Seth Godin makes a good point how a seemingly small difference in the return address of an envelope can alter your perception of the piece. I didn’t throw away my Google check the first time it arrived in one of those non-descript ‘Buffalo NY’ envelopes, but I remember opening it over the wastebasket, assuming it was another credit card offer.

What made me open it a little more carefully was the fact that it wasn’t standard (’bulk’) mail. A standard piece that tries to look like a confidential communication (i.e. no company or agency name in the return address, plain formatting), is an ad for sure, and likely to get tossed unopened. The same envelope sent first class is pretty likely to be either good news or bad news- either way you gotta open it.

The other piece in Seth’s picture actually is first class, but it’s just a higher level ad- the phony endorsement gives it away- “Business Mail- Penalty for Tampering”. (So personal letters are fair game for ‘tampering’? And even if there were, would anyone mistake this for a personal letter?)

The return address

Yes, it’s finally happened- after all the wrangling and politicking, the White House and Capitol Hill have agreed- to rename a post office in honor of Ava Gardner.

Post office named in actress’s honor

Nothing illustrates the PR problems the Postal Service faces better than this story about breaking ground for a new post office in Connecticut.

The Postal Service gets blamed for closing small Post Offices, even though it rarely happens, and even when the ‘town’ served has a dozen residents. When the Postal Service does something that the public (and the local media) actually want us to do, do we get credit for it? Not often.

“5th District U.S. Rep. Nancy L. Johnson, a Republican, and U.S. Sen. Christopher J. Dodd, a Democrat, helped push the project along on the federal level, and Johnson was on hand Wednesday to help break ground.

If there was anyone from the Postal Service present, the reporter failed to notice them, never mind ask for their comments.

“’It takes a strong team to move the federal bureaucracy when they don’t want to move,’ Johnson said. ‘Every project like this reminds me only a strong team wins. This isn’t about party.’” 

No, it isn’t about party- it’s about politicians taking credit for a project they didn’t pay for, vote on, or really do anything for, except possibly to remind the Postal Service that their votes might be needed when the next postal reform bill comes up for a vote.

What a way to run a business.

The PRC’s Office of the Consumer Advocate filed a number of interrogatories in the PRC’s plant consolidation docket today. Each document raises a series of questions about the potential impact of the proposed changes on customer service. Postal people tend to think of service standards in terms of first class mail, and whether it’s overnight, two day or three day. The OCA questions go further, delving into questions such as:

• Read the rest of this entry »

The following is a press release from  Clint Burelson, President of the APWU local in Olympia, Washington: 

Informational Picket to Protest Reduction of Mail Service Wednesday, 3/22/06 11:00 am to 1:00 pm.

The United States Postal Service is reducing service to many communities by consolidating mail canceling and sorting operations into just a few large hubs. The proposal to discontinue canceling mail in Olympia, and to move many mail operations to Tacoma on April 3rd, is part of a larger national restructuring where as many as 250 mail processing facilities may be closed and consolidated. These consolidation plans will benefit the big mailers at the expense of citizens, non-profit organizations, small businesses, and businesses of any size that require fast mail service to and from their customers.

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As we heard late Thursday, APX Logistics, which claims to be the largest parcel consolidator in the country, has filed for bankruptcy. Details of exactly what happened are still fuzzy, but here are some additional items that have been posted today:

• The first public notice of APX’s bankruptcy seems to have been this SEC filing from Werner Enterprises, which provided truckload services for APX. The filing states that APX had filed for bankruptcy protection on March 15, and that APX owed Werner “$7.2 million in accounts receivable for freight shipments. Werner suspended freight shipments with APX Logistics effective March 15, 2006.”
• Transport Topics reports that APX ranks “number 37 on Transport Topics list of the 50 largest logistics companies”, and “owns more than 400 trucks and employs more than 1,800 workers”.
• Dow Jones reprises APX’s history: “The company, formerly American Package Express, is controlled by Boston-based private equity firm Heritage Partners. Heritage merged the package business of R.R. Donnelly Logistics with American Package to create APX in 2004.”, and reports that “Eight APX affiliates also filed for bankruptcy in Los Angeles Thursday.”
• WGAL TV in Lancaster PA has a story about APX employees in a Pennsylvania town who found out about the company’s demise when they showed up for work this morning.

I think we all realized that BOG nominee Mickey Barnett’s payday loan clients were sleazy. It turns out that they are also endangering America’s defenses.

This charge comes not from some wacko anti-business activist, but from the US Navy, which was involved in an unsuccessful attempt to pass in Washington State the same kind of payday loan legislation Barnett fought against in New Mexico.

“Rear Adm. William French, the Navy’s Northwest commander, testified that payday lenders deliberately ensnare sailors in debt, hindering combat readiness.”

Well, never mind, as long as the loan sharks pay their lobbying bills on time…

Yesterday’s editorial in the El Paso Times is another argument for being more open about the process of rearranging the USPS distribution network. The editorial deals with allegations that standard mail is sitting in the El Paso plant for 12 days.

Both the original article and the editorial make a connection between the shift of mail from Las Cruces to El Paso, and the delays. Today’s piece says: “What’s known is this: El Paso is now handling Las Cruces’ mail, and several employees at the main post office say there is a shortage of staff to handle the load.”

When I looked for USPS input, I found: ”El Paso Postmaster Felix Guerra could not be reached for comment…” “Jim Coultress, a spokesman for the Postal Service who is based in San Antonio, …said the Postal Service has had an increase in standard-class mail service since it raised rates in January.”

It seems to me that we worry so much about presenting the official, approved story, that we allow the APWU and various individual employees, who don’t have to worry about checking their story with HQ, to be the story. And that is the story the media reports. And editorializes on.

If we can’t trust the managers on the ground to speak to the media, I think the consolidation effort is going to be much more difficult than it needs to be.

You can find some fascinating stuff on Flickr- this picture is from a series of pictures of murals in Connecticut post offices. The murals are interesting, but the carving shown above really caught my eye- it’s entitled ‘The Picnickers’, and is in the Oakville CT post office. Click on the picture for more.

The National Association of Postal Supervisors has filed as an intervenor in the PRC’s consideration of possible service changes resulting from USPS plant consolidations. That leaves the League of Postmasters and the National Rural Letter Carriers Association as the only employee organizations who have not filed.

The deadline for intervenors to file is Friday, March 17.