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In the last post here we reported on the The Affordable Mail Alliance Motion to Dismiss regarding the USPS request for an exigent rate increase (http://shipp.in/g/1cs).
In the interest of fairness here is the response to that motion by the American Postal Workers Union AFL-CIO (APWU).
Communicated by the FAST Team:
FAST 14.3.0 Release on August 15, 2010
Attention FAST Customers:
A FAST system release is scheduled for Sunday, August 15, 2010, from 4:00AM CDT to 8:00AM CDT. During this timeframe, you will not be able to access the FAST Online application and messages sent via Web Services will not be processed.
FAST Release 14.3.0 deploys to the TEM on Monday, August 16, 2010. The FAST TEM Online application and Web Services will not be available from 8:00AM CDT to 12:00PM CDT on Monday, August 16, 2010.
Detailed release notes will be posted in the FAST Resources section on August 15, 2010. To access them, navigate to https://fast.usps.com. Then, click on the Resources section followed by the Reference Documents section.
If you have any questions or concerns with the release, please contact FAST Support at FAST@usps.com.
I’m excited to be participating in this kick off event for the WILDS Northeast Chapter. Looking forward to some great networking opportunities. If you have any questions, feel free to contact me.
WILDS Invite
You’re invited to go WILDS! The new Northeast Chapter of Women in Logistics & Delivery Services (WILDS) is hosting their kick-off event, September 1 at 2:30pm ET at MASS MoCA, the Massachusetts Museum of Contemporary Art. The event begins with a private tour of this internationally known visual and performing arts center at 2:30 pm ET, followed by a chance to network and meet new faces in the postal industry at the Gramercy Bistro at MASS MoCA.
WILDS Northeast Chapter Kick-off Event
Wednesday, Sept. 1, 2:30pm ET MASS MoCA North Adams, MA
Whether you’re already a WILDS member or interested in joining the group, please join us for this fun event featuring unique art, great food and the chance to meet other women in the postal, logistics and delivery industries. The tour cost is $20. Please RSVP to Paula Stoskopf at paulas@bccsoftware.com by August 16.
It's fun to personalize your own wedding favor gift boxes by decorating them yourself.
Personalizing your own wedding favor boxes is great way to present favors in a way that matches the style of the wedding and the personality of the bride and groom. Why buy pre-made favor boxes when you can use your creativity and make something more unique?
First, you’ll want to pick out they style of gift boxes you want, and buy them in bulk. What style of box depends on the look you want, and also the size of the favor. For a larger gift, you may want to use take-out boxes. For something small, you can even create an envelope using kraft paper or vellum.
Once you’ve chosen the style and color you want, it’s time to decorate. Tying each box with a piece of ribbon or lace is an elegant and simple way to dress up a box. Simple options are great if you have a large number of guests and only a few helping hands! Another idea is to glue a silk flower on the top of the box. Choose colors that match the theme of the wedding, or even choose a silk replica of a live flower you have in your bouquet. For the eco-friendly or nature loving couple, you might want to decorate kraft boxes with faux leaves and twine.
If you have more time on your hands (or more helping hands) you might want to put your scrapbooking skills to use. Use stamps, stickers, and strips of scrapbooking paper to decorate boxes. Choose a traditional wedding or romantic theme, or get creative and choose a theme that fits your personality. Do you and your fiance love sailing? Then perhaps a nautical or beach theme might be appropriate. The possibilities are endless.
One of the Shipwire company directives is to provide a logistics and fulfillment platform that guarantees the shipment of your order in a timely and accurate manner. When it comes to accuracy in shipping, one of the big requirements is to get the right address on the package. The cost of getting the address wrong ranges from horrible (lost business and angry buyers) to the less horrible (address correction charges on packages). And it is usually avoidable – here is how Shipwire avoids it.
Avoiding incorrect addresses starts before the order ever gets processed for shipment. One of the first steps in our order routing logic is to review the shipping address to ensure it is correct and conforms to the published guidelines of the carriers. We integrate with a lot of carriers – over 12.
For U.S. orders this means the address conforms to comprehensive USPS addressing standards. Shipments that comply with the USPS standards have the highest probability of being delivered – keeping your buyers happy (and our merchants).
Shipwire also assures that the carrier being selected can deliver to the address given. For example, confirming you are not trying to ship to a U.S. Post Office Box via UPS.
We wanted to expose some of our address verification and order routing logic because if you use Shipwire you benefit from it, and may not even realize what it is or how it works.
