What Qualifies as Heroic? The USPS!
Following Hurricane Maria, the USPS® mail carriers were hailed as heroes. With power outages and Internet connections nonexistent, 99 of the 128 post offices in Puerto Rico continued to deliver mail providing much needed connections and comfort between island residents and their families around the world. Since the beginning of October, the Postal Service™ has been delivering letters and care packages to family members desperate for news.
Closing the Loop Part 1: Addressing Your Data
For a majority of businesses, direct mail is the heart of communications: invoicing and remittance, marketing, sales, customer support, and fraud prevention. Address data is the beat of that heart.
USPS® Files Market Dominant and Competitive Price Changes with PRC
The U.S. Postal Service™ filed Market Dominant and Competitive Price Changes with the Postal Regulatory Commission (PRC) on October 6, 2017. These filings were approved by the last member of the USPS Board of Governors (BOG) last November prior to his term expiring. The prices will go into effect on January 21, 2018, pending PRC approval.
Love Beyond Mail
When you think ‘GrayHair’, we hope our 400 years of merged postal experience comes to mind. Maybe you think of us as the largest mail tracking company in the world or about our proprietary address cleansing services or our amazing customer service.
Using Informed Delivery for Marketing
Nearly everyone is interested in what will be in their mailbox today. Mailers now have the ability to get messages to consumers as they preview their mailbox contents online.
USPS® Adds to Product Team
The USPS has been discussing the need for product management leadership with the industry for some time. As a result of these discussions, the USPS has added three new positions to its Product Team and announced it at the Mailers’ Technical Advisory Committee (MTAC) August meeting.
Move Update Assessments Due to Start March 2018
As mentioned in our previous issue of GHS Informed, the USPS® is changing the method for measuring compliance for meeting the Move Update requirements to a Census based approach. The change is going into effect on January 21, 2018 to coincide with the next Price Change. Assessments will begin March of 2018, based on February data, for any pieces over the threshold of 0.5%.
The old MERLIN® machine is being retired and replaced by scans off of Mail Processing Equipment (MPE). The USPS will use scans from MPE to determine whether addresses for First-Class Mail® and USPS Marketing Mail® letters and flats have been updated within 95 days of the mailing date. Compliance will be measured across a calendar month at the Mail Service Provider level.
Lack of USPS Promotions for 2018
Every year, mailers have the ability to take advantage of various USPS promotions, which provide mailers with discounts and incentives to make use of new and innovative business technologies, such as color transpromo, direct mail starter and tactile, sensory and interactive mailpiece engagement. What’s being offered in 2018? Nothing.
2018 doesn’t bring the same opportunity for mailers to participate in promotions. So what does this have to do with a Board of Governors?
