Postal Service Offering the QR Code Discount for July and August 2012

The USPS is offering the QR mobile barcode discount again this year.  Please read through the details below to determine how you can take full advantage of the 2% discount this year.  Contact your NFocus Account Manager for additional questions.

 

3.0 Mobile Commerce and Personalization Promotion

 

3.1 Program Description and Scope

 

    [Revise 3.1 by incorporating the text of current items a and b into
the body of 3.1 and revising the text as follows:]
    The mobile commerce and personalization promotion provides a two
percent discount for pieces mailed at Presorted and automation prices
in mailings of First-Class Mail cards, letters, and flats, and Standard
Mail (including Nonprofit) letters and flats that include a
transactional two-dimensional mobile barcode when the mailpieces meet
all the conditions in these standards. Images such as watermarks and
tags that, when scanned, direct consumers to mobile-optimized sites
under conditions in 3.0 are also eligible. Automation pieces must bear
Intelligent Mail barcodes; pieces with POSTNET barcodes are not
eligible for this promotion. The promotion is valid for mailings
entered from July 1, 2012 through August 31, 2012. Plant-verified drop
shipment (PVDS) mailings meeting all relevant standards may be accepted
at origin as late as August 31, 2012 if they are entered no later than
September 15, 2012 at the destination.

 

3.2 Eligibility Standards

 

    [Revise 3.2 as follows:]
    To be eligible for the two percent discount, customers must
register on Business Customer Gateway at gateway.usps.com, and specify
which permits and CRIDs will participate in the promotion. Registration
opens May 1, 2012, and must be completed at least 24 hours prior to the
first mailing date. Mailpieces must be mailed under the following
conditions:
    a. A two-dimensional mobile barcode or similar image must be on
each mailpiece, either on the outside or printed on the contents of the
piece. Brief instructions or directional copy must be printed near the
barcode to instruct the recipient to scan the barcode. One-dimensional
barcodes do not qualify.
    b. The mobile barcode must be readable by a mobile device and must
lead to a mobile-optimized Web site. The barcode must be relevant to
the contents of the mailpiece. Scanning the barcode must lead the
consumer to a Web page that allows the recipient a good or service on
the mobile device, or to a personalized URL that leads to a Web page
unique to an individual recipient. In either situation, the Web site
must remain mobile-optimized. Barcodes with links that direct consumers
to sites that allow payment for prior or future purchases or that
encourage enrollment in online bill payment or paperless statement
services are not eligible for the discount. Mailpieces with mobile
barcodes that convey postage information, destination, sender, or a
machinable serial number for security also are not eligible for the
discount.
    c. The mailpieces with mobile barcodes must be one of the 
following:
    1. Presorted or automation First-Class Mail cards, letters, or
flats. Automation pieces must bear Intelligent Mail barcodes.
    2. Standard Mail (including Nonprofit) letters or flats.
    d. Postage must be paid by permit imprint or by affixing metered
postage or a precanceled stamp to each piece of mail; the postage
statement and mailing documentation must be submitted electronically.
Mailings that are prepared by an entity other than the mail owner must
indicate the owner's identity in the electronic documentation
(``eDoc''). The eDoc must identify the mail owner and mail preparer in
the By/For fields, either by Customer Registration ID (CRID), Mailer ID
(MID) or other account type assigned by the USPS. All Presorted and
automation pieces declared on a postage statement must contain a mobile
barcode that qualifies for the discount.
    e. Mailers must provide the USPS acceptance unit with an
unaddressed sample of the mailpiece that contains a mobile barcode. If
mobile personalization is used, at least two samples must be submitted,
demonstrating that the web addresses are unique to each addressee.
Mailers must also retain, until October 31, 2012, a sample of each
mailpiece claiming a discount.
    f. Other than a full-service Intelligent Mail discount (see
705.24), no other incentives apply for mailpieces claiming a discount
under this promotion.
    g. Participants must agree to participate in a survey conducted
during or after the promotional period.
    h. Federal government official mailings under OMAS are not eligible
for this promotion.