How Address Verification works:
The Shipwire servers first perform detailed address verification to assure the address given is valid. For example:
USPS maintains an extensive database that cross-references address information making this check possible. USPS has also has developed standards regarding how an address is written. After verification the ship-to address is rewritten to conform to the USPS Postal Addressing standards. You may have noticed that on occasion the address typed into the Shipwire interface might come out looking a bit different than what was originally entered. Shipwire then does a final check to assure that the carriers available to use for shipment can ship to that address.
Keep reading to learn more about Address Verification and how it works with different Shopping Carts, plus Real Time Shipping Rating, Address Verification in Other Countries, and helpful tips.
Address Verification with Shopping Carts
Shipwire plugs into a growing number of e-commerce shopping carts and tools. You should look at your particular shopping cart feature list to find out if address verification is implemented in your shopping cart or may be something you pay a service fee for. Many self-hosted carts like Zen Cart, or Magento may have some rudimentary address verification or some type of third party module to help do this. Some of the less well known scripted shopping carts probably have a big “goose egg” for this features. More sophisticated hosted solutions have varying levels of verification for some of the shipping methods they have natively integrating. If you are plugging in an additional shipping method, you can bet address verification will miss a lot of the edge cases.Yet a side effect of this is that your customer can place an order on your cart and provide an address that can not be shipped to or is otherwise suspect. When the order is pushed to Shipwire our system performs a default address verification check. Improper or impossible ship-to addresses are automatically put on hold for your review. This let’s you contact the customer and correct the order before it ships, saving you and your customer time and money.
On the outside chance your customer insists the address is valid, you can force it past verification and it can be pushed to the warehouse. However, our support team may be notified by our warehouse personnel that they can not create a shipping label or postage for the shipment since it is still not valid.
Real Time Shipping Rating and Address Verification
A powerful Shipwire feature is our Real Time Shipping Rating API. This allows a shopping cart to pass to Shipwire key information about the order, such as the SKU’s and quantities as well as the ship-to address. Shipwire then performs an address verification check to assure it is valid. We then determine the optimal warehouse to ship your goods from. Finally we rate the shipment only with those eligible carriers that can deliver to the address given. This results in a rating that is guaranteed valid, and only with carriers that can deliver it.
When an address is provided that is not valid the API returns a code indicating that the address is not valid. Some carts handle this better than others by letting the customer know the address they are entering is not valid. At worst the cart does not tell the customer what is wrong and simply does not show any carriers or cost. This may be the case for carts written by third-party developers like Uber Cart, or osCommerce. If you have a customer notify you that they can not select a shipping method during checkout then this may very well be the case. Instead, you can manually enter the address into the Shipwire UI to validate it.
Address Verification in Other Countries:
Address verification in other countries can be done but to a limited degree. For Canadian and UK address we can verify that postal cores are properly formed, and that provinces are correct. At the other end of the spectrum some 3rd world countries provide no resources at all to allow reliable address verification.
Tips to verify US addresses:
For U.S. address the USPS database of valid addresses provides a powerful resource to assure addresses are correct. If you have a customer address you are not sure of, a great resource to verify an address is the USPS.com website. You can enter your address and press submit. If there is an address issue USPS will tell you.
Some merchants try and use Google Maps or similar services to do verification. Our support team has seen issues relying on these sources. Even if you can look an address up using an online map services it may still not be valid as far as postal carriers are concerned. For U.S. address the best authority is the USPS site. For addresses in other countries you can consult the local carrier websites for similar tools.
More Resources
Today Shipwire is releasing some serious new functionality for how we manage package inserts. To say that insert handling is getting a face-lift is an understatement.
An insert is something that gets put into the box with the product that is being ordered when it is shipped out of the warehouse. If you have bought anything online, you have probably experienced an insert. They can be a brochure or a piece of marketing collateral. Popular marketing collateral that are types of inserts are postcards, stickers, photos, data sheets, brochures, pamphlets and increasingly promotional CD’s and DVD’s.
As the Christmas selling season approaches we wanted to make it easier for our merchants to handle inserts, as we know how important being able to cross-market to buyers can be.
For all details on the enhanced insert features please review our documentation on package inserts.
Insert management seems pretty simple at its most basic – pick up a flyer and throw it into a box whenever you ship an order. We agree, that is simple. In reality, today’s fast pace e-commerce marketer has needs that are no longer simple and cross-promotional insert management has gotten more complex. Promotions have start and end dates. Specific products get specific promotions. Different inserts have to be used for different countries. Some shopping carts have more functionality than others. Knowing this, we built features that allow a retailer or manufacturer to actually manage inserts and marketing promotions.
Here are just a few of the preferences that can be defined per insert.
This gives our sellers a whole new amount of control for marketing and promotional material. As this holiday shopping season approaches we really hope these new insert and cross-promotional marketing features help you grow your business.
