Tag: North America

USPS' repositionable notes may become permanent offering

Posted by | Mar 5, 2008 | |

Repositionable notes — colloquially known as sticky notes — may soon become a permanent US Postal Service offering, if approved by the Postal Regulatory Commission.

The USPS filed notice with the commission on February 27 requesting that the notes be made permanent. The commission has 15 days to respond, according to Carlton Shufflebarger, manager of direct mail for the USPS.

The notes are useful for advertisers who want to get their message across through the mail, because people can peel the three- by three-inch notes off mail pieces and stick it somewhere else, giving the message a life beyond the mailpiece, Shufflebarger said.

The USPS first introduced repositionable notes in April 2005 as a one-year experiment, which was renewed several times. The USPS’ board of governors recently voted and agreed that it should be made a permanent service, Shufflebarger said.

The commission is accepting comments on whether the proposed offering is consistent with the Postal Accountability and Enhancement Act of 2006. Comments are due to the commission by March 13.

Repositionable notes can be placed on the outside of First-Class mail, catalogs, magazines and newspapers. Since the program started in 2005, the notes have been used on 306 million pieces of mail, Shufflebarger said.

In addition to the cost of postage, the current price points for the notes are a half-cent per piece for First-Class Mail and 1.5 cents per piece for periodicals and Standard Mail, according to the USPS.

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MoneyGram Offers Services in 2,800 Advance America Locations

Posted by | Mar 5, 2008 | |

MoneyGram International, Inc., announced today the completion of the rollout of three new services in over 2,800 Advance America locations across the United States. The addition of MoneyGram’s money transfer, money order and ExpressPayment bill payment services broadens the range of financial services available at Advance America.

“The addition of Advance America’s 2,800 locations to our network makes MoneyGram services more convenient in many neighborhoods and communities and gives them more choices for their money transfer, bill payment and money order services,” said Dan O’Malley, senior vice president and president of the Americas for MoneyGram. “We believe MoneyGram gives them the right choice for value.”

“The MoneyGram products complement our product diversification strategy,” said Ken Compton, chief executive officer at Advance America. “We are always looking for ways to better meet the needs of our customers, and MoneyGram will help us do that.”

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DHL Restructuring – Wheels in Motion But Likely to Take Some Time

Posted by | Mar 5, 2008 | |

RESTRUCTURING IN THE U.S. Following the recent USD 784M write down related to its Americas Express business, 600 recently announced layoffs in the U.S., and change in DPWN’s CEO, several European and U.S. newspapers have reported that DHL could announce either the sale or restructuring of its U.S. business at its parent DPWN’s analysts meeting in Bonn on March 6th.

BACKGROUND ON DHL’S PROBLEMS IN THE U.S. DHL bought Airborne in late 2003 and over the next few years merged its existing U.S. import/export business in with Airborne’s predominantly domestic express business. However, DP has never been able to realize its expected cost synergies and has reported an estimated USD 2.8B in losses in North America over the past 4 years.

WHAT ARE DHL’S OPTIONS? For anti-trust reasons we don’t believe that either UPS or FDX could buy DHL’s N.A. assets or complete book of business. More likely DHL will seek to further stem losses by reducing its commitment in the U.S. through cost reductions/restructuring and partnerships (outsourcing some line-haul and P&D), while making it clear they intend to remain in the U.S. Look for it to reduce terminals and push more freight towards the ground.

WHAT IS THE TIMING? DHL is in a tough position because if customers believe there is even a chance it will exit the U.S., DHL’s competitive position will be compromised. Thus action needs to be swift, but DPWN tends to be contemplative and current Teamster issues likely prevent a major restructuring before April or May. At this point we expect modest restructuring efforts to be announced on March 6th with a clear indication of remaining in the U.S. and more restructuring to come.

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InfoPrint enables transactional mailers to implement USPS Intelligent Mail Barcode (U.S)

Posted by | Mar 4, 2008 | |

InfoPrint Solutions Company, a joint venture between IBM and Ricoh announced a new solution that will enable large mailers to continue to receive postal discounts on automated mailings by replacing current Postnet barcodes with the new Intelligent Mail Barcode (IMB). This is a mailing solution that allows transactional mailers to make these barcode replacements without changing their base applications or over spraying finished envelopes to continue to benefit from the automated discounts from the United States Postal Service (USPS).

IMB is being introduced to improve mail tracking and give mailers continuous updates on the location and status of each mailpiece. This tracking system not only applies during the delivery process to the customer, but also responds with initial entry data if a return service is requested.

Large mailers, including financial, healthcare, telecommunications and insurance companies, currently receive a discount on each automated mailpiece sent ranging from USD 0.03 to USD 0.23. Without upgrading to support IMB by the time specified by the USPS, these companies will no longer be eligible to receive their postage discounts, which could exceed USD 1M per month for many large companies. The date currently proposed for the upgrade to IMB to be implemented is May 2009, concurrent with the next annual USPS price change. This will include separate prices for the full-service and basic option and the Postnet Barcode will remain eligible for an automation price until May 2010.

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USPS pushes back Intelligent Mail barcode implementation (U.S)

Posted by | Mar 3, 2008 | |

Postmaster General John Potter announced today that the US Postal Service will push back the date of implementation for the Intelligent Mail barcode from January 2009 to May 2009.

In an advisory notice, Potter wrote that the decision to change the date was in response to public feedback. “Many of you told us that January 2009 was too soon,” he wrote. “We will propose a May 2009 implementation, concurrent with our next annual price change.”

In March, the USPS will host four symposiums on Intelligent Mail in Las Vegas, Chicago, New York and Atlanta. Intelligent Mail will also be a topic of discussion at the upcoming National Postal Forum in May and at the National Postal Customer Council Day in September, Day added.

The USPS first started seeking feedback on proposed rules related to the use of the Intelligent Mail barcode in December. At that time, the USPS said that mailers would have to use one of two proposed Intelligent Mail options in order to qualify for automation prices for letters and flats after January 2009.

However, in today’s notice, Potter said that the Postnet barcode will remain eligible for automation prices until May 2010. “Those prices will be announced with the May 2009 change,” he wrote.

Potter said that the USPS plans to publish its proposed rulemaking on the Intelligent Mail barcode in the Federal Register next month. The new proposal will include new options for mail owner identification. He said that the USPS is also eliminating the requirement for green color bars on the container label, a concern that was also brought up at the Mailers’ Technical Advisory Committee meeting in January.

Potter also said that the new May 2009 implementation of the Intelligent Mail barcode will include separate prices for the full-service and basic options.

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