With all those designer shoes, cutting-edge electronics, and trendy toys shipping into our homes via ecommerce, it’s only logical that sometimes the shoes won’t fit, the electronics won’t work, and the kids will have already moved on to the next hot toy.
The bottom line is that some of the stuff we buy needs to be returned. And that’s known as reverse logistics.
The story goes that Alibaba founder Jack Ma chose his company’s name for two reasons: He wanted to be ahead of Amazon alphabetically and he wanted a global-sounding name. It didn’t hurt that some people also associated the word Alibaba with “hidden treasure” – recalling the most famous story from The Arabian Nights.
Alibaba is China’s giant ecommerce platform that is now taking on the globe. Its September 2014 initial public offering in the United States was the largest ever, and Ma has signaled his interest in expanding here.
Here’s the good news: Mailers accept and support the U.S. Postal Service’s Seamless Acceptance (SA) program. And here’s the bad news: Implementing the program hasn’t been very seamless.
Ongoing data integrity problems, among other concerns, have delayed full implementation of the program. We found evidence of inaccuracy in the data and mailers raised similar concerns, prompting them to ignore the data, according to our recent audit report.
The Midwest is the nation’s “breadbasket.” New England has its Patriots. Appalachia loves its bluegrass music. And it never rains in Southern California. We all associate certain things with different regions of the country. Now, it seems, one of those things is mail volume.
Are all mailboxes equal? Not when it comes to advertising mail, which seems to invoke three critical factors normally associated with real estate – location, location, location.
It costs the U.S. Postal Service less to deliver mail to curbside mailboxes or neighborhood cluster boxes than to your door. That’s why there’s been talk of possibly eliminating door-to-door delivery as Canada Post has recently announced. But the move could cut more than costs; it could also cut the effectiveness of ad mail, which provides about $16 billion of revenue annually to the Postal Service.
Amateur astronomers are excited about the total solar eclipse set to appear (or disappear?) on August 21. This is the first time in 99 years a total solar eclipse will cross the entire United States.
Capitalizing on the public’s excitement, the U.S. Postal Service...
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With $72 billion in revenue and 154 billion pieces of mail moved in a year, the U.S. Postal Service deals in the billions. That’s why you sometimes hear people joke that “a few million here and a few million there and pretty soon you are talking about real money” with the USPS.
But even...
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How prepared is the U.S. Postal Service for a sudden increase in the price of diesel fuel? When diesel climbed by $2.03 a gallon from March 2009 to March 2012, the USPS’s fuel tab soared by $341 million.
It’s what happens when you operate one of the biggest vehicle fleets in the country:...
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The post office lobby is the principal business office of the Postal Service and often the only close-up view customers get of postal operations. The lobby’s appearance and maintenance directly affect the Postal Service’s image and are essential to its business. A bright, clean, and welcoming...
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The Postal Service has 137 contracting officers (CO) who manage contracts in three systems—the Contract Authoring and Management System, Transportation Contracting Support System, and electronic Facilities Management System. COs are granted authority to make purchases at one of four warrant...
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The Postal Service has 21 network distribution centers (NDCs), which consolidate mail processing and dispatch to increase operational efficiency. At 19 NDCs, there are also consolidation deconsolidation facilities (CDFs). When the combined contents of one to three trailers exceed 100 percent of...
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