Here are a few screen-shots of what the new interfaces look like.
Details on Insert Management
Add Product Type "Insert"
Associated Mail & Parcel Centers (AMPC) members pay dues to support the organization’s efforts to support their businesses. The money pays for a staff to develop benefits, programs, discounts, research, education, and advocacy for the members. Joining AMPC is easy. To help us support your industry and business, go to www.ampc.org and sign up.
As reported here (http://shipp.in/g/1cf) on July 6th, 2010 the USPS requested a significant rate increase greatly exceeding the legal CPI-U based increase siting “extraordinary and exceptional circumstances.”
The Affordable Mail Alliance has submitted a Motion to Dismiss this request based upon the following reasons:
Under the Postal Regulatory Commission’s (PRC) rules, the USPS has seven days to respond to this motion. The PRC will make a decision on the rate increase by October 4, 2010.
The Civil Service Retirement Act created the Civil Service Retirement System (CSRS) in 1920 to “help Postal employees survive retirement.” With the inability to anticipate the fact that some day they would may want to not work any more, many Postal employees worked until they died. Which is what they must have meant by not being able to survive retirement. In 1984 a new program called the Federal Employees Retirement System (FERS) was created to take the place of the CSRS.
The CSRS generally applies to employees who were hired before January 1, 1984 while the FERS applies to employees whose started with the USPS on January 1, 1984 or later, and CSRS employees that elected to transfer to FERS. Both systems have the same purposes, however, Congress decided to create a new set of rules and operating procedures. USPS Inspector General’s Report.
Now, employees of the USPS receive a conglomeration of retirement money from CSRS, FRES. Thrift Saving Plan (TSP) and Social Security. It is mentioned many times that the CSRS and FRES retirement plans are not funded by tax money. The funds come from the employees contribution of around 7% and from the sale of stamps and other postal products. If you are not convinced that the portion of a stamp price used to pay retired Postal Workers is not tax money, but stamp money, you may need more training – contact a Congressman.
Congress requires that the USPS fund both the retirement program and the health plan at 100%. The average for the S&P 500 funding is 80%. Other federal employees is 41%; the military is 24%; and the some government bureau which requires the USPS to fund at 100% does not fund its plans at all.
Due to the usual government accounting standards, requirements and regulations, the USPS believes that they have over-funded the plans by $75 billion and they want it back. The amount of $75 billion is equal to a year’s income at the USPS.
The is not a current method to pay back over-payments. The only way the USPS can be paid back is by an act of Congress.
The money paid into these plans is invested in Treasury Notes, Bonds, and Bills – in other words, the federal government “borrows it.”
And then they spend it.
Should the $75 billion be paid back and the funding requirements be reduced, the USPS would be in better shape. If they were required to fund the plans at a lesser rate, they would be in better shape.
The big problem with returning the $75 billion to the USPS is, because of the rules Congress has created, giving the money back would increase the deficit by $75 billion. Over the years, the Federal Government has made the deficit look better by subtracting the funded pension and health plan money from the deficit numbers. Not many Congressman are willing to add numbers to the deficit right now.
The House postal oversight subcommittee approved H.R. 5746. The bill, which was introduced by Rep. Stephen Lynch (D-MA) on July 15, would alter the methodology for allocating the Postal Service’s share of pension costs for employees whose careers spanned the former Post Office Department and the USPS which created the $75 billion in question. This is the first step in a long process to make the changes that the USPS wants.
The bill must be considered by the full Oversight and Government Reform Committee before it can be voted on in the House.
H.R. 5746 directs Office of Personnel Management to transfer any surplus to the Postal Service Retiree Health Benefits Fund. This transfer of funds would alleviate a major source of the Postal Service’s recent economic problems. The funding of 100% of future retiree health care benefits, as required by the Postal Accountability and Enhancement Act of 2006, costs the USPS more than $5 billion annually.
I would expect this bill or one similar to it to pass in some form or another. I would also expect that the bill will be flawed and the USPS pension and health care funds will be significantly under-funded in about two years.
As a postscript I need to mention that the USPS says that fixing the overpayment and funding issue will not alter their request to increase rates by as much as 23% (http://shipp.in/g/1cf) next year or their request to eliminate Saturday delivery.
Associated Mail & Parcel Centers (AMPC) members pay dues to support the organization’s efforts to support their businesses. The money pays for a staff to develop benefits, programs, discounts, research, education, and advocacy for the members. Joining AMPC is easy. To help us support your industry and business, go to www.ampc.org and sign up.
