Tag: USA

USPS releases final address standards for commercial flat-sized mail

Posted by | May 9, 2008 | |

The USPS has published its final rule for new address standards for commercial flat-sized mail in the Federal Register.

The new standards, published May 7 and set to go into effect March 29, 2009, will require mailers to adopt new address placement and formatting requirements for periodicals, Standard Mail, bound printed matter, Media Mail and library mail flat-sized pieces sent at automation, presorted or carrier route prices, the USPS said. The standards also include similar revisions for automation and pre-sorted First-Class Mail flats.

According to the new standards, mailers will need to place delivery addresses within the top half of their mailpieces. Mailers will also need to address presorted, carrier route and automation flat-sized mail pieces using a minimum of eight-point type. Or, if the piece has a Postnet or Intelligent Mail barcode on it, a minimum of six-point type in all capital letters will be required.

In the notice, the USPS said it will publish a quick service guide and other additional materials to help mailers prepare for the change.

The new address standards will assist the USPS in its implementation of its new Flats Sequencing System (FSS), which will sort flat-sized mail into delivery sequence, thereby reducing carriers’ time spent manually sorting mail.

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Deals with mass-mailers, labor unions hurt customers

Posted by | May 9, 2008 | |

On Monday [May 12], the price of a first-class stamp will rise by a penny. With gas now costing nearly four bucks a gallon, a 42-cent stamp may not sound like much. But while stamp prices climb, the Postal Service keeps offering sweetheart deals to bulk mailers and the postal labor unions.

Ordinary consumers ought to ask why the Postal Service is delivering for everyone but them.

In the last decade, stamp prices have gone up 31 percent. Following sweeping congressional reforms in 2006, the Postal Service hinted at annual rate increases. With Monday’s increase — the second in as many years — the Postal Service seems to have settled on raising prices each year in mid-May.

At the same time, the Postal Service has taken to offering discounts to big mailers based on how much mail they send. When done right, such agreements can save both the Postal Service and the mailer money. But in several previous agreements, the Postal Service has either granted a discount for mail that would have been sent anyway or granted discounts deemed excessive by regulators.

In 2006, the Postal Service’s regulator issued a decision on an agreement with Bank One. The report wondered whether discounts were necessary in light of expert analysis revealing “tremendous growth in the amount of direct mail solicitation undertaken by the credit card industry.”

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UPS board declares dividend

Posted by | May 8, 2008 | |

The UPS Board of Directors today declared a regular quarterly dividend of USD 0.45 per share on all outstanding Class A and Class B shares.

The dividend is payable June 3, 2008, to shareholders of record on May 19, 2008. UPS has either increased or maintained its dividend every year for more than three decades.

The newly elected Board, in setting its structure for the year, changed the composition of its Nominating and Corporate Governance Committee. That committee will include independent directors Duane Ackerman, Ann Livermore and Stuart Eizenstat and will be chaired by Ackerman.

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Best Buy enters Europe with Carphone retail deal

Posted by | May 8, 2008 | |

Best Buy, the world’s biggest electronics retailer, is to pay USD 2.1 billion for half of Britain’s Carphone Warehouse chain to take on the European consumer electricals market.

The deal creates a joint venture business that will compete with DSG International, formerly called Dixons, and Kesa which owns the French group Darty.

Carphone and Best Buy estimate the size of the European market for consumer electronics to be around 89 billion pounds (USD 174 billion).

The pair said the 50-50 owned company would target a growing appetite for consumer electronics, but analysts said the pair are entering a tough market where the incumbents are struggling.

Europe’s biggest independent mobile phone retailer Carphone’s existing 2,400 stores will continue to operate under the Carphone Warehouse and Phone House brands in its nine European markets, and from 2009 the new company will roll out larger stores under the Best Buy name.

Analysts said Best Buy would bring its understanding of the consumer electronics market to Europe, a region it has long wanted to enter, but cautioned that it could take some time to roll out the stores and secure a strong presence.

Best Buy sells consumer electronics, home-office products and entertainment software in the United States, Canada and China. The new company will open Best Buy stores in Britain and other European countries but officials of both companies would not be drawn on numbers.

Best Buy said the venture was expected to be funded through a combination of cash on hand, existing bank lines and other borrowing. It also said it now did not expect to repurchase shares under its existing repurchase program in fiscal 2009.

Best Buy said it expected the deal to add around USD 5 billion to fiscal 2009 revenue. Its 2008 sales are forecast at around USD 43 billion.

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Mail volume decline at Royal Mail could get worse (UK)

Posted by | May 8, 2008 | |

Falling mail volume has been blamed for a USD 707m loss in the States by US postal service, the American postal operator, and a similar problem is likely to affect mail volume at Royal Mail this year.

Increased fuel prices, a drop in bulk mail from housing and credit markets have all added to US postal serviceSlosses during its fiscal second quarter, despite cost-cutting measures and efficiency improvements.

Mail volume is decreasing year on year for many postal operators but the present ‘credit crunch’ is likely to hit postal operators across Europe particularly hard as advertisers cut back on expensive mailshots in what is becoming a tough time for economies.

The UK has reported a slow-down in the market for detached homes in the GBP 500,000+ bracket and with new mortgages more difficult to obtain, expenditure on mail-outs in the sector is likely to fall but credit houses which make up a large percentage of bulk and junk mail will see far greater decline.

A rapid drop in mail volume would be bad news for Royal Mail which is already experiencing an annual decline in mail volume of around 2 pct as well as trying to clear the GBP 3.4bn pension deficit over some 17 years. Profits fell by a third last year to GBP 223m through the cost of strike action and contracts lost to competitors.

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