Test mailboxes in rural and suburban communities in California, Colorado and North Dakota are popular with customers and postal employees. The mailboxes are the same height as normal mailboxes but wider to accommodate the ever-growing number of packages received by customers. Customers volunteered to test the boxes earlier this year. Read more Read more
As Chairman of the House Oversight Committee, Jason Chaffetz, (R-UT) is working to improve relationships with Democrats. He has visited ranking member Elijah Cummings (D-MD) in Cummings’ home district, and has invited longtime postal reform advocate Gerald Connolly (D-VA) to join the Subcommittee on Government Operations, which oversees the USPS. Democrats have praised Chaffetz’s efforts,…
The USPS is preparing to replace its fleet of long life vehicles or LLVs. On July 6, 2015 the Postal Service announced it has awarded a contract to Morgan Olson LLC to build 3,339 new delivery trucks. The contract is worth more than one quarter of a billion dollars. The new vehicle –“Walk-In Body Intermediate…
People may react faster to email advertisements, but they are more emotionally attached to hard copy mail, according to a USPS Inspector General (IG) June white paper. Direct mail made up 31% of USPS total revenue in 2014. The IG worked with Temple University’s Center for Neural Decision Making in a study to determine consumer’s…
Erica Farmer and Marc Whitacre couldn’t just slap on a coat of paint and move into their new house because their home is one of America’s treasures: an abandoned post office in Havre, Montana, that’s on the National Register of Historic Places. Read more
E-commerce is growing dramatically. Competition is increasing among package delivery companies as customers increasingly favor online retailers over brick and mortar stores. Online shoppers want their purchases delivered quickly, reliably and affordably. Hence, the USPS must optimize its parcel delivery service to meet demand and increase revenue. The USPS Office of Inspector General (OIG) noted…
On July 9, 2015, Senator Heidi Heitkamp (D-ND) introduced (S.1742), The Rural Postal Act of 2015. This bill is intended to improve both rural mail service and the morale of rural postal workers. Following her “Fix My Mail” initiative—wherein Heitkamp examined the postal concerns of rural North Dakotans—Heitkamp has introduced a bill that proposes to…
Sales and leasebacks of real estate owned by the US Postal Service is one solution proposed by commentators for easing the USPS financial woes. Though the condition of the USPS’s finances has improved, the problem is far from resolved. Leveraging its real estate portfolio would provide necessary cash for upgrading its infrastructure and maintaining delivery…
In its April 22, 2015 report on the Postal Service’s management of CBRE real estate transactions, the USPS Office of Inspector General (OIG) recommended the Postal Service “terminate and recompete” the CBRE contract. The report is fourth in a series evaluating the Postal Service’s management over the global real estate firm. Two of the OIG…
The Postal Service is delaying an effort to close some mail processing facilities – putting on hold about 80 closures slated for this summer, according to the agency. Read more