Memo to Mailers - June 2004 (Text)
UNITED STATES POSTAL SERVICE
VOLUME 39 NUMBER 6
JUNE 2004

WHAT’S INSIDE
PREPAID POWER
NPF INFORMATION
NPF REGISTRATION
POSTAL NEWS BRIEFS
CUSTOMIZED MARKETMAIL

PMG TO PCCS: STAY INVOLVED
Postmaster General John E. Potter urged thousands of Postal Service customers nationwide to stay involved in the issues and challenges facing the mailing industry, and asked them to help raise awareness of the value of the mail for local businesses.

“Decisions are being made that demand the full attention of everyone in this industry,” Potter said in a national satellite broadcast marking National Postal Customer Council (PCC) Day. PCCs serve as liaisons between the Postal Service and its business and non-profit customers.

Potter encouraged PCC members to assume a greater role in providing feedback on new ways to improve service, develop new products, build efficiency and generate new opportunities to reduce costs.

Adding value to the mail and keeping it affordable
Potter introduced a new Postal Customer Council Network Plan that will transform the PCCs into a premier network for customer education and training, stimulate growth for member businesses and help create a stronger Postal Service. “ Now more than ever, we need to communicate with each other on the changes necessary to use technology to add value to the mail and to use technology to keep mail affordable,” Potter said.

He said the Postal Service will raise the goal of delivery point sequencing to 85 percent by the end of the year, 90 percent next year and ultimately to 100 percent. He noted that bar coding mail for automated processing drives efficiency, and keeps rates affordable. He said USPS also is exploring a new four-state barcode “to enrich the information on mail as it moves through our system.”

Potter praised customers for helping convince Congress that potential overpayments to the Civil Service Retirement System needed to be fixed. But he warned of issues that grew out of last year’s CSRS legislation. He said a 2006 escrow fund will increase USPS revenue requirements by $3 billion in 2006, a potential 5.4 percent increase over and above forecasts.

The bill also transferred obligation for military retirement benefits from the Treasury to the Postal Service, an added $28 billion obligation.

Postal reform legislation now before Congress
Potter noted that House and Senate postal reform legislation eliminates the escrow and returns the military burden back to the Treasury. But, the bills call for the Postal Service to prefund health benefit retirement obligations and would have an upward pressure on prices. “Our evaluation indicates the costs could be as high as $3.9 billion in 2006 — or a 6.5 percent rate increase over and above our forecast,” he explained.

Also, he said, both bills have language that calls for price caps as a way to set rates. “Since neither bill provides relief from our major cost drivers — wages and benefits — we believe any price cap index must take all cost drivers into consideration.

Potter also said he is concerned about legislative draft language that deals with pricing flexibility in competitive and non-competitive product lines. “Shifting costs to packages,” he noted, “could result in significant upward price pressure — which could put the $2.5 billion in contributions we gain annually from our package services in jeopardy.”

Transformation Plan: making changes and moving forward
Beyond legislation, Potter said the Postal Service is working to build the business and make it more valuable to customers through its Transformation Plan. “We are improving service, improving operational efficiency and enhancing our products to foster growth,” he told the PCC members.

Mail is the best value
Mail is still very much a vital part of the nation’s economy, he said. “And mail will remain valuable for years to come.”

Potter said the American public still has a love affair with the mail. “Nine out of 10 households review the mail the day it’s received,” he said. “Seventy four percent of consumers read their direct mail. Fifty two percent of households place orders based on the direct mail they receive, and 21 percent of consumers have taken direct mail along with them when shopping. Over twice as many households order from catalogs than from information received only on the Internet.

“Overall,” said Potter, “mail is the highest rated medium when compared with magazine, newspaper, radio, billboard and Internet advertising.”

Read the postmaster general’s speech at www.usps.com/communications.

DELIVERING RESULTS
That’s what we’re all about. When you see the “Delivering Results” symbol, you’ll know it’s about how we’re making the Transformation Plan — the blueprint for the future of the United States Postal Service — a part of everything we do. Read the plan at www.usps.com/strategicdirection.

PREPAID POWER
No matter what size your business, you need all the packaging convenience you can get, right? Here’s a quick and easy solution for you. Try Priority Mail prepaid flat-rate envelopes. They’re packed with potential, as a national marketing company recently discovered.

National Companies of Fort Lauderdale, FL, ships 1,800 to 4,200 packages a week. A Postal Service sales team introduced the company to prepaid expedited package services.
“ We were using a competitor and our data base didn't talk to theirs,” says National Companies Vice President/COO Lynda Davis. “We spent hours keying addresses into their shipping center and it was simply not convenient. It also was costing us a lot of money.”

National Companies now uses the Postal Service's Priority Mail prepaid flat-rate envelopes for package shipping — no weighing, no applying of postage, the ability to print mailing labels from existing customer contact files and no back-end charges. Davis says her company’s shipping charges were cut in half.

“We developed this product to meet the needs of small business mailers,” says USPS Package Services Manager Jim Cochrane. “But larger mailers are also reaping the benefits of the Priority Mail prepaid flat-rate envelope.”

Are you looking for value and convenience? Isn’t everybody? For more information, go to www.usps.com/shop or call 800-THE-USPS.

