Tag: North America

USPS direct mail site to focus on small businesses

Posted by | May 22, 2008 | |

The US Postal Service plans to redesign its direct mail Web site to make it more relevant to small business owners.

According to research by ComScore, 84 pct of the visitors to the direct mail site are businesses, and 59 pct of those visitors are small businesses with 10 or fewer employees, said Carlton Shufflebarger, manager of direct mail for the USPS, at a workshop at the National Postal Forum in Anaheim, CA, today.

Small businesses visiting the site are looking for rate information, advice on planning direct mail campaigns and tips for creating mailpieces, Shufflebarger said.

To better address those needs, he said the site will be re-designed and re-organized. The USPS also plans to add direct mail “success stories” featuring small business owners, he said.

Most large businesses tend to utilize advertising agencies or other direct marketing service companies for this information, Shufflebarger added.

The direct mail Web site also provides links to Click2Mail, PremiumPostcard and CardStore. These three online services — which are independent companies partnered with the USPS — can assist businesses with their direct mail campaigns.

Users of these sites can upload their own address lists, select the format of mail they want to send and customize their mail pieces with copy, photos and/or logos. By using one of these three online services, small businesses can qualify for automation rates without paying Standard Mail fees, said Debbie A. Miller, online solutions specialist for the USPS.

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USPS asking homeowners to inspect mailboxes

Posted by | May 21, 2008 | |

Mailbox Improvement Week is here in time for spring cleaning and the U.S. Postal Service wants all homeowners to add “mailbox” on the to-do list.

The U.S. Postal Service is asking all Lockport homeowners to inspect and repair their mailboxes during Mailbox Improvement Week, June 1 to 7.

“Repairing suburban and rural mailboxes improves the appearance of our community and makes delivering and receiving mail safer for our carriers and customers,” said Lockport Postmaster Roselle Murrell. “The Postal Service makes this annual request because of the wear and tear that occurs to mailboxes every year, especially during the winter. Inclement weather and snow plowing usually takes a toll on the mailbox.”

Some of the typical activities that may need to be done to post and house-mounted boxes include: Replacing loose hinges on a mailbox door, repainting a mailbox that may have rusted or started peeling, remounting a mailbox post if loosened or replacing or adding house numbers.

“If a homeowner plans to install a new mailbox or replace a worn one, he or she must use only Postal Service-approved traditional, contemporary, or locking full and limited service mailboxes,” Murrell said. “Customers should be careful when purchasing curbside mail receptacles because the use of unapproved boxes is prohibited. Customers may use a custom built mailbox, but they must consult with my office to ensure it conforms to guidelines applying to flag, size, strength, and quality of construction.”

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Stamps.com gets USPS extension

Posted by | May 21, 2008 | |

Los Angeles-based Stamps.com, a provider of PC postage products and customized photo postage, said today that it has received an extension to offer its popular PhotoStamps product through May 16, 2009. The firm’s product allows consumers to upload any digital photograph or use a licensed image on their own, custom postage. According to Stamps.com, the extension is to the fourth phase of a market test for the postage, which is being offered with permission of the U.S. Postal Service in a pilot program. The company said that it has now sold more than 58 million of its PhotoStamps.

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US Postal Service begins e-waste recycling program

Posted by | May 21, 2008 | |

In an effort to improve electronics recycling in the United States, the US Postal Service is developing a free national collection program for small electronic items.

The program, now in a pilot stage, provides courtesy envelopes with pre-paid postage for patrons to deposit their unwanted digital cameras, printer cartridges, MP3 players, cell phones, and PDAs. International recycling company Clover Technologies Group processes the devices in its U.S. and Mexican facilities and then refurbishes and resells them if possible.

Now limited to select cities, including Chicago and Los Angeles, the program may expand nationwide in the fall, and it eventually may accept a wider range of devices. ‘It doesn’t cost us anything because [Clover] is paying for postage on the envelope,’ said Joanne Veto, a post office spokesperson. ‘For us, it’s a really smart thing to do.’

The program would be a de facto national electronic recycling program, the first for the United States. As the only industrialized nation not to ratify the 1989 Basel Convention, which requires its signatories to notify developing nations of incoming hazardous waste shipments, many environmentalists have criticized the country for its lack of action to reduce the international spread of electronic garbage, known as e-waste.

Americans discard at least 2 million tons of household electronics each year, according to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency. Less than 20 percent of that e-waste is recycled, although state-led initiatives are beginning to improve this recycling rate. Once recycled, however, e-waste is frequently sold to brokers who ship it to the developing world, where it is often dismantled with little regard for worker safety, then burned in the open air or dumped into bodies of water.

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UPS to lay off staff and restructure in Spain

Posted by | May 20, 2008 | |

UPS is planning to restructure its operations in Spain affecting 230 employees. UPS Spain has 1,300 employees, with the main outcome expected to be the closure of its Vallecas storage centre in Madrid, according to the Spanish newspaper Expansión.

UPS made a net loss of EUR 890,000 on turnover of EUR 169 million in Spain last year, the business newspaper wrote.

The restructuring aims at bringing UPS’ operations across several sites on to its installations in the district of Coslada in Madrid, which has recently been expanded.

The Vallecas storage center to be closed down has a workforce of around 180. In view of the expected layoffs, UPS Spain offered union representatives negotiations on the issues of early retirement and transfer to the facility in Coslada.

In total, UPS’ Spanish network has 140 customer service centres, 19 distribution centres, five logistics centres and 700 vehicles, according to the newspaper.

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