Tag: USA

U.S. Postal Service expects deficit this year

Posted by | Apr 17, 2007 | |

Even with postage rates going up, the Postal Service expects a deficit this year as struggles with a swiftly changing communications market, Postmaster General John Potter said Tuesday.

“The dynamics of the 21st century communications market have altered – forever – the basic assumptions of postal economics,” Potter said in remarks prepared for the House Oversight and Government Reform postal subcommittee.

The rapid growth of electronics communications have resulted in declines in lucrative first-class mail, though lower-cost advertising mail continues to increase.

In addition, private companies have taken a growing share of the package and rapid delivery market.

“Competition exists for every piece of mail that we move through our system,” Potter said.

In 1970, Potter pointed out, the U.S. Postal Service’s 741,000 employees delivered 85 billion pieces of mail . Last year, with about same number of workers, the agency delivered 213 billion pieces of mail.

But, he said, “We can no longer depend on volume growing at a rate necessary to produce the revenue required to cover the costs of an ever-expanding delivery infrastructure.”

Potter said the agency is exploring expanded use of contract services to move mail and is looking for other ways to reduce costs.

This fiscal year the agency is facing a projected loss of USD 5.2 billion, Potter said, much of which results from a new requirement for advance funding of health benefits.

Postal rates go up May 14, with the price of a first-class stamp rising 2 cents to 41 cents.

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Shea to Lead Washington Office for Pitney Bowes

Posted by | Apr 16, 2007 | |

Pitney Bowes Inc. has appointed Dennis Shea to lead the company’s lobbying efforts in Washington. Shea succeeds David Nassef, who is returning to Connecticut after ten years in Washington to support Chairman and CEO Michael Critelli in a wide range of assignments.

In addition to leading the company’s efforts at the federal level, Shea also will be responsible for Pitney Bowes’ government relations activities in Canada and Latin America. Shea’s role complements the work of the Pitney Bowes postal relations team, which is also based in Washington.

Shea’s appointment comes just four months after President Bush signed a comprehensive postal reform bill into law, the culmination of a legislative effort in which Pitney Bowes had been involved for many years. Shea is already well versed in the mailing industry, having served in 2003 as executive director of the bipartisan President’s Commission on the U.S. Postal Service, co-chaired by James A. Johnson and Harry Pearce. The commission played a pivotal role in accelerating momentum toward enactment of postal reform.

As executive director of the President’s Commission on the U.S. Postal Service, Shea oversaw the creation of “Embracing the Future,” the commission’s comprehensive report outlining more than thirty specific recommendations to ensure the long-term survival of the Postal Service. Many of these recommendations found their way into the subsequent debate over postal reform, which culminated in legislation that passed both houses of Congress by overwhelming bipartisan majorities.

Shea came to Washington DC upon graduation from Harvard Law School in 1986 and has served in a number of policy, political and lobbying roles since then.

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First American launches ParcelPoint to increase accuracy of addresses for geo-applications

Posted by | Apr 16, 2007 | |

The First American Corporation announced the release of ParcelPoint™. This database offers a new level of accuracy in matching addresses with their exact geographical position on the map. ParcelPoint technology, which relies on real property latitude and longitude coordinates, combines the company’s extensive parcel and address information database with its proprietary analytical models to render accurate location identification.

Today’s navigation and location solutions typically use address ranges rather than specific property data to identify properties. These solutions develop an “intelligent guess” about where a street address may be, based on the assumption that properties are evenly spaced and use conventional numbering systems. However, when streets use unconventional numbering, aren’t evenly spaced, or contain empty lots, current geographic location systems may yield inaccurate results. This is for example the case at our office. The location displayed on the map, on Google Maps or Mapquest (both powered by Navteq) is about 4 houses away from where we really are… and it is exactly the same with a GPS navigation system powered by TeleAtlas.

First American is ready to provide partners access to its current data set which will achieve coverage for the majority of the United States population by the end of 2007, with a goal of having 80 percent of the nation’s parcels mapped by the end of 2008.

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eBay sellers concerned over shipping rate changes

Posted by | Apr 15, 2007 | |

Seventy-seven percent of eBay and online sellers are concerned about higher shipping costs when new USPS rates go into effect in May, and 26 percent are concerned that postal tools they use may not be ready when the changes go into effect, according to a recent AuctionBytes survey.

Most respondents reported they sell on eBay (98 percent); 21 percent sell on Amazon, 17 percent sell on Half.com, and 23 percent sell on their own ecommerce site or storefront. Other sites included Yahoo, other online auction sites, bookselling sites, classified sites, online antiques malls, and other.

Eighty-four percent of survey respondents were aware that US postal rates were changing on May 14th. The majority of respondents (68 percent) said the changes would have a net increase on their total postal costs, and 20 percent did not know how the new rates would affect their total postal costs. Ten percent said the new rates would not have an effect on their total postal costs, and 3 percent said the new rates would have a net decrease on their total postal costs.

In a question about which postal tools they used, 73 percent of respondents said they use eBay/PayPal postal tools; 18 percent use Endicia; 7 percent use Stamps.com; 5 percent use features provided by auction-management vendors; 4 percent use Pitney Bowes; 2 percent use Dymo; and 20 percent use other tools.

Half of the respondents (51 percent) use automated tools to help shoppers calculate postage costs on their items, but 55 percent did not know if those tools would calculate the new rates when they go into effect; 35 percent said the tools would calculate the new postal rates, and 10 percent said they would not.

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Small financial services using e-mail to compete: Mintel survey

Posted by | Apr 14, 2007 | |

Many large financial services firms are experimenting with a blend of direct mail and e-mail marketing to communicate with their current customers and merchandise their new products and services. In contrast, many smaller financial services have turned to e-mail to attract new customers with acquisition offers.

According to Mintel Comperemedia, a competitive intelligence service in Chicago that analyzes direct mail, e-mail marketing and print media, several smaller companies are emerging as more frequently tracked entities in the e-mail marketing arena.

“E-mail marketing has been able to serve as a more affordable option for smaller, lesser-know companies that need to reach new consumers,” said Carmen Curran, analyst for Mintel Comperemedia, in a statement. “Major financial services companies continue to take advantage of e-mail as well, but they have stronger resources to market through direct mail and other key channels. They are also concentrating more on marketing to current customers through e-mail rather than acquiring new ones.”

Mintel Comperemedia said that as the e-mail sector evolves, companies such as Metabank in the banking sector and First Premier Bank in the credit card sector have been identified as key players, flooding consumer mailboxes with acquisition offers and promotions. However, on the direct mail front, these companies are distributing a significantly lower share of offers than their larger competitors.

As reported March 13 on DMNews.com [http://www.dmnews.com/cms/dm-news/direct-mail/40362.html] in the direct mail category, the top 2006 overall mailers for acquisition financial services direct mail pieces were Chase (1.7 billion), Capital One (1.2 billion), American Express (1 billion), Citibank (980 million), and Bank of America (920 million). While many smaller companies turn acquisition efforts to e-mail marketing, larger companies are opting for e-mail marketing to cross-sell their products and communicate with their customers about their services.

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