Postal & Distribution
Postal & Distribution
If you can't get your catalogs and your packages delivered, you're pretty much out of business. That's why we've devoted this section to recent CATALOG AGE articles about the U.S. Postal Service and commercial carriers--and how to work most efficiently with them.
USPS Revises Flats Sequencing System Program
Due to declining volumes of catalogs and periodicals, the U.S. Postal Service is adding nearly 300 zip codes to the list of areas that will be served by the Flats Sequencing System....
UPS to Buy Overnite, Adding LTL Shipping Arm
United Parcel Service is buying Richmond, VA-based Overnite Corp for $1.25 billion. The acquisition will enable UPS to expand its ground freight services in North America—specifically its less-than-truckload (LTL) services. ...
Negotiating a better parcel carrier contract
Now that postal rates are likely to be going up next year (see cover story), it's more important than ever to negotiate or renegotiatiate your parcel-carrier...
USPS makes its rate case
When the U.S. Postal Service filed for a 5.4% average rate increase on April 8, the announcement was almost anticlimactic. Only six months earlier, observers...
Postal reform gets rolling
In addition to the lower-than-expected proposed rate increase and the fact that it may not happen at all there's more cause for optimism: The House Government...
Missing catalogs has coffee mailer steaming
A Stoughton, WI-based coffee mailer is wondering about the whereabouts of some 4,500 catalogs. Andrew Billman, cofounder of coffee gifts merchant The...
The USPS Submits 5.4 % Postal Rate Increase
The U.S. Postal Service today filed a 5.4% postal rate increase on almost all classes and subclasses of mail and special services. ...
Live from the National Postal Forum: PMG Confirms 5%-6% Rate Hike Likely
A keynote address that included images on five plasma TV screens, elaborate slide presentations, a video, and even a short performance from a local band kicked off the 2005 National Postal Forum at the Opryland Hotel and Convention Center here on March 21. More exciting than the bells and whistles, though, was Postmaster General John Potter’s confirmation that next year’s postal rate hike would likely average no more than 6%...
Postal Rate Hike May Be Lower Than Expected
For months mailers and pundits have whispered that a double-digit postal rate increase was all but inevitable in 2006. But new rumors put the increase at something like 6% for next year, followed by a 4%-5% hike in 2007....
Postal Reform Bill Reintroduced as New Congress Convenes
When the 109th Congress convened in Washington on Jan. 4, catalogers received some encouraging news. Rep. John McHugh (R-NY) wasted no time in reintroducing the Postal Accountability and Enhancement Act (H.R. 22), which calls for postal reform....
Postal reform: the saga continues
Postal reform will not go down in the history books as one of the accomplishments of the 108th Congress. But mailers and marketers are hopeful that the...
On Strong Year, USPS Cautions
The U.S. Postal Service ended its fiscal year with a surplus for the second year in a row. But the agency warned that increased competition from other carriers and other media nonetheless threaten its future....
UPS, FedEx Raise Rates Again
Another year, another rate hike: Parcel carriers United Parcel Service and Federal Express are both raising rates on Jan. 3. Rates for UPS Ground, UPS...
October Deliverability Hurt by Election Mailings
If your October sales were softer than expected, the glut of political mailings may be to blame. According to New City, NY-based mail tracking service U.S. Monitor, direct mail pieces in October took an average of 9.84 days to reach customers, compared with 8.65 days in October 2003. ...
FedEx to Raise Rates Jan. 3
A week after United Parcel Service announced it would be raising rates on Jan. 3, fellow carrier Federal Express followed suit. Effective Jan. 3, Memphis-based FedEx will increase its published rates an average of 4.6% ...
Postal Reform: There's More Work to Do
The good news in the fight for postal reform is that there has been more legislative progress during the current session of Congress than there has been...
UPS to Raise Rates Jan. 3
United Parcel Service announced on Oct. 28 that it will raise rates Jan. 3. Rates for UPS Ground, UPS Air, UPS 3 Day Select, and U.S. international services will increase 2.9%....
DMA Chief to Members: Postal Reform Looks Dead...For Now
With neither of the committee-approved postal reform bills scheduled for consideration by the full House or Senate as of Oct. 7, Direct Marketing Association president/CEO John Greco declared in an Oct. 8 e-mail alert to members that postal reform this year “appears very unlikely” as the 108th Congress winds down....
USPS Test Leads to Testy Mailers
On the surface, it seemed like a harmless little experiment. But a July request by the U.S. Postal Service for a one-year test of the use of repositionable...
Parcel Shipping Consolidators Change Hands
Two leading catalog printers, RR Donnelley and Quad/Graphics, in August found buyers for their respective parcel shipping consolidation businesses, RR...
Catalog Legislation: Revisiting Postal Reform
I apologize for writing about postal reform again, but there have been many twists and reversals on the reform front, as well as many rumors spreading...
PRC Dismisses Mailer Complaint on Post-It Rate Test
The Postal Rate Commission (PRC) on Aug. 27 rejected a formal request made by a coalition of mailer groups to throw out a rate case for a year-long market test of the use of repositionable notes....
FedEx to Acquire Consolidator Parcel Direct
In a deal that will give Federal Express 80 more catalog parcel shipping customers and the opportunity to one-up rival United Parcel Service in the residential ground delivery market, FedEx on Aug. 9 agreed to acquire small package consolidator Parcel Direct from its parent firm, printer Quad/Graphics. ...
USPS, Imagitas Test Catalog Change-of-Address Program
New movers make great prospects for home furnishings and housewares catalogers. They can also be steady customers who seemingly disappear from a cataloger's...
It’s July--Do You Know Where Postal Reform Is?
The chances of the Postal Accountability and Enhancement Act (H.R. 4341) being passed before the end of this session of Congress are slim. But they do exist. ...
