Arandell Corporation

Don Landis, VP, Postal Affairs

Since the recent announcement of the approval of the USPS Summer Sale, Arandell’s postal department has been a flurry with questions from customers, prospects and even people with whom we do not do business. This is the first time in history that the USPS is offering mailers an incentive and mailers are very excited about a potential reduction in their postage. In order to proactively address some of the questions that are coming in, Don Landis, VP of Postal Affairs and Susan Pinter, Director of Postal Affairs recorded a podcast of Frequently Asked Questions, which are listed below.

Click below to hear the podcast.

Q: Can you provide a brief explanation of the Summer Sale?

The industry has been asking the postal service for an incentive program for several years now, whether it be a seasonal incentive, a prospecting incentive, etc. The postal service, in return, has been asking mailers how such a system would even work.

With mail volume being down as it is and postal revenue at an all-time low, the post office has come up with a program to gain more volume during periods of time when volume is traditionally low. The hope is that mail that was not originally planned for the fall months will be added. Everyone is happy that the post office is offering the program and is looking forward to similar programs in the future.

Q: Who is eligible? What qualifications need to be met?

Out of 100,000 standard mailers, we anticipate that about 3,000 mailers will be eligible for the summer sale rebate. To be eligible, mailers need to have mailed 1,000,000 pieces through a permit during the period of October 1, 2007 through March 31, 2008. It is important to note that the mail does not have to be from one location…it can be from multiple.

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Don Landis, VP, Postal Affairs

I have attended several postal meetings recently where postal officials updated the industry on the status of the FSS. Click here to see the FSS in action. It seems the program is back on track after some start-up delays. I would suspect that in the near future the postal service is going to start asking or requiring U.S. mailers to prepare flats for the FSS. 

Why are they implementing FSS?

The FSS sorts flats in Carrier Walk Sequence. (Carrier Walk Sequence is just a fancy term for putting mail in the order that it is delivered). The more the USPS can automate the daily tasks of the carrier, the less expensive it will be for the USPS to deliver the mail. Because the USPS is swimming in hot water, you can imagine it will continue to jump at any opportunity to make money.

How will this affect me?

First, we will start to see the disappearance of the carrier route flat discount. The FSS machines will start to do what mass mailers are doing right now, putting flats in Carrier Walk Sequence. The USPS estimates the FSS will sort about 80% of the flat volume when installation is complete.  That will still leave 20% of the flats eligible for the carrier route discount, and therefore only 20% which is eligible for co-mail savings.

How to get the savings back

To compensate for the loss of co-mail savings the USPS has stated they are going to give catalogers a discount if they organize their shipping pallets to fit the FSS machine requirements. This process is called co-palletization.

Now, to be frank, I am not sure if the co-palletization savings is ever really going to happen. We have been told and promised by the USPS that we would have savings before, but nothing ever follows through.

If we lose co-mail savings most catalogers would see a 5-10% increase in postage! Postage continues to increase and savings is decreasing. Can we really afford to pay more for mail?

If you are sick of paying more, and more and MORE for postage email the American Catalogers Mailers Association. Catalogs need to have a voice before our postage savings are taken away.

Don Landis, VP, Postal Affairs

We are proud to annouce Arandell’s very own Don Landis was recently featured on the MCM Radio wth Jim Tierney. Click on the link below to learn Don’s perspective on:

• the upcoming USPS Summer Sale
• the replacement of the POSTnet Barcode with Intelligent Mail Barcode (IMB),
• the effects Flat Sequence System or FSS will have on co-mail savings,
• and the financial health of the United States Postal Services.