News

The deadliest wildfire in California’s history, the Camp Fire, started on November 8 and tore across Northern California for over two weeks.

Last month, the Postal Service announced that Secure Destruction will be available for First-Class flat mail (aka flats) starting November 30. Secure Destruction is a USPS program that allows for First-Class™ undeliverable-as-addressed (UAA) mailpieces, returned-to-sender mail, to be securely disposed by the USPS.

The National Association of Presort Mailers (NAPM) Board of Directors elections will take place during the organization’s Annual Conference next February. If you’re interested in running for one of the three available positions or in nominating someone, you have until close of business on Friday December 21, 2018.

The new USPS® prices that will take effect on January 27, 2019 could mean that your 2019 postal budget might not be enough to cover the price increase.

As mentioned in last month’s newsletter, the Postal Service proposed new price changes for 2019.

The Postal Service’s Informed Delivery let’s people see scanned images of their mail before it arrives. About 13 million people use it. Unfortunately, a very small number of them are criminals.

The Postal Service™ is proposing price changes for both Market Dominant and Competitive products to become effective on January 27, 2019. We will also see Promotions in 2019.

REGISTER NOW and join us on Tuesday, December 4th, from 12:00 PM - 1:00 PM ET to hear how GrayHair can help your organization with the impact of the latest USPS® initiatives - Price Change, ACS™ billing and CASS™ Cycle O

In our August newsletter, we announced that the USPS was resuming billing ACS™ customers for ACS-related notifications and forwarding services. However, according to a September 28 USPS Industry Alert, some ACS record charges for the July 25 to August 24 period were flagged as “Unassociated,” meaning the USPS could not find any electronic documentation (eDoc) for those pieces, which is a requirement to get ACS records for free.

The holiday season is just around the corner. To help make sure that holiday mail and packages arrive by December 25, the USPS® has published a list of recommended deadlines for both domestic and international mail.

The Postal Service announced that Scott Bombaugh has been named Acting Vice President of Engineering Systems. In this capacity, he is “responsible for the design, development, deployment and life cycle support of mail processing systems and associated software, retail and delivery technology and scanning solutions.”

GrayHair is one of the sponsors of the Carolina Postal Forum being held on Friday, October 19, at the Elevation University City Conference Center in Charlotte, NC. The event features USPS® Postmaster General and CEO Megan Brennan as the keynote speaker.

GrayHair, a provider of mail tracking and addressing solutions to the largest mailers in the country, is excited to announce that GrayHair’s Director of Research and Development Adam Collinson will be one of the industry experts presenting in the Idealliance Solutions Theater at the upcoming PRINT 18 conference, which will be held from September 30 – October 2, 2018 at the McCormick Place convention center in Chicago.

Adam, one of the leading postal experts, will deliver two presentations at PRINT 18:

• “USPS Informed Visibility: Data Leading to Intelligence About Your Mail” – Monday, October 1, 10:30 a.m.
• “Addressing Characteristics Impacting Delivery” – Monday, October 1, 11:30 a.m.

Both presentations will be in the Idealliance Solutions Theater (Booth #3833).

For more information about PRINT 18 or the Association for Print Technologies, visit www.printtechnologies.org. For more information about Idealliance, visit www.idealliance.org.

Last month on August 28, the Senate confirmed President Trump’s USPS Board of Governors nominees Robert M. “Mike” Duncan of Kentucky and David C. Williams of Illinois. The Board had been without members since 2016. Duncan and Williams were nominated last fall. As a result of the confirmation, two of the nine empty seats have been filled.

On August 28, the same day that the Senate confirmed President Trump’s USPS® Board of Governors nominees Robert M. “Mike” Duncan and David C. Williams, the President announced that he intends to nominate two more people to the Board of Governors.

We are excited to announce that GrayHair’s Director of Research and Development Adam Collinson will be one of the industry experts presenting in the Idealliance Solutions Theater at the upcoming PRINT 18 conference, which will be held from September 30 – October 2, 2018 at the McCormick Place convention center in Chicago.

GrayHair is one of the sponsors for Idealliance’s next Postal Operations & Technologies Council (POTC) Meeting 2018-3, which will be held November 13 – 14, 2018, at The Westin Baltimore Washington Airport in Linthicum Heights, MD.

