From a USPS Industry Alert - Today the Postal Service sent the final rule to revise service standards for market-dominant mail products to the Federal Register.  The final rule will be posted on our “Information for Mailers” webpage at http://about.usps.com/news/facility-studies/welcome.htm by COB Monday, May 21. Highlights excerpted from the final rule are provided below. Highlights The Postal Service is adopting new rules for market-dominant service standards, with an interim version Read More

This letter and information came from the Northeast Area Manager yesterday, good communications on the Network Consolidation changes: To our Valued Business Customer; Yesterday, Postmaster General Patrick Donahoe and Chief Operations Officer Megan Brennan announced the Postal Service’s plans to move ahead with a modified plan to consolidate its network of 461 mail processing locations in phases.  The first phase of the consolidations will begin this summer and result in up to 140 Read More

As of May 16, online retailers who use the U.S. Postal Service will no longer be allowed to ship electronics that include lithium batteries to international destinations and/or military (APO, FPO, DPO) addresses. Important note:  This prohibition DOES NOT apply to lithium batteries when mailed within the United States or its territories. Lithium batteries are included in [...] Read More

Paul Vogel to lead new Digital Solutions unit at USPS | Post & Parcel. Read More

ShipCompliant launched its first Direct Shipping Seminar & Users Conference in 2006, one year after the groundbreaking Granholm v. Heald Supreme Court ruling that put the framework in place for the direct shipping landscape as we know it today. Since the 2005 ruling, 26 new states have opened or adopted a new permit system for direct shipping, which represents a 56% increase in total reports due for wineries that ship to all available states. Today a total of 40 states—89% of the total Read More

Are you ready to start a social media program for your business? Or have you started using social media but you are not satisfied with the results? Social media provides tools that can transform your small business but what is the secret? In this power packed webinar, you will learn: -How to harness the power of [...] Read More

The U.S. Postal Service is offering the 2012 Mobile Commerce and Personalization Promotion to encourage commercial mailers to use mobile marketing tools — such as QR codes — on their mail. During July and August, the Postal Service is offering an upfront 2 percent postage discount on Standard Mail and First-Class Mail letters, flats and cards (presort and automation) that include a two-dimensional barcode or print/mobile technology that can be read or scanned by a mobile device. When Read More

As we learned this week, the Postal Service is moving forward with cutting hours at post offices and offering retirement incentives for some postal workers across the country. Rather than forcing the Postal Service to continue to rely on these sorts of piecemeal, stopgap measures to cut costs, Congress must work to enact comprehensive reform that provides the tools and resources the Postal Service needs to survive in the 21st Century. The Senate has done this. The ball is in the House’s Read More

“A compliant and effective e-commerce sales platform [is] now in place and available. There is a Fifth Column of wine sales now…The evolution and momentum of the Fifth Column of wine sales leads us to believe the genie is finally out of the bottle and there is no putting it back for state-to-state and direct wine e-commerce.” The historical metaphor of the “Fifth Column” is new to the world of wine marketing. As used by Rob McMillan and the authors of Silicon Valley Read More

Stamp Out Hunger Food Drive™ | Home. Place bagged non-perishable food items by your mailbox for letter carrier to pick up tomorrow for the National Association of Letter Carriers food drive. Read More

USPS Moving Forward on Plant Consolidations–Announcement Coming May 17th : PostalReporter News Blog. Centralizations Read More

On Saturday, May 12, local communities across America will be asked to join the U.S. Postal Service and its letter carriers to combat one of this nation’s growing problems — hunger. About 50 million Americans — including 17 million children — now live in families that lack sufficient food. The Postal Service, the National Association of Letter [...] Read More

USPS: “New Strategy to Preserve the Nation’s Smallest Post Offices” – postalnews blog. Read More

Bob Schimek Receives Postal Industry Award at 2012 IDEAlliance Print Distribution Conference. Well deserved….congratulations to Bob! Read More

The Postal Newsgroup: Postal Facility Closure Search List Tool. Read More