The following information was released by the United States Attorney’s Office for the Western District of Pennsylvania:

Acting United States Attorney Robert S. Cessar announced today, March 30, 2010, that Robert S. Paieski of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, has been indicted by a federal grand jury in Pittsburgh on a charge of Delay or Destruction of Mail by a Postal Employee.

The one‑count indictment named Paieski, age 39, as the sole defendant.

According to the indictment, on or about June 29, 2009, Paieski, being an employee of the United States Postal Service, unlawfully destroyed two hods of mail advertisements which had been entrusted to him and were intended to be conveyed by United States mail.

Assistant United States Attorney Gregory C. Melucci, who presented the case to the grand jury, indicated that the law provides for a maximum total sentence of five years in prison, a fine of $250,000, or both. Under the Federal Sentencing Guidelines, the actual sentence imposed would be based upon the seriousness of the offense and the prior criminal history, if any, of the defendant. Agents of the United States Postal Service, Office of Inspector General conducted the investigation leading to the indictment in this case.

An indictment is only a charge and is not evidence of guilt. A defendant is presumed innocent and is entitled to a fair trial at which the government must prove guilt beyond a reasonable doubt.

WASHINGTON, March 30 — The Postal Regulatory Commission issued the following news release:

The Postal Regulatory Commission today established Docket N2010-1 to thoroughly review whether the U.S. Postal Service plan to eliminate Saturday delivery should be implemented. The Postal Service is required to ask the Commission for an Advisory Opinion on any change in nationwide service it proposes. This is one of the most significant changes the Postal Service has ever presented to the Commission. Read the rest of this entry »

WASHINGTON — The Postal Service today took its case for five-day delivery to the Postal Regulatory Commission (PRC).

The Postal Service is required by law to seek an advisory opinion from the PRC any time a nationwide change in service is proposed. Today’s filing begins the PRC review.

A report accompanying the request notes, “The Postal Service does not take this change lightly and would not propose it if six-day mail service could be supported by current volumes. There is no longer enough mail to sustain six days of delivery.”

The five-day delivery proposal is part of comprehensive plan announced March 2, “Delivering the Future,” a roadmap intended to bring certainty to a viable Postal Service well into the future and to help it recover from dramatic losses in volume resulting from electronic diversion and exacerbated by the economic recession. Read the rest of this entry »

The U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia has denied a USPS request that it review a ruling by the Postal Regulatory Commission which gives the PRC oversight over its philatelic and leasing activities. The USPS had contended that while the law gave the PRC oversight responsibilities for both “postal” and “non-postal” activities, leasing and philately were neither, and were therefore exempt.

The Court noted the “heroic effort to create at least an ambiguity” undertaken by USPS lawyers, but concluded that the law clearly supported the PRC’s position, and denied the postal service’s petition for review.

The decision has no immediate impact on the agency’s ability to offer leasing and philatelic services, since the PRC was simply asserting its authority to regulate such services. In a second case, however, the USPS and its licensing partners sought review of the PRC’s decision to order the USPS to stop licensing its brand to third parties, finding that “a public need for third-party retailing of USPS-branded mailing and shipping supplies has not been demonstrated.”

Given today’s decision, it seems likely that the USPS would lose that appeal as well if it were to proceed to trial.

Appeals Court decision in PRC v USPS

Washington, DC – The Postal Regulatory Commission today issued its Annual Compliance Determination (ACD) assessing the financial and service performance of the Postal Service in fiscal year (FY) 2009.

The Commission reported that 14 separate Postal Service products or services failed to cover their direct costs. Shortfalls in these products cost the Postal Service $1.7 billion dollars in FY 2009. Despite surpluses in other products such as First-Class Mail, the Postal Service lost $3.8 billion overall.

The report also identifies 30 instances of workshare discounts offered to large mailers where the discounts exceeded the savings to the Postal Service from the work performed by the mailers. Only in 17 of those instances could the Postal Service show that special circumstances justified the discount.

In issuing the report Chairman Ruth Y. Goldway said: “The ACD is the primary tool established by the Postal Accountability and Enhancement Act to ensure that the Postal Service is accountable for and transparent in its operations and service to the public. Unlike the Postal Service’s recently announced ten-year plan, the ACD reports on where the Postal Service is now and provides direction on what can be done in the short term to improve revenues, service levels and equity among rate payers.”

The ACD also reported on the Postal Service’s performance for delivery of each distinct class of mail, on consumer access to postal services, and customer satisfaction. The Postal Service had generally high performance levels for delivery of First-Class letters, but it performed well below target delivery levels for periodicals and packages. The Commission closely monitors the Postal Service’s performance and is pressing for the further development of measurement systems to assure speed of delivery and customer satisfaction.

The ACD also provides a detailed analysis of the Postal Service’s deteriorating financial situation. It is questionable whether the Service has maintained the capacity to provide fundamental postal services to the Nation as required by law in the future. Mail volume declines caused by the severe economic recession, combined with longer-term trends that replaced mail with digital communications led to reduced revenues in FY 2009. But losses were also caused by the requirement – in place since 2007 – that the Postal Service annually prepay over $5 billion for retiree healthcare benefits. The Postal Service ended FY 2009 with a $3.8 billion loss despite receiving $4 billion in temporary legislative relief from its requirement to prepay those benefits.