 

3.3 Discount

 

    [Revise the first sentence of 3.3 and add new second and third
sentences as follows:]
    Mailers must claim the two percent postage discount on the postage
statement at the time the statement is electronically submitted.
Mailings with postage affixed will deduct the discount amount from the
additional postage due, except that mail service providers authorized
to submit Value Added Refund (VAR) mailings may include the refund for
the incentive discount in the VAR amount. Pieces with metered postage
must bear an exact amount of postage as stipulated by the class and
shape of mail. Affixed postage values for metered mailings may be found
in the
[[Page 15607]]

Federal Register notice available at pe.usps.com. * * *
* * * * *
 We will publish an appropriate amendment to 39 CFR part 111 to
reflect these changes.

News of Interest – May 15th

National Journal: Republican leaders appear unable to muster votes for their preferred version-from House Oversight and Government Reform Chairman Darrell Issa, R-Calif.-but they are so far also unwilling to take up an alternative that the Senate passed last month with support from both parties. Without enactment of an overhaul bill, the self-supporting agency, which announced a $3.2 billion loss last quarter, has said it will default this fall on payments it owes. House GOP leaders say they want to move Issa’s bill. “The postal service needs more meaningful reform than the Senate bill provides,” Brendan Buck, a spokesman for Speaker John Boehner, R-Ohio, said. “They don’t even have enough Republican support,” said, Rep. Stephen Lynch, D-Mass., ranking member of the House Oversight and Government Reform subcommittee that oversees the postal service. Lynch, a supporter of postal unions that oppose the collective-bargaining changes in Issa’s bill, said Republicans will eventually have to bring up the Senate-passed bill and try to amend it. Not yet ready to concede that necessity, House Republicans appear stalled. They have placed no postal legislation on the House floor this week, and the chamber will be in recess starting this weekend and will not vote again until May 30. That means there will be no House action on a bill until June at the earliest.

 

Postal Regulatory Commission: The Postal Regulatory Commission has posted the latest recalculation of the average 12 month change in CPI-U — now set at 3.248%.

 

Sen. Tom Carper (D-Del.), co-author of the 21st Century Postal Service Act and chairman of the Senate subcommittee that oversees the Postal Service, has launched a new Web page that tracks the Postal Service’s record losses and puts those losses in perspective by highlighting how rapidly the institution is hemorrhaging money while the U.S. House of Representatives continues to delay taking action on a comprehensive postal reform bill.
Forbes: Advertising plays the same role in your media diet that vegetables play in your regular diet; most of us would prefer to skip that course and go straight to dessert. But, just like veggies, advertising plays an important role in sustaining a body; in this case, a diverse body of content. Advertising is the great subsidizer of the press, entertainment, and online services. Without advertising, we’d all be stuck picking up the tab for our media content and online services by either paying higher prices or higher taxes.

News of Interest – May 9th, 2012

Bloomberg Businessweek: Forty-one years ago Congress told the U.S. Postal Service to start acting like an independent business and pay its own way. Every time the Postal Service tries, something stands in the way: Congress. Facing annual losses of $18.2 billion by 2015 and a possible default this year, the Postal Service has a five-year plan for profitability. Each element of the plan has an opponent.

 

Washington Post: The U.S. Postal Service intends to announce Wednesday that it has found a way to save hundreds of rural post offices it had planned to close, in part by cutting hours of the postmasters and other workers that staff them, postal and congressional officials said. The move comes in response to pushback from members of Congress representing rural areas, who waged a vocal campaign in recent months to protect small post offices in their districts that were on the chopping block.

 

MediaDailyNews: Last week brought more bad news for the newspaper business, with the Washington Post Co. announcing that total revenues fell 7% from $1.04 billion in the first quarter of 2011 to $973 million in the first quarter of 2012, due to declines at its newspaper publishing and education divisions, while its cable TV division remained flat.

 

Lexington Herald-