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Postage Due- an original comic strip by Mike Morgan

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Postage Due- an original comic strip by Mike Morgan

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Postage Due- an original comic strip by Mike Morgan

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Pitney Bowes Assesses Progress and Opportunities

STAMFORD, Conn., December 20, 2007 - As the mailing industry marks the first anniversary of landmark postal reform legislation, Pitney Bowes Inc. (NYSE:PBI) offered an upbeat assessment of the work that has been done to implement the law’s provisions, and of the implications the new law has for anyone who sends or receives mail.

President Bush signed the Postal Accountability and Enhancement Act on December 20, 2006, launching a new era for the United States Postal Service. Under the new law, increases in the price of postage for most mail cannot exceed the rate of inflation for at least the next nine years, and the Postal Service has unprecedented flexibility to manage the rates it charges beneath this “rate cap.” The law also envisions a major redesign of the postal network, calls for the creation of new service standards, and encourages the Postal Service to adopt new technologies to speed operations and lower costs.

“The postal reform bill was a major rethinking of virtually every aspect of postal operations,” said Pitney Bowes Executive Chairman Michael Critelli who, as chairman of the Mailing Industry CEO Council, was involved in helping to shape the final legislation. “We see tremendous long-term benefits both for the Postal Service and the mailing industry.”

Critelli praised the new Postal Regulatory Commission for swiftly establishing its mission and strategy, for engaging the industry in its deliberations, and for delivering, eight months ahead of schedule, new regulations that will determine how the Postal Service will set its rates in the future, beginning in 2008. Critelli also complimented the Postal Service for moving quickly to propose the new service standards called for under the law, also after extensive industry consultations.

“This kind of engagement with the industry is crucial to the long-term success of postal reform,” said Critelli. “The mailing industry employs some nine million Americans and accounts for $900 billion in economic activity. We all have a huge stake in making sure we capture the benefits of postal reform without needlessly disrupting this powerful economic engine.”

The next year should see equally important developments, Critelli noted. The Postal Service is expected to issue its first rates using the new rules, and the Postal Service and the Postal Regulatory Commission face crucial reporting deadlines to Congress on several aspects of postal operations.

“We are very encouraged by the swift actions of the leadership at both the Postal Service and the Postal Regulatory Commission,” Critelli said. “They are focused on fulfilling the many obligations placed on them by postal reform, and we look forward to continued dialogue and action to make the mailstream even more valuable and effective than ever before.”

Postage Due- an original comic strip by Mike Morgan

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USPS Press Release:

Postal Service employees everywhere now have access to a new cutting-edge human resources (HR) system to meet the demands of the information age. Rollout of the technology phase of the PostalPEOPLE initiative, the largest implementation of its kind in the federal government or private sector, was completed in October.

This massive undertaking is helping the Postal Service to increase efficiency and reduce costs while giving employees individualized information and access to human resources-related applications, 24 hours a day, seven days a week, said Anthony Vegliante, chief human resources officer and executive vice president.

Using SAP software, the new platform replaces a system that once consisted of more than 3,800 Postal Service HR professionals relying on more than 200 processes and some 70 systems to support nearly 700,000 employees. Now, those HR professionals, free from repetitive, manual processes, can focus on the Postal Services strategic focus to better align the workforce and meet present and future challenges, head-on.

The result is a single view of the employee that improves service to our employees, customer satisfaction and our ability to conduct business, said Vegliante.

Completion of the nationwide rollout enables the Postal Service to introduce two significant new services to employees. First is a new self-service tool for managers, which provides managers, postmasters and supervisors with information and resources online to help manage the workforce, perform administrative tasks, and assist their employees with skill development.

A second service has been launched on the organizations intranet site, allowing employees to perform job bidding anywhere they have access to the Internet. This enhances ease of use for bargaining unit employees and provides them with a new way to access the job-bidding system.

The PostalPEOPLE initiative most notably includes the Shared Services Center in Greensboro, NC. The full-service facility is staffed by professionally trained career postal HR personnel who provide assistance to employees who need to speak directly with a person.

Additional functionality will be added in the coming year, leveraging this technology platform to further streamline and enhance HR functions within the Postal Service.

An independent federal agency, the U.S. Postal Service is the only delivery service that visits every address in the nation, 146 million homes and businesses, six days a week. It has 37,000 retail locations and relies on the sale of postage, products and services to pay for operating expenses, not tax dollars. The Postal Service has annual revenues of $75 billion and delivers nearly half the worlds mail.

Postage Due- an original comic strip by Mike Morgan

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Postage Due- an original comic strip by Mike Morgan

Subscribe to Postage Due:
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Postage Due- an original comic strip by Mike Morgan

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Postage Due- an original comic strip by Mike Morgan

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