In the interests of clarity and accountability, Chairman Goldway filed a separate, concurring opinion choosing to use the term “not in compliance” to describe Postal Service results that did not meet provisions of the law. But she affirmed that all of the regulatory directives to the Postal Service detailed in the report were adopted unanimously by the Commission.

“The Commission will play an essential role in the upcoming public debate on the future of the Postal Service and the future of universal service to the Nation. Our agency will provide the platform for all interests and all issues to be considered fairly. We will put to use our expertise in evaluating postal costs, analyzing economic trends and bringing together all parties in the mailing community. The ACD is a fundamental tool in that process.”

Citing volume reductions, the USPS Office of the Inspector General says that the Postal Service should negotiate the elimination of the Christmas Overtime provision from its contract with the rural carriers union. The OIG report notes that over the last five years, December mail volumes (excluding parcels) have not been higher than other months. The OIG claims eliminating Christmas OT would save almost $3 million a year.
The chart shows the sharp drop in rural Christmas OT over the last several years. The report finds that reduction insufficient:

Christmas mail volume no longer supports the need for overtime and the associated NRLCA agreement supplemental Christmas overtime pay provision. Specifically, for five consecutive years, the December total delivered mail volume has been less than total delivered mail volume in the months of October, which had the highest mail volume for each of the years. In fact, during October 2004, total delivered mail volume was 5.4 percent higher than in December 2004. Four years later, the percentage difference had risen to approximately 10.5 percent.

The report admits that parcel volumes continue to spike in December, as shown on this chart:

The report suggests that “carriers could absorb any increase in parcel volume with their regular hours during the Christmas mailing season”, but provides no specific analysis to support that conclusion.

Rural Delivery Christmas Operations (Report Number DR-AR-10-003)

WASHINGTON, March 29– The national president of the 295,000-member National Association of Letter Carriers union (NALC) today criticized the U.S. Postal Service for arrogantly lobbying the general public with a misleading Internet web site to win approval of elimination of Saturday mail delivery despite the fact that Congress has shown little interest in such a move.

NALC President Fredric V. Rolando said the recently announced postal web site offers misleading information and planning guides for businesses and households regarding its plan to cut Saturday collection and mail delivery services.

“The arrogance of the Postal Service in this campaign to lobby the public to embrace five-day delivery as the answer to the Postal Service’s problem is astounding,” he said. “Given that Congress has shown very little interest in eliminating Saturday service and must approve any change, the Postal Service should focus its energies on real solutions, not risky and counterproductive service cuts.”

“The Postal Service should stand down on this reckless drive to end Saturday delivery,” Rolando added. “It would do more harm than good and it distracts us from the real solution, eliminating the crushing burden of a deeply flawed health benefits pre-funding policy.”

Rolando said the Postal Service’s move has forced the union to set up its own special web site that will provide the news media and general public with complete information on why the proposed change to five-day delivery is the wrong way to go to secure the long-term viability of the Postal Service.

The NALC special web site is http://nalc.org/postal/reform/index.html.

“What makes matters worse is that the Postal Service is sending a very confusing message to Congress,” Rolando said. “Just a week ago, Postmaster General John Potter told a Senate hearing that ‘we wouldn’t have to go to five-day delivery’ if Congress corrected the deeply flawed retiree health pre-funding policy.”

Rolando emphasized that the decision to reduce the level of service and slow mail service in America is not the Postal Service’s to make.

“Only the Congress can authorize this change. The website and the public relations campaign launched by the Postal Service appears designed to fool mailers and the American people that 5-day delivery is a done deal,” Rolando added.

He said the Postal Service took the outrageous step to launch the deceptive web site:

* Despite the fact that current law requires 6-day delivery and that Congress has not given its approval to the Postal Service’s proposal to cancel delivery and collections services on Saturday;
* Despite the fact that neither the Appropriations Committees nor the Postal Service’s oversight committees have even held hearings on the radical proposal to slow service and destroy 50,000 to 80,000 good jobs in the middle of a jobs crisis; and
* Despite the fact that the Postal Service had not yet filed for an advisory opinion from the Postal Regulatory Commission (PRC), which must hold hearings and subject the Postal Service’s questionable financial claims to democratic scrutiny.

Over the past few years, the NALC has led the drive to reform the pre-funding policy. That drive has been assisted in recent months by reports of the Postal Service’s own Inspector General that show that, measured accurately, the USPS surplus in the Civil Service Retirement Fund is large enough to fully fund future retiree health benefits. Fixing this problem would save the USPS at least $8 billion annually far more the speculative $3 billion annual savings the USPS claims it can get from reducing serve.

The 295,000-member NALC represents city delivery letter carriers in all 50 states and U.S. jurisdictions employed by the U.S. Postal Service, along with retired letter carriers.

