On July 28, the US Post Office announced changes to its distribution system. According to a letter from Rick Coughlin, the Customer Relations Manager for Northern New England, the Post Office mail volume in 2008 was down "...9.5 billion pieces, and [they] project an additional 12 billion piece decrease this year." In response, they have "...realigned [their] transportation and delivery network to remain financially viable."
The upshot for mailers is that the hours during which a mailer may enter mail into the system have been reduced at the end of the day, which is the exact opposite of what would be more efficient for the mailers themselves. Mailers now must push their production back a day in order to meet the new, shorter insertion windows. At a time when the post office is struggling to remain relevant, effectively adding a day to the time to deliver mail is absurd.
The Post Office is not new to regulations that are convenient to themselves and detrimental to the customer. Recently, they changed the rules about how booklets were to be tabbed. Previously, tabs (tape circles that close the open edge) along the open long edge of the booklet were sufficient, but now, the booklets must have tabs on all three open sides. This triples the processing time and expense for mailers, since most mailers will send the piece through the tabber three times rather than invest hundreds of thousands of dollars in new tabbing equipment.
If the US Government wants to stimulate the economy, how about taking a look at the Post Office and how it seems to be working to make themselves the least convenient, least reliable, and least accommodating service available. No wonder email marketing is kicking the Post Office's behind.
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