We are pleased to announce the launch of Stamps.com Version 8.7 – a free upgrade for Stamps.com customers! Here are some of the major new features included as part of PC Postage Version 8.7:
International Shipping Insurance
Available at the same discounted rates as domestic insurance, Stamps.com now offers insurance for international shipments up to $2500 in [...]
Understanding Full Service roles for the USPS FAST Appointment management system
Excellent, comprehensive article on this subject by Shariq Mirza, an expert with a great deal of experience in the Full Service Intelligent Mail Arena. This article illustrates the complexities, choices, and requirements that must be met just to fulfill a small part of Full Service Intelligent Mail regulations.
The complexities are made even greater as the world of drop ship appointments and FAST is ever-changing. Mail owners must partner with their mail service provider to map out a plan well in advance of implementation.
When you log into the USPS Business Customer Gateway and access FAST, there is a helpful message board pop-up that comes up with timely information. Users need to be aware of this, so that they allow for pop ups on this site, or they will miss out. It is also a good idea to log in regularly, so you can see any info as it comes up.
Current information posted:
Subject: Springfield MA L&DC 010PM is Moving
Message: The Springfield MA L&DC 010PM will be moving to the Springfield MA NDC at 1800 Page Blvd, Springfield MA 01152-9311 on August 14, 2010. The Springfield L&DC building located at 100 Brookdale Dr Springfield MA 01104-3278 will close as of August 13, 2010. All mail for the Springfield L&DC should be brought to the Springfield NDC at 1800 Page Blvd.
Subject: Planned Power Outage 8/23/10
Message: This notice is to advise all mailers intending to deposit mail at the Los Angeles Network Distribution Center of a planned Power Outage on August 23, 2010. As a contingency, mailers that may need to schedule appointments may do so on Saturday August 21st, Sunday August 22nd and Tuesday August 24th as normally available. We at the Los Angeles Network Distribution Center, appreciate your continued support.
Today Shipwire is releasing some serious new functionality for how we manage inserts. To say that insert handling is getting a face-lift is an understatement.
An insert is something that gets put into the box with the product that is being ordered when it is shipped out of the warehouse. If you have bought anything online, you have probably experienced an insert. They can be a brochure or a piece of marketing collateral. Popular marketing collateral that are types of inserts are postcards, stickers, photos, data sheets, brochures, pamphlets and increasingly promotional CD’s and DVD’s.
As the Christmas selling season approaches we wanted to make it easier for our merchants to handle inserts, as we know how important being able to cross-market to buyers can be.
For all details on the enhanced insert and marketing collateral management features please review our inserts documentation.
Insert management seems pretty simple at its most basic – pick up a flyer and throw it into a box whenever you ship an order. We agree, that is simple. In reality, today’s fast pace e-commerce marketer has needs that are no longer simple and cross-promotional insert management has gotten more complex. Promotions have start and end dates. Specific products get specific promotions. Different inserts have to be used for different countries. Some shopping carts have more functionality than others. Knowing this, we built features that allow a retailer or manufacturer to actually manage inserts and marketing promotions.
Here are just a few of the preferences that can be defined per insert.
This gives our sellers a whole new amount of control for marketing and promotional material. As this holiday shopping season approaches we really hope these new insert and cross-promotional marketing features help you grow your business.
Here are a few screen-shots of what the new interfaces look like.
Details on Insert Management
Add Product Type "Insert"
Spinners fans recently set the world record for most people popping bubble wrap simultaneously.
According to an article in Baseball Ink, Saturday July 17, 2010 at a Lowell Spinners baseball game in Lowell, Massachusetts, history was made when the World Record for most people popping bubble wrap simultaneously was set during the third inning of the game. The World Record was set to celebrate bubble wrap’s 50th birthday.
As fans arrived at the stadium, they were given a 1×1 sheet of bubble wrap and strict instructions to not pop it until the middle of the third inning. When the third inning came, the Spinners promotional team led a countdown as everyone in the stadium, including players, staff and members of the media. popped bubble wrap for 30 seconds. After the 30 seconds passed, the popped sheets were collected by staff to be counted. The final tally was 3,692 popped sheets, a new world record.
This isn’t the first world record set at a Spinners came. In 2004, the record for the largest game of “Duck, Duck, Goose” was set at the stadium and recorded in the Guinness Book of World Records.
The world record wasn’t the only way the Spinners fans celebrated bubble wrap’s 50th birthday. There was also a bubble wrap covered dance floor where 50-year-old fans danced to 50 cent. Also the 50th fan to enter the stadium won a year’s supply of popcorn when the 50th out of the game was made.
For more information, read the full article at BaseballInk.com.
USPS OIG blog post on voting by mail. Very interesting!
