postalnews blog

There was a relatively innocuous note on the Postcom web site last week announcing the retirement of a Postcom board member. Now we’ve never harbored the virulent dislike for the ‘big mailers’ represented by Postcom that some postal people seem to have- they are, after all, our customers, a concept that is, unfortunately, foreign to some of us.

What caught the attention of a postalnews.com reader about this particular customer, however, was the brief description of his career- prior to joining Postcom’s board as a representative of UPS, he was ”a Commissioner at the Postal Rate Commission, and a long-time staffer in the service of Senator Ted Stevens (R-AK). While on the Hill, he served as Republican Staff Director of the Senate Post Office and Civil Service Sub-Committee of the Senate Governmental Affairs Committee, and the same position on the Senate Rules Committee.”

Nothing especially sinister about that career path- the gentleman did what any of us might do given the opportunity, and put his expertise to good use. It is, however, the kind of revolving door employment history that raises serious questions about how our government operates. (And don’t hold your breath while the Democrats fix things- a story on Bloomberg Radio recently described how drug company lobbyists are preparing for the change in Congress- they’re shifting their campaign contributions to the Dems. Doesn’t sound like a recipe for change.)

“Join PostCom President Gene Del Polito and PostCom General Counsel Ian Volner in a discussion of some of the key provisions of the new Postal Accountability and Enhancement Act (H.R. 6407).”

Click here to download the file to your PC, or use the player to listen online.

“Join PostCom President Gene Del Polito and PostCom Vice President Kate Muth in their review of key postal events of the past week including the elections and its likely impact on postal reform and future postal rules.”

Click here to download the file to your PC, or use the player to listen online.

From Postcom:

“The margin of victory in the Virginia U.S. senatorial election may be slender, but it now looks as if the Democratic Party will be the majority party in both the House and Senate. Don’t expect much beyond the absolute minimum from the “lame duck” Congress. H.R. 22 is all but a footnote in American postal history.”

Here’s the second podcast from Postcom- this one features “PostCom President Gene Del Polito and Postal Consulting Services President Kathy Siviter discuss[ing] some of the concerns that were the subject of the most recent meeting of the PostCom Board of Directors” Click here to download the mp3 file, or double-click the play button below to listen online:

From the Postcom web site:

Postalnews.com (a web site frequented by postal employees) posted yesterday a letter from a BMG-Columbia House to the USPS’ chief operating officer which said that current USPS rate plans threaten to put his company out of business. The following are excerpts from some of the comments posted by some of the visitors to this site.

“Fantastic…..the less mail, the less work!!!!!!!”

“Quit selling the Cd’s and DVD’s for 1 penny for the first order jackasses. Make up the shortfall there and you can then absorb some of the increase and pass the remainder on to the customer. The Constitution calls for Congress to establish this mail service and all men are created equal but don’t see where it says businesses are created equal. Guess your lobbyists aren’t greasing the right palms.”

“It’s the beginning of the end.”

“Another rate increase? Do rate increases make up for lost business, or is business lost due to rate increases?”

“Out of business so what? Technology is changing. The car put the buggy business out of business, the internet, not postage will put these dolts out of business.”

“Their products end up seeming just like rackets anyway. good riddance.”

“They ship at media mail rates for next to nothing. Goodbye BMG and Columbia house.

Quite a collection. You’d never know they were talking about one of their “customers.”

On Tuesday the APWU submitted more interrogatories in the discovery phase of the plant consolidation case. These concerned the Waterbury consolidation, one of the ten AMP projects that the USPS submitted as examples of the consolidation process.

The APWU’s queries focused on specific operations that would be moved, and the before and after productivity implications of those moves.

Postcom submitted questions about the review and approval process for AMP proposals. The mailers organization also wants to know what steps the USPS takes to monitor and safeguard service during a consolidation.

In another interrogatory, Postcom asked about service measurement, and whether the USPS has actual service performance data for each of the 850,000 possible 3-digit ZIP code pairs. If it does not, the group asks how the USPS will evaluate the impact of consolidations on service.