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TOP NEWS STORIES |
Letter Carrier Sounds Off on Introduction of FSS to Unit
A letter carrier in Northern Virginia who goes by the
screen name FSSbrat has posted accounts in PostalMag.com's
Letter Carriers Forum of the Postal
Service's implementation of FSS (Flats Sequencing System)
into their post office. The carrier describes problems of
compatibility with established work processes and new
FSS work processes that require a daily third bundle. -
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Postal Service Expands Access
"The stations are called Contract Postal Units and were opened
in the city as a response to the population surge in East
Baton Rouge Parish since Hurricane Katrina, said Judith A.
Brining, customer relations coordinator for the U.S. Postal
Service in Baton Rouge. "Like our online services, Contract
Postal Units are just another access channel for our
customers," Brining said." -
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Postal Service Submits Network Plan to Congress (PDF)
"Excerpt (page 38): Under these provisions, the Postal Service
requests authority from the Office of Personnel Management (OPM)
to offer eligible impacted employees opportunities to apply
for voluntary early retirement. It is the Postal Service's
policy to request such voluntary early retirement authority
from OPM even for impacted employees covered by collective
bargaining agreements that do not contain voluntary early
retirement provisions." (Source: PostCom.org) -
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Chart: Mail Delivery as Economic Bellwether
"Interestingly, volume for the USPS increased during the last
recession. Recently, Emek Basker of the University of Missouri
showed that consumers shop less at Wal-Mart when economic
times are good, and more when they need to stretch their
dollars. That would mean that the products Wal-Mart sells are
"inferior" in economic parlance. It wouldn't be out of the
question if the same holds true for the USPS." -
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Postal Service Consolidating Saturday Operations?
"A U.S. Postal official says processing mail sent in Fort
Smith on Saturdays at its Fayetteville facility isn't the
first step toward moving all Fort Smith processing to
northwest Arkansas.
The practice began Saturday, as part of a nationwide move to
consolidate Saturday operations, said Leisa
Tolliver-Gay, spokeswoman for the U.S. Postal Service in
Little Rock. Harrison processing is also being moved to
Fayetteville on Saturdays, while Russellville and Jonesboro
Saturday mail will be processed in North Little Rock,
Tolliver-Gay said. Tolliver-Gay said the move is being made
because of low mail volumes on Saturdays, created by the
absence of most business mail." -
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National League of Postmasters: Does Postal Reform Need
Reform? (PDF)
"If the days of increasing mail volumes are over, the
USPS will have to keep its cost increases below the CPI," says
David Straus, a partner with law firm Thompson Coburn LLP and
the postal counsel for American Business Media. "When 80
percent of your costs are labor-related and when Congress
seems to interfere whenever USPS wants to eliminate redundancy
in its physical plants, it will be extremely difficult to live
within the price cap without reducing service. And service
reductions could accelerate volume loss." -
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