POSTAL NEWS BRIEFS
SIX IN A ROW!
The Postal Service scored 95 percent in overnight on-time delivery for the sixth consecutive quarter. The assessment is measured independently by IBM Consulting Services.

This Quarter II measurement — Jan. 1 through March 31 — also cites scores of 91 percent for two-day and 88 percent for three-day delivery. Residential Customer Satisfaction scores are steady at 93 percent. However, an improvement in the number of customers who rate the service as “excellent” is noted in IBM’s report.

This report provides an independent assessment of the time it takes a piece of First-Class Mail, once it’s deposited into a collection box, to be delivered to one of more than 141 million American homes, businesses and Post Office boxes.

EXFC externally measures collection box to mailbox delivery performance. EXFC continuously tests a panel of 463 ZIP Code areas selected on the basis of geographic and volume density from which 90 percent of First-Class Mail volume originates and 80 percent destinates. EXFC is not a system-wide measurement of all First-Class Mail performance.

USPS UPGRADES COMPUTER WIRING NETWORK
The data transmission backbone that supports the Postal Service’s automation and Intelligent Mail programs is about to get an extreme makeover. During the next 15 months, 108 large postal facilities will have existing wiring replaced with high-speed wiring technology. In the last 12 months, 62 plants have been upgraded.

This state-of-the-art technology upgrade will increase the Postal Service’s ability to get real-time information about mail as it travels through the postal system – information that can be used to improve operational efficiencies and enhance service to postal customers.

A key strategy in the USPS Transformation Plan – the Postal Service’s blueprint for the future – is to use automation technology to further enhance the value of Postal Service products and services.

CLICK-N-SHIP ENTERS THE TREMENDOUS TWOs
Cue the fireworks! Click-N-Ship is celebrating its 2nd anniversary.

That’s 730 days of around-the-clock, quick, easy and convenient online label printing — and shipping of course. It goes to show that if you give customers an easy way to take care of their mailing business at home or in their own office, they’ll use it — with enthusiasm!

Click-N-Ship at www.usps.com allows customers to print shipping labels whenever they need to — 24 hours a day, seven days a week. Its saved credit card feature also saves time. Repeat customers don’t have to re-enter information every visit.

Teamed with Carrier Pickup, the service that lets customers notify their letter carrier via USPS.com when they have packages for pickup, it’s a winning combination for today’s busy mailers.

Happy birthday Click-N-Ship — welcome to the tremendous twos!

INFO @ USPS
SMALL BUSINESS TOOLS
Get new customers.
Meet customer demands.
Around town or around the world.
www.usps.com

SIMPLE FORMULAS
Use the mail to grow your business.
Order a Simple Formulas kit.
800-THE-USPS, ext. AD4433
SHIPPING INFORMATION
Express Mail, Priority Mail and package support line.
800-222-1811

PRINTING LABELS ONLINE
Your shipping label is just a Click-N-Ship away.
www.usps.com/clicknship

BRINGING THE POST
OFFICE TO YOU
Visit www.usps.com

QUESTIONS?
We have the answers.
Rates and mailing information.
ZIP Codes. Post Office location.
Much, much more.
800-ASK-USPS

MEMO TO MAILERS
Volume 39 Number 6
Ilze Sella
Editorial Services
Frank Papandrea
Art Director
David Ostroff
Designer
Betty Shelton
Purchasing Specialist
John E. Potter
Postmaster General and CEO
Azeezaly S. Jaffer
Vice President, Public Affairs and Communications
Memo to Mailers
is published by U.S. Postal Service
Public Affairs and Communications.
USPS eagle symbol and logotype are
registered marks of the
United States Postal Service.

The following are among the many trademarks owned by the United States Postal Service: USPS®, U.S. Postal Service®, United States Postal Service®, Postal Service™, Post Office™, Priority Mail®, Express Mail®, Standard Mail™, First-Class Mail®, Registered Mail™, Certified Mail™, Delivery Confirmation™, Signature Confirmation™, ZIP Code™, Click-N-Ship®, NetPost® and The Postal Store®. This list is not a comprehensive list of all Postal Service marks.

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MEMO TO MAILERS
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EDITOR
Memo to Mailers
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PCC website: www.usps.com/nationalpcc
Direct Mail Kit: 800-THE-USPS x 2110

CUSTOMIZED MARKETMAIL:
COOL IDEA!
What hockey fan doesn’t love a Zamboni? If you want to get noticed by a target audience of National Hockey League fans, a Zamboni-shaped mailpiece certainly will do the trick.
First Tennessee Bank, the official financial services provider of the Nashville Predators, wanted a creative way to reach the team’s season-ticket holders with an offer to take advantage of its new “Predators” checking account.

The bank decided to use the Postal Service’s Customized MarketMail and sent a cleverly designed mailer in the shape of a Zamboni — an ice-resurfacing machine — to 3,300 people in the Nashville area. The bank offered $100 and a collectible, die-cast Zamboni bank for opening a Predators checking account. The mailing was sent in two different stages to the same list.

“We wanted to present an offer that stood out in consumers’ mailboxes,” says Lisa Meiers, marketing manager for First Tennessee Bank.

And the response? It was three to four times the normal expected return on a mailing to non-customers.

Do you want to get noticed? Go to www.usps.com/customizedmarketmail for more information.