurance online for domestic Express Mail and Priority Mail packages.
“The online insurance offering, in conjunction with Click-N-Ship and carrier pickup, responds to the ease-of-use demand of today’s consumers and small businesses who prefer to do business through the Internet,” says USPS Product Development Vice President Nick Barranca.
As an added value, all online insured Priority Mail pieces get free Delivery Confirmation service and the opportunity to confirm delivery on the Web. All in one barcode — no added labels, forms or stickers required.
USPS insurance purchased online works the same and costs the same as retail insurance. For insurance in excess of $200, customers still need to visit their local Post Office. Insurance purchased online cannot be combined with insurance purchased at a Post Office.
“Mailing packages insured online is a snap,” said Barranca. “Customers can request carrier pickup, take it to the local Post Office, drop it in a collection box, place it in a mailbox or hand it to a letter carrier. It’s that quick. It’s that easy. It’s that convenient.
USPS insurance also is available to eBay sellers through an offer on the eBay website as part of an integrated shipping solution.
MUSIC CITY HOSTS 2005 NATIONAL POSTAL FORUM - KICKOFF SUNDAY, MARCH 20
Make plans now to attend the 2005 National Postal Forum (NPF), the nation’s premier mailing industry event.
The Postal Forum — the only one to be held in 2005 — will run March 20–23 at Opryland, the world-renowned convention center and hotel complex in Nashville, TN — Music City USA.
“With the move of the annual Forum to a spring date, we’ve arrived at the place on the calendar that assures our ability to deliver a great event,” says Marty Emery, USPS manager of Customer and Industry Marketing, which is responsible for USPS involvement in the Forum.
The 2005 NPF will include an enhanced roster of symposiums, workshops and business tracks, as well as special events and speakers. A unique Postal Customer Council-sponsored event at Nashville’s famous Wild Horse Saloon is set. A prominent guest speaker will anchor a general session luncheon and top-flight country music entertainment will highlight the closing event.
The 2004 Postal Forum, held last September in Washington, DC, attracted the largest number of participants in years, demonstrating that there is value in the mail. More than 6,300 people attended the four-day conference, which featured over 100 workshops, five full-day symposiums, an enhanced exhibit hall experience and a special luncheon with guest speaker Tim Russert of NBC’s “Meet the Press.”
“We’ll build on the tremendous success in Washington,” says Emery, “and make the Nashville event even more relevant and valuable to our customers and industry colleagues.”
Online registration is available at the NPF website, www.npf.org.
DISCOVER THE BENEFITS OF POSTALONE!
Moving the mail quickly and efficiently is important to all USPS customers. For the Postal Service’s largest business customers, who handle hundreds of thousands of pieces of mail every day, the PostalOne! Transportation Management system is helping to improve the speed, accuracy and consistency of mail delivery.
PostalOne! is a Web-based system that offers an electronic suite of services that link a customer’s mailing information electronically with USPS acceptance, verification and payment systems. One of these services is the PostalOne! Transportation Management system, which provides direct routing of mail using the best available surface or air transportation. It scans mailing labels, records weight and links to the USPS transportation management system.
“Life is easier,” says Yvonne Grant, manager of Discover Financial Service’s Print and Mail Department at its Utah processing center, which relies on its PostalOne! Transportation Management system to make sure customers get their statements quickly. “We still remember the difficult days when we were using a manual system for strapping our trays of mail, weighing them, scanning for destinations, applying destination and routing tags, and manually separating for airline or surface transportation routes.
“With over 3,000 trays per day, and each tray being handled an average of 10 times before it was ready for the Postal Service, it was a daunting, time-consuming and costly way to manage this process,” she says.
Four years ago, Discover Financial Services began using the PostalOne! Transportation Management system. “Coordinating the setup of the system was fairly easy, the transition from manual to automated a breeze, and the learning curve for operating the system and working with the software, a piece of cake,” says Grant. “Right away our efficiency increased by more than 60 percent, greatly decreasing work-hours and associated costs.”
Since then, says Grant, the Postal Service has upgraded the system to read and sort air and surface destination routing labels, and provide information on how to pull productivity or tray destination information. The company separates high-volume airline and surface transportation routes for faster handling through USPS system. The Postal Service picks up the mail and takes it directly to the airport or the auxiliary service facility for expedited handling.
“As a financial institution, we realize the importance and cost advantage of getting customer statements into our customer’s hands as quickly as possible,” says Grant. “Our partnership with the Postal Service, and our PostalOne! Transportation Management system, helps us do just that.”
CARRIER PICKUP: WATCH YOUR BUSINESS GROW
There really is no place like home to build a business, thanks to an assist from Carrier Pickup Online Notification from the United States Postal Service.
