Information Decades Too Late – Analysis

On November 24, the Postal Service published Postmarks and Postal Possession, its final rule about postmarks and their meaning.  While the document seeks to clarify that postmarks don’t mean what many Americans might think, it’s fifty years too late in doing so.  Moreover, given its association with the Regional Transportation Initiative, it contaminates a simple statement with other more subjective…

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The True Cost of Saving

Although there’s no transcript of a conversation, later events suggest that, at some point early in his tenure, former postmaster general Louis DeJoy asked why there were uniformed police circulating around USPS HQ.  Many companies have security guards, usually sourced from any of a variety of private companies, so it might have seemed curious to DeJoy that the Postal Service…

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Ensuring the Status Quo – Analysis

The Postal Service apparently wants to keep Doug Tulino on the job very badly. Tulino has spent his postal career in labor relations and human resources, becoming chief human resources officer and executive vice-president in 2020.  Despite little if any experience in field operations or management, he was chosen by former postmaster general Louis DeJoy to serve as deputy PMG. …

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Despite Lower Targets, Service Performance Worsens

PQ II/FY 2025 service performance continued an unimpressive pattern; the Postal Service’s own data reveals that most district and area scores continued to be below targets, even though the targets were significantly lower than in FY 2024. Moreover, only mail “in measurement” is reflected in USPS service scores and, for Marketing Mail, little other than destination-entered mail is measured, clearly…

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A New Leader for the USPS

Having been leaked to the press earlier in the week, the big news from the Governors of the Postal Service was somewhat anti-climactic when, during the Friday public session of their May 9-10 meeting, they announced the selection of David Steiner as the 76th postmaster general.  The official press release and concurrent Industry Alert contained the predictable paeans about the…

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DeJoy Turns to DOGE for Help – Analysis

In a three-and-a-half page letter sent March 13 to the leadership of the House and Senate and the respective committees with USPS oversight, Postmaster General Louis DeJoy recited – again – the many faults he found with the agency when he arrived, and listed seven areas in which his 10-year Plan has led to “impactful” accomplishments. The task list In…

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Closing but Not Closing

Post offices nationwide have typically served two purposes: retail in the front and carrier operations in the back.  Though some small offices in rural areas may have only a few or no carriers, larger towns and cities, as well as stations and branches of large post offices, more frequently have both. As Postmaster General Louis DeJoy has advanced his 10-Year…

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Perception vs Reality

Very few – if any – regular readers of Mailers Hub News may include in their daily routine monitoring the Federal Register or the docket postings on the Postal Regulatory Commission’s website.  Those who do, however, likely have noticed the dozens – hundreds – of Postal Service negotiated service agreements that have been filed and approved in recent months. Paperwork…

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Privatization – Analysis

As American politics veers again next year, one of the favored ideas that will re-emerge – as part of the broad push for “government efficiency” – will be the privatization of government services, replacing what the federal government does with the same or reduced services supplied by private sector companies. The USPS Likely to be on the list of potential…

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