Tag: USA

UPS system delivers savings

Posted by | Dec 11, 2006 | |

UPS has spent USD600 million to automate package sorting and cut time, miles and cost. For drivers, it’s a real help.

When Rick Schetinski starts his United Parcel Service truck each morning, he no longer worries about overlooking packages during a rapid-fire delivery schedule averaging 17 stops per hour.
Thanks to a huge computer-automation project at the Maple Grove distribution center where his truck is loaded, Schetinski receives a list on his handheld computer of everything in his truck and where it’s going.

UPS says the automation system — akin to putting the Dewey Decimal System in a library to replace random book piles — is a key to handling increasing package volume, up 8 percent this year, and coping with the increased volume of holiday deliveries. The Maple Grove distribution center, one of three serving the Twin Cities, expects a peak volume of 86,000 packages a day around Dec. 20, up from 59,000 packages a day the rest of the year.

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USPS and NRLCA reach agreement

Posted by | Dec 11, 2006 | |

The U.S. Postal Service and the National Rural Letter Carriers’ Association reached a tentative four-year contract agreement on Dec. 8.

Upon ratification by union members, the agreement will run through Nov. 20, 2010, and affect approximately 66,000 career employees and 52,000 non-career employees who deliver mail to residences and businesses on rural delivery routes.

The USPS and NRLCA formally opened national contract negotiations on Aug. 25. This year was the first time new contracts were negotiated separately at the same time with all four of the postal service’s largest unions.

Earlier this week, the USPS and the American Postal Workers Union also agreed to a tentative four-year contract. Negotiations continue with the National Postal Mail Handlers Union. Negotiations with the National Association of Letter Carriers (NALC) were not successful and the two parties will now enter the dispute resolution process, which may include binding interest arbitration.

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UPS offers voluntary separation to group of employees

Posted by | Dec 11, 2006 | |

UPS today offered a special voluntary separation opportunity to approximately 650 employees as part of the company’s ongoing effort to eliminate redundant positions.
The voluntary separation opportunity is in addition to the job reductions at UPS Supply Chain Solutions announced in October.
The impact of the voluntary separation opportunity on financial results will not be determined until after the personal election period is completed on Jan. 29, 2007. The company will discuss any significant financial impact from this action during its fourth quarter earnings call on Jan. 30, 2007.

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House and Senate pass historic postal reform legislation

Posted by | Dec 9, 2006 | |

Both the House and Senate passed historic postal reform legislation in the final hours of the 109th Congress after key negotiators — Sens. Susan Collins, R-ME, and Tom Carper, D-DE, and Reps. Tom Davis, R-VA, and Henry A. Waxman, D-CA — brokered an agreement that will modernize the United States Postal Service and make it viable for the 21st century. The legislation, the first major overhaul of the USPS since 1970, will help stabilize mail volume and stamp prices.

“The U.S. Postal Service is the lynchpin of a USD900 billion mailing industry, providing nine million jobs nationwide in fields as diverse as direct mailing, printing, catalog companies, paper manufacturing, and financial services. But under its current business model, which has not been updated in decades, the financial future of the Postal Service is not viable,” said Senator Collins.

The legislation would force the Postal Service to concentrate on what it does best – processing and delivering mail to all Americans. The bill, entitled the Postal Accountability and Enhancement Act, would dramatically rethink the way the Postal Service prices its products by giving it the same ability any other business has to change prices whenever it needs to do so. But to protect businesses and mailers from sudden and dramatic price hikes, the legislation would ensure that price increases be kept below an inflation- based ceiling.

In addition, the bill would give the Postal Service the freedom to introduce new, innovative products or tailor existing products to meet customers’ needs, which should help attract new business and increase revenues.

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USPS expands mail-sorting technology

Posted by | Dec 7, 2006 | |

Technology that successfully boosted postal efficiencies in the processing, distribution and delivery of letter mail will soon be applied to the sorting of flat mail such as large envelopes, magazines, catalogs and circulars.

Known as the Flats Sequencing System program, the initiative was approved Dec. 6 by the by the U.S. Postal Service’s board of governors at its monthly meeting.

FSS will allow the sequencing of larger mail pieces in delivery point order. Flat mail is one of the most labor-intensive mail categories to process because of variations in size, thickness and address label placement. Allowing the sequencing of larger mail pieces in delivery point order will reduce the time carriers need to prepare mail for delivery. Carriers currently must manually sequence this mail before leaving the office for their routes.

The FSS equipment is designed to sequence flat mail at a rate of approximately 16,500 pieces per hour. Scheduled to operate 17 hours per day, each machine will be capable of sequencing 280,500 pieces per day to more than 125,000 delivery addresses.

The first phase of the program calls for an initial order of 100 FSS machines to be deployed to 33 postal facilities beginning in the summer of 2008.

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