from a USPS Industry Alert:

Mailing Industry Stakeholder:

The Postal Service issued a press release today announcing that it would soon issue a new regulation to modify its existing Service Standard for overnight delivery. The Postal Service said a Final Rule would soon be published in the Federal Register that would initially shrink the geographic reach of overnight service to local areas and enable consolidation activity in 2013. The new rule would further tighten the overnight delivery standard in 2014 and enable further consolidation of the Postal Service mail processing network absent any change to the circumstances of the Postal Service.

“We are essentially preserving overnight delivery for First-Class Mail through the end of 2013, although we are collapsing the distance that we can provide overnight service to the distribution area served by a particular mail processing facility,” said Brennan. Approximately 80 percent of First-Class Mail will still be delivered overnight.

“We revised our network consolidation timeline to provide a longer planning schedule for our customers, employees and other stakeholders, and to enable a more methodical and measured implementation,” said Patrick Donahoe, Postmaster General and Chief Executive Officer of the Postal Service.

The first phase of activities will result in up to 140 consolidations through February of 2013. Unless the circumstances of the Postal Service change in the interim, a second and final phase of 89 consolidations is currently scheduled to begin in February of 2014.

Basic information about this plan can be found on our Information for Mailers webpage at http://about.usps.com/news/facility-studies/welcome.htm. The list of mail processing locations to be consolidated by February of 2013 will be posted at approximately 3 pm EDT. More information will be posted in the next few weeks as it becomes available.

This is the first Industry Alert with others to follow as more information is available. The second Alert will be distributed when we send the Final Rule to the Federal Register. Additional Alerts will be distributed when other collateral such as Service Standard Directory files and FAQs are posted.

If you have any questions or suggestions about additional material you would like to see on our “Information for Mailers” webpage, please write to us at IndustryFeedback@usps.gov.

Back online as of noontime. Systems will take a while to catch up and post all scans.

The Postmaster General will be holding a press conference at 11:30am regarding new service standards and Network Optimization. Stay tuned.

IMb Tracing Data flow has been interrupted since late Tuesday.  Word today is that it should be back online and scans flowing by around noon today.  We will be providing strong feedback to the USPS as there was a complete lack of communication and notification and status updates, which is unacceptable.  Will try to keep you posted.  I happen to coincidentally be at USPS HQ today and will be providing feedback.

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

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 scanned, the technology must activate a link directly to either a mobile-optimized Web page that allows the mail recipient to purchase a product or service or to a mobile-optimized and customized Web page uniquely tailored to the mail recipient and accessible by a personalized URL.

via U.S. Postal Service Incents Commercial Mailers to Combine Mobile Marketing With Direct Mail – The Business Journals.

Note from Lisa to Intelisent customers and prospects — we can handle all things Mobile barcode incentive.  Participation, tracking, advice and consulting to a positive result.  Contact me directly to learn 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 court. Although the Postal Reform Act of 2011 was passed out of the relevant House committee in October 2011, leaders in the House of Representatives have yet to schedule a vote on the bill. The Senate, however, passed a bipartisan postal reform bill, the 21st Century Postal Service Act, on April 25, 2012.

via The Costs of Inaction – Reforming the Postal Service – Tom Carper, U.S. Senator for Delaware.

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.

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

Centralizations

Postal workers put off by naked customers | WTVR.com – Richmond News & Weather from WTVR Television CBS 6.

I try not to post fluff, but couldn’t help it on this one.