Tag: USPS

The U.S. Postal Service’s Carrier Pickup program expands next week for a total of 204,000 city and rural carrier routes, Postmaster General John E. Potter told the postal service’s Board of Governors at its monthly meeting. Carrier Pickup lets customers go online to request next-day package pickups. There is no pickup fee because packages are picked up from customers as part of the carrier’s normal delivery route. Packages must be prepared with the appropriate postage and ready to go before they are picked up.

Though mailers still expect postal reform bills to be introduced shortly, many are growing less confident that legislation will be passed before the end of the year because of the fall elections.
House Government Reform Committee chairman Tom Davis, R-VA, will introduce a postal reform bill by the end of the month with Rep. John McHugh, R-NY, who chairs the House committee’s postal panel, a McHugh spokeswoman said.

The U.S. Postal Service’s Parcel Return Service has generated USD5 million in revenue since it began as a two-year pilot program in October, the postal service said.

Parcel Return Service lets mailers provide customers with a prepaid return label that can be included in shipments, mailed to customers or made available to customers for download via the Internet.

The U.S. Postal Service has published in the Federal Register a final rule that will raise Standard mail five-digit bundle minimums from 10 to 15 pieces for mail pieces that weigh less than 5 ounces and are thinner than three-quarters of an inch. The USPS said the change will increase processing efficiencies, reduce the overall production of bundles of certain Standard mail flat-size pieces and decrease overall USPS piece and bundle-handling costs. Most mailers agree that it will reduce bundle-handling costs for the USPS and mailers.