Postmaster General Jack Potter told attendees at the Mailers Technical Advisory Committee meeting in Washington that despite the fact that times are still tough, the U.S Postal Service is working hard to continue being a good service for direct marketers and other mailers.
“We have to do our part to keep rates down and make sure to deliver mail on time,” Potter said. “We are going to try to do this by giving you more and more information about our mail as it moves through our system.”
Potter also thanked attendees for the rate case settlement, referring to the fact that many members of the mailing committee agreed to implement rates on June 30 instead of late September.
“I think it’s a tremendous display on your part, recognizing the difficulty we have, because we are asking you for money at a time when you are having difficult times,” Potter said. “The fact that you all rallied around that is very gratifying for me.”
Potter said that the USPS is still struggling with air transportation.
“This is a problem that ensued from 9/1l,” Potter said. “We are still not able to tender [First-Class] mail that is greater than 16 ounces to commercial aviation. We’ve expanded our contract with FedEx to get the lift that we need to deliver those packages.”
Potter also asked members of MTAC, which is comprised of major mailers and mailing associations, to update their databases of mailing addresses frequently in the next four or five months because the agency is going to make changes to some mail routes because the agency has seen some major shifts in volume, particularly in flats, which are down 12 to 15 percent.
“We have a very aggressive effort under way to take a look at our city routes, and make adjustments to them, and bring our use of resources in the delivery area down,” Potter said.
Potter also said that the final draft of the U.S. Postal Service's transformation plan would clearly outline the future goals of the USPS, despite the fact that the initial outline was poorly received by mailers and mailing groups.
Potter said that “everyone is going to be pleasantly surprised by the transformtion plan that comes out.”