WASHINGTON, D.C. – On March 25, 2010, Reps. Lynch, Chaffetz and Davis announced the reconvening of the Congressional Postal Caucus (CPC). Recently, the United States Postal Service unveiled a new business model to address unprecedented challenges largely due to the current economic environment and the rise in alternative means of communication. If nothing is done, the Postal Service expects to have an $8 billion shortfall by September 30, 2010 and suffer a net loss of $238 billion over the next 10 years.

Bringing the CPC back on line is intended to inspire and stimulate new ideas on how to put the Postal Service back on sound financial footing, assess the benefits and drawbacks of the proposals in Postal Service’s new business plan, and help Federal Policymakers tackle important postal matters such as 6‐day delivery. The caucus will allow for a productive exchange of information and insight among members and will make sure that Congress is well‐equipped to provide successful, permanent solutions to the Postal Service’s current and future issues. Collectively, the Members of the Congressional Postal Caucus will evaluate all viable options for securing a robust and vibrant Postal Service for years come.

According to CPC co‐chair, Stephen F. Lynch, “The Congressional Postal Caucus will ensure that Congress effectively addresses the most challenging and important postal issues of our time. I am excited to be involved with the restoration of this important organization and am looking forward to seeing the benefits that this collaborative effort will bring to the entire postal industry.”
“The U.S. Constitution grants Congress the authority to establish a postal system. In recent years, despite significant increases in productivity and reductions in work force, the US Postal System still faces significant fiscal challenges due to changes in consumer preferences. The Postal Caucus will serve as a forum to discuss proposals to restore fiscal stability to the USPS,” CPC co‐chair Jason Chaffetz said.

“The challenges facing the Postal Service reflect, in large part, deep going technical, economic and social changes now transforming our information infrastructure. The Congressional Postal Caucus will provide an indispensable forum for the development of public policy consistent with the all of the demands we place on the Postal Service of the 21st century,” advised Danny K. Davis, CPC co‐chair.

WASHINGTON — When it comes to customer service, the U.S. Postal Service doesn’t rest on its laurels, so it recently launched a new measurement system designed to better understand customers’ total experience doing business with USPS at every level of the organization.

The Customer Experience Measurement (CEM) assesses end-to-end service with the Postal Service by allowing customers to provide ratings on four separate Postal Service experiences: receiving mail, sending mail, visiting the Post Office and contacting the Postal Service for assistance.

“Through added insights and actionable data, CEM will help the Postal Service more precisely identify customer needs across all channels and find new ways to provide greater customer service,” said Delores J. Killette, vice president and Consumer Advocate. “We will now be measuring and reporting on areas that really matter to our customers, and this information will help Postal Service managers take actions to improve service,” added Killette.

CEM replaces the measurement system that has been used since the early 1990s. The new system provides ongoing assessment of customer experiences through a series of diagnostic questions for both residential and business customers. The surveys are administered by an independent market research firm using both mail and online surveys. And, unlike the previous system, CEM allows customers to provide separate ratings for various kinds of experiences.

For the Postal Service’s first fiscal quarter, beginning Oct. 1, 2009, and ending Dec. 31, 2009,

86.2 percent of residential customers and 81.3 percent of small and medium business customers surveyed reported being “very satisfied” or “mostly satisfied” overall with doing business with the Postal Service. Other responses included:

Customers surveyed who were very/mostly satisfied

• Receiving mail: 89.7 percent for residential and 86.1 percent for small and medium business customers
• Sending mail: 88.8 percent for residential and 84.7 percent for small and medium business customers
• Post Office experience: 81.8 percent for residential and 76.6 percent for small and medium business customers
• Contact experience: 61.7 percent for residential and 51.4 percent for small and medium business customers

“These results set the baseline,” said Killette. “Now that we have more specific, actionable information, we will be able to target improvement initiatives and monitor progress.”

The Postal Service also maintained high levels of delivery service performance during the first part of its fiscal year. On-time national performance for single-piece First-Class Mail overnight was 95.8 percent, up slightly from the same period last year (95.6 percent). Other results were as follows:

• 92.3 percent on-time service performance for two-day single-piece First-Class Mail
• 89.1 percent on-time service performance for three-day single-piece First-Class Mail
• 83.8 percent on-time service performance for single-piece First-Class Mail international

Lifestyles and ways of doing business have changed dramatically over the past two decades. Better understanding of customer patterns is an important part of expanding access to Postal Service products, creating increased choices and convenience for customers.

The US Postal Service lost $611 million in February, bringing its fiscal year to date losses to $1.5 billion. The loss reflects the continuing impact of the so-called Retiree Health Benefit Trust Fund. Without the $643 million charge for March, the USPS would actually have shown a profit of $32 million for the month, and would be in the black by about $1.7 billion for the year.

Mail volume and revenue continued to slide. First class mail volume was down -9.4% compared with February 2009. Standard mail was up just slightly from last year, and the lower priced service accounted for 51% of total mail volume. Shipping service volumes were also up slightly. Overall revenue was down 3.5%.

USPS expenses were down by 3.9%. Salaries and benefits for employees were down by 6.9% from last year. In the first five months of the current fiscal year, the USPS has reduced expenses by $1.2 billion compared with the same period last year.

Full report (.pdf file)