“The convenience of carrier pickup is a blessing,” says Kelly Niemi, owner of Decorating Diva’s Domain, which she operates out of her home in De Kalb, IL. “You guys have really saved me and I am sure a lot of other people. I heard about carrier pickup at my local Post Office where I was making a trip every day, and then I looked into it on the Internet.”
Niemi, who sells home décor items on eBay, says her business has doubled because of carrier pickup. “Now I have more time to take pictures and grow my business,” she says. “You have to have time to make money.”
Give carrier pickup a try. Go to www.usps.com/shipping/carrierpickup.
FYI
Does your business have an innovative proposal, process or business solution that can generate revenue or enhance existing postal products and services? If so, the Postal Service has just released a new Web-based form on USPS.com that will make it easier for you to share your innovation with the Postal Service. The new form is fully compatible with Microsoft applications so you can attach documents that will help us evaluate your innovation. You also can monitor the progress of the review online!
To submit a business proposal visit Innovations@usps at www.usps.com/innovations.
MAILING STANDARDS: CONSISTENCY FIRST
The U.S. Postal Service is committed to providing customers with consistent application and interpretation of mailing standards. USPS is building on this commitment by creating a new business model for classification, improving customer communications and initiating changes in certain mailing standards.
As part of this effort, the Postal Service published a final rule Oct. 27 in the Federal Register clarifying the circumstances when mail containing personal information may be eligible for Standard Mail rather than First-Class Mail rates.
“Technology has allowed advertisers to customize marketing messages with personal information,” says Stephen Kearney, vice president of USPS Pricing and Classification. “These pieces have traditionally been sent as Standard Mail and we fully support customization which enhances this postal product. However, we also are mindful that, under the former rule, mail properly entered as First-Class Mail may have been accepted at Standard Mail rates.
”The rule, which will take effect June 1, 2005, establishes a “bright line” for determining which mail containing personal information may be eligible for Standard Mail rates: “The exclusive reason for inclusion of all of the personal information is to support the advertising or solicitation in the mailpiece.”
Kearney said the Postal Service has recognized the benefits of customizing Standard Mail since the 1980s, and the rule is meant to ease efforts to classify mail for both postal customers and postal employees.
Another step in this effort is the adoption of a new business model. The Postal Service has established a new facility — the Pricing and Classification Service Center (PCSC) — in New York City to consolidate in one location the functions performed by the Rates and Classification Service Centers and the Nonprofit Service Center. The PCSC also will provide customers additional services not currently offered at the former facilities, including single points of contact and pre-production/pre-mailing rulings on mailpieces.
These changes will allow more consistent application of standards, improve customer relations and streamline operations.
“We’re committed to consistency in applying our standards,” says Kearney. “We look forward to working with all customers on their mailpieces.”
An important tool both for mailers and postal employees will be a new version of the Domestic Mail Manual (DMM) in which mailing standards will be organized around shape and class of mail.
The first two efforts in the project to redesign the DMM already have been released — A Customer's Guide to Mailing, DMM 100, and A Guide to Mailing for Businesses and Organizations, DMM 200. They can be found on USPS.com.
THE PROOF IS IN THE RESPONSE
A focus group is useful for gauging the effectiveness of Direct Mail advertising, but what if you could monitor the response from customers as your campaign happens? With CONFIRM service from the U.S. Postal Service, you know — with a high level of certainty — when an advertisement has been delivered, and you can determine not just whether the offer produces a response but how quickly the response arrives.
“CONFIRM service is a wonderful tool,” says Martin Bernstein, postal affairs manager for J.C. Penney Co. “CONFIRM technology tells us when our customers receive our offers. That may sound like a small thing, but when you mail more than a billion pieces a year, it is critical to know that they received the piece, and when it arrived.”
Retailers can use the data delivered by CONFIRM to evaluate the habits of customers and manage operations effectively. “For the first time, we know when our customers receive our advertisements, how long it takes them to come into the store, which offers and presentations work best and when to activate supplemental marketing activities,” says Bernstein.
CONFIRM subscribers apply a unique PLANET Code to each mailpiece, along with the POSTNET Code already in the address block, to uniquely identify each letter or flat. USPS state-of-the-art high-speed equipment scans each piece during processing. CONFIRM service technology collects location-specific data, allowing subscribers to track their promotions through the mailstream — each solicitation en route to the consumer and each new order mailed back.
Businesses have known for decades that Direct Mail is the most cost-effective advertising medium for reaching out to new customers. CONFIRM service makes the best value in advertising even better.
For more information on CONFIRM, visit mailtracking.usps.com.
CONFIRM service was awarded a prestigious GATF 2004 InterTech Technology Award. The awards program is sponsored by the Printing Industries of America and the Graphic Arts Technical Foundation. CONFIRM service “is a huge benefit for the direct marketing industry,” commented one judge.
