When it comes to mail, customers want visibility — that much is clear. The U.S. Postal Service’s answer is the Informed Visibility (IV) data analytics platform, which provides customers with full visibility for all mail and packages.
The Postal Service is leveraging this system to compete in today’s marketplace to gain customers’ confidence that mail is still a relevant form of communication. So, it’s an important investment.
It’s hard to argue with the rationale behind rightsizing the postal network. With mail volumes in decline, it made sense for the U.S. Postal Service to see if it could consolidate facilities and equipment.
That’s what USPS did from 2011 to 2015 as part of a two-phased network rationalization plan when it consolidated 223 facilities. As part of Phase II, the Postal Service also revised its First-Class Mail service standards, eliminating overnight delivery for single-piece FCM and shifting some FCM from the two-day service standard to three days.
It has been a dozen years since the U.S. Postal Service introduced the Intelligent Mail barcode (IMb) to sort and track individual letters, cards, and flats. In many ways, the IMb has lived up to its early promise of many tools in a single barcode.
A microbusiness is just what its name implies. Very small. As in nine employees or less. But don’t let size fool you — microbusinesses are essential to the U.S. economy, making up roughly 75 percent of private businesses.
You can find microbusinesses in agriculture, law, and online...
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Like clockwork they arrive: Halloween, Thanksgiving, and then the SARC.
The SARC?! Yes, we submit our Semiannual Report to Congress, or SARC, in the late fall and spring each year. This SARC outlines our work and activities for the six-month period of April 1 through September 30, 2018,...
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This holiday season it’s a buyer’s market and online retailers are pulling out the stops to woo customers, most notably with free shipping. Free shipping is a perennial holiday perk, yes, but this year some retailers have waived a minimum order to get free delivery.
“In the eyes of...
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The Postal Service has service performance goals for time it should take to deliver a piece of mail after it is collected. These goals are called Service Standards, and they vary by class of mail and by distance between collection and delivery locations.
We plan to analyze service...
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The Postal Service has completed several initiatives over the past five years to reduce costs and optimize its processing network. One of those initiatives is to Optimize the Network Platform. The initiative is responsible for evaluating, right-sizing, and equipping the mail-processing...
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The U.S. Postal Service must maintain public trust and security of the mail as well as assure confidence in the reliability and integrity of its employees. To accomplish this, the Postal Service selects and retains qualified individuals who meet Postal Service security interests as well as the...
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