The Carolina Postal Forum, which was to be held this Friday, September 21, at the Elevation University City Conference Center in Charlotte, NC, has been postponed due to flooding.

GrayHair has been chosen as a finalist for this year’s Best Tech Work Culture category for the third Annual Timmy Awards. This award recognizes the top workplaces for tech professionals in the Philadelphia area. GrayHair joins an elite list of this year’s finalists, including: Guru Technologies, Red Spark, FreedomPay and AWeber, to name a few. You can support GrayHair by voting daily.

The USPS announced that starting August 24, 2018 the USPS will resume billing ACS™ customers for ACS-related notifications and forwarding services. In June, the USPS suspended ACS billing and started conducting an internal process review after it had identified a discrepancy in April and May billing cycle invoices.

As part of the Postal Service’s efforts to better use data and information and to improve customers’ experiences, the Postal Regulatory Commission (PRC) in Order No. 4697 approved the replacement of the External First-Class Measurement System (EXFC) with an Internal Service Performance Measurement System (SPM).

The Postal Service’s Electronic Product and Fulfillment (EPF) provides a secure site where subscribed product files can be downloaded. The Postal Service announced that it is decommissioning several key legacy EPF URLs that are being used to download files.

We are excited to announce that we are one of Mailing Systems Technology magazine’s 2018-2019 HOT COMPANIES. Mailing Systems Technology provides useful and relevant information to people who are responsible for mail center operations.

GrayHair, a provider of mail tracking and addressing solutions to the largest mailers in the country, will be a Gold-level sponsor, as well as exhibiting, at the fourth annual thINK 2018 Conference in Boca Raton, FL. This event brings together the largest gathering of users of Canon Solutions as well as leaders involved in the printing, postal, and documentation management sectors. GrayHair will be discussing the challenges that those involved in the printing and mailing industries continue to the face in the changing landscapes of both industries.

This year’s event keynote speaker will be Ted Rubin, a leading social marketing strategist, speaker, acting CMO of Brand Innovators, and Co-Founder of Prevailing Path. Other speakers include Gary Reblin, USPS Vice President, Product Innovation, and closing keynote, Jamie Clarke,  adventurer, CEO of LiveOutThere.com, and Performance Coach for the 2018 Stanley Cup Champion Washington Capitals.

thINK is an independent community of Canon Solutions America production print customers, solution partners, and print industry experts, and Canon Solutions America is a proud executive sponsor. Led by some of the most successful inkjet service providers in the country, it provides a forum for members to network, gain knowledge, discuss common challenges, and share best

On July 5, 2018, the Postal Regulatory Commission (PRC) issued Order 4697 approving the use of internal measurement systems by the USPS®. PI2015-1 was established on January 29, 2015 by the PRC to consider a Postal Service™ proposal concerning new internal service performance measurement systems for several of the USPS market dominant products.

On Thursday, July 12, the U.S. Supreme Court’s 5-4 decision in South Dakota v. Wayfair overturned the physical presence standard adopted in Quill v. North Dakota, which established that online retailers could only be required to collect state and local sales taxes in jurisdictions where they operated a warehouse, office, or some other physical presence.

On July 11, Idealliance announced that Vice President Timothy Baechle will become the non-profit organization’s new Chief Executive Officer effective October 1, 2018. Baechle is replacing David Steinhardt, who served as President and CEO since 2001.

What event says GrayHair more than the Dog Days of Summer Family Festival? The Smithsonian’s National Postal Museum is celebrating the Dog Days of Summer on July 28 and 29, 2018, from 10:00 AM to 3:00 PM (both days) with activities taking place throughout the museum.

On June 14, the House passed the Securing the International Mail Against Opioids Act of 2018 (H.R. 5788). The aim of the bill is to prevent the shipment of synthetic opioids and other narcotics into the U.S. through the international mail system.

Effective September 1, 2018, all new payment accounts must be established through EPS. Also, CAPS (Centralized Accounting Processing System) will be retired effective April 1, 2019. All eligible products must be migrated from CAPS to EPS by this date. The USPS is encouraging customers to migrate before this date.