INFO@USPS
SMALL BUSINESS TOOLS
Get new customers. Meet customer demands. Around town or around the world.
www.usps.com
SIMPLE FORMULAS
Use the mail to grow your business. Order a Simple Formulas kit.
800-THE-USPS, ext. AD4433
SEND MAIL FROM YOUR PC
Send postcards, letters, flyers, booklets or greeting cards.
www.usps.com/netpost
THE POSTAL STORE ONLINE
Open 24/7.
Stamps. Subscription services. Digital scales.
www.usps.com/shop
SHIPPING INFORMATION
Express Mail, Priority Mail and package support line.
800-222-1811
PRINT POSTAGE ONLINE
Your shipping label is just a Click-N-Ship away.
www.usps.com/clicknship
CARRIER PICKUP
From your home or office.
www.usps.com/pickup
QUESTIONS?
We have the answers. Rates and mailing information. ZIP Codes. Post Office location. Much, much more.
800-ASK-USPS
POSTAL NEW BRIEFS
HELP FOR THE HOLIDAYS
Did you get your copy? The Postal Service delivered its Shipping & Mailing Holiday Guide to every household in the United States.
“The Postal Service believes in the power of the mail,” said U.S. Postal Service Chief Marketing Officer Anita Bizzotto, “and we know that customers want more choice and convenience to manage their busy lives. We placed a wealth of time-saving ideas and services into the largest customer mailing we have ever done so that our customers can enjoy the most productive and trouble-free holiday season ever.”
The guide also is available at www.usps.com.
HIGH STANDARDS FOR PRIVACY
The U.S. Postal Service has been honored with the 2004 HP/IAPP Privacy Innovation Award. Created by Hewlett Packard and the International Association of Privacy Professionals, the honor goes annually to commercial and government organizations that set the standard of excellence in the development and advocacy of technologies and techniques for the protection of personal data.
“This award recognizes our continuous hard work in establishing a trusted policy that protects the privacy and security of postal products and services,” said USPS Chief Privacy Officer Zoe Strickland.
“The Postal Service’s integration of privacy protection as a primary business driver demonstrates that government agencies can — and indeed should — conduct business effectively while maintaining respect for constituent privacy,” said Trevor Hughes, executive director of the IAPP
For more information on the IAPP or the Postal Service’s Privacy Office, go to www.privacyassociation.com and www.usps.com/privacyoffice.
POSTAL SERVICE, DISCOVER AGREEMENT
The U.S. Postal Service has entered into a Negotiated Service Agreement (NSA) with Discover Financial Services, Inc., that encourages more use of the mail and provides benefits for both organizations.
“Adopting this NSA with Discover is another example of the Postal Service’s continuing effort to meet our customers’ needs by tailoring products and prices,” says Stephen Kearney, vice president of USPS Pricing and Classification. “And we expect this agreement to be mutually beneficial.”
Under the terms of the NSA, which was approved by the Governors of the Postal Service, Discover will earn lower rates for First-Class Mail volume in excess of 405 million pieces in the first year of the agreement. In exchange, Discover will accept information electronically from the Postal Service about undeliverable-as-addressed First-Class Mail in lieu of receiving the actual mail. This will result in significant cost savings for the Postal Service.
The Postal Service–Discover NSA is functionally equivalent to the groundbreaking NSA with Capital One Financial Services implemented last year.
GSA'S FIRST FEDERAL MAIL SYMPOSIUM
The U.S. General Services Administration has announced its first Federal Mail Symposium. It’s geared to federal mail professionals who manage mail operations, establish mail management policy and process mail in federal mail centers. It’s also is directed at federal executives whose responsibilities include mail, freight, transportation and printing.
The symposium will be held Feb. 8-10 in Washington, DC. For more information, go to www.gsa.gov/mailpolicy or http://federalmailsymposium.org, or send an e-mail to federal.mail@gsa.gov.
_____________________________________
MEMO TO MAILERS
Volume 39 Number 12
Ilze Sella
Editorial Services
Frank Papandrea
Art Director
David Ostroff
Designer
Betty Shelton
Purchasing Specialist
Azeezaly S. Jaffer
Vice President, Public Affairs and Communications
John E. Potter
Postmaster General and CEO
Memo to Mailers
is published by U.S. Postal Service
Public Affairs and Communications.
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United States Postal Service.
© 1966 United States Postal Service. The following are among the many trademarks owned by the United States Postal Service: USPS®, U.S. Postal Service®, United States Postal Service®, Postal Service™, Post Office™, Priority Mail®, Express Mail®, Standard Mail™, First-Class Mail®, Registered Mail™, Certified Mail™, Delivery Confirmation™, Signature Confirmation™, ZIP Code™, Click-N-Ship®, NetPost® and The Postal Store®. This list is not a comprehensive list of all Postal Service marks.
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