CSR As A Business Opportunit. The BT Example. Adrian Hosford. BT.
CSR As A Business Opportunit. The BT Example. Adrian Hosford. BT.
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U.S. Congressman Steve King believes study will reveal Postal Service's flawed process
Congressman Steve King Monday urged the U.S. Postal Service to carefully consider a forthcoming study on the Area Mail Processing process.
The AMP process is used by the Postal Service to identify mail processing centers across the country, like the one in Sioux City, for possible consolidation, a press release issued by King explained.
King, the Postal Service, the Siouxland community and Iowa’s senators have been involved in a long process of review and discussion to clarify the question of whether to maintain or close the Sioux City center.
“Some believe that study after study equals action. Well, the Government Accountability Office spent the last year and half studying the Postal Service evaluation process and I expect that they’ll tell us exactly what we knew when all this started a year and a half ago. In their upcoming report, they will almost certainly tell us that the USPS process of evaluating its operations and finding opportunities for consolidation is flawed,” said King.
The GAO office, the investigative arm of Congress, is set to issue a report next month on the process used by the Postal Service to identify possible consolidation opportunities within its mail processing system. The potential departure of Sioux City’s mail processing center to Sioux Falls could increase costs for local businesses and cause delays to mail delivery throughout the Siouxland, the release issued by King stated.
Read MoreRegulator considers five-day post service
Royal Mail could be allowed to cut deliveries from six to five days a week following a review by the postal regulator into the need for a six-day service in a competitive mail market.
The state-owned postal operator was allowed to end second daily deliveries three years ago to help restore profitability.
Now Postcomm, as part of a sweeping review of the future of regulation, is considering reducing compulsory deliveries to every home and workplace to five days a week. The regulator is also sympathetic to a request from Royal Mail to limit this universal service obligation to stamped letters and packages.
Sarah Chambers, Postcomm chief executive, told a conference in London on Monday that the current rules provided more of a “Rolls-Royce” universal service than elsewhere in Europe, where five days a week was standard.
The requirement to deliver post to the front door was another Rolls-Royce aspect of the universal service obligation, she added. In other European countries, post was often put in mailboxes at the entrance to a property or block of flats.
At the annual postal service conference organised by the Institute of Economic Affairs, Ms Chambers said that insisting on a Saturday delivery could lead to higher prices for other services.
Business users warned Friday and Saturday deliveries were important for direct marketing.
Read MorePostal Reform – U.S. Postal Service's Delivery Point Validation (DPV)
As of Aug. 1, the U.S. Postal Service’s Delivery Point Validation (DPV) requirements will impact service providers’ mailing budgets. Under DPV standards, only exact addresses that can be confirmed as accurate will be assigned a ZIP + 4 code and thus be eligible for presort discounts.
DPV software will identify addresses that are invalid and undeliverable according to the USPS, assign them a regular five-digit ZIP code, and thus make them ineligible for discounts. This change to a more stringent set of rules will increase telecom service providers’ mailing expenses significantly if their mailing processes cannot conform to the DPV requirements. Using addresses the USPS deems invalid will also slow invoice delivery and payment.
Most telecom operators that invoice end-customers directly handle their invoice distribution in-house or choose to outsource it to a bill presentment provider. Regardless of how or where processing takes place, address matching software is critical for ensuring that address databases are accurate, to qualify mailings for maximum postage discounts. Today addresses must conform only to the USPS Coding Accuracy Support System (CASS) standards. Addresses that match the defined criteria receive ZIP + 4 codes that mark them as eligible for the maximum presort discount.
DPV will work similarly, but it is far more precise. Under the current CASS system, as long as an address falls within a valid address range, the mail piece will be deemed eligible for a presort discount. However, when the rules change to DPV on Aug. 1, the USPS will no longer accept addresses that merely fall within a valid range.
Read MoreDirect mail industry braced for postal chaos
The direct mail industry is expected to be hit by months of postal chaos following the Communications Workers Union’s decision to stage the first national strike in more than a decade.
Many of the UK’s top brands, including those operating in home shopping, financial services and charities, as well as heavyweight campaigns by TV rivals BSkyB and Virgin Media, are reliant on Royal Mail, not only for direct mail but also for transactional post.
The first day of action is planned for this Friday, and is expected to be followed by a strike next week and another on July 9.
Royal Mail has taken out press ads in several national newspapers to explain its position. The ad says: “A strike is the last thing we want. But the issue at the heart of this dispute is change. We believe that Royal Mail has no alternative but to change and modernise, which all our major rivals did years ago.”
The dispute centres around a 2.5% pay offer and plans by Royal Mail to modernise its network by bringing in more automated sorting equipment. This will result in the workforce being cut by 40,000. Workers voted 70% in favour of a strike.
It will also hit private operators – which have secured huge swathes of Royal Mail business since privatisation – as they rely on postal workers to deliver their mail for the so-called “final mile”. Both parties are due to restart talks.
Read MoreIsrael Post Company Postal Employees Strike
Severe postal service disruptions are expected as Israel Postal Company employees went on strike last Monday 25th.
There was no mail distribution in most areas of the country, and income tax, V.A.T., National Insurance Institute payments and other bills couldn’t be processed; as wells as vehicle ownership transfers and diplomatic post.
Reuven Karazi, chairman of the postal service’s national workers’ committee, said the workers are protesting the government’s refusal to delay opening the market to competition, scheduled for July 2.
Employees are asking that the company, currently a monopoly, be allowed flexibility in setting prices – such as reducing bulk mail rates – before free competition is allowed. Otherwise, the Israel Postal Company will be uncompetitive, and this will result in either layoffs or bankruptcy, Karazi said.
Read MoreEU accession boosts TNT Romania's profitability
Courier service provider TNT Romania, one of the leading players on the domestic market, saw a 37% profit increase against the same time in 2006. Company representatives did not, however, specify the value of the profit registered in the first five months of the year.
“This increase is due to us taking advantage of a potential generated on the one hand by the rise in post-accession trade, and by the increase in the number of transactions conducted between companies present on the Romanian market on the other, as a result of an investment programme we have been preparing over the last few years,” said Bogdan Zafiu, sales&marketing manager of TNT Romania.
Therefore, if the company’s growth rate is maintained until the end of the year, the company could reach a net profit of around 3.5 million euros, according to ZF estimates, with a turnover standing at almost 35 million euros.
Read MoreThe Future of UK Postal Services
Now in its sixth year, this conference is firmly established as one of the leading events in the postal calendar. And with Royal Mail’s modernisation programme, the new operators’ increasing market share, the expansion of end-to-end, and Postcomm’s Strategy Review on the agenda, this conference comes at a crucial stage in the development of the market. This event will bring together the leading players in the industry to debate these issues and determine the future of the UK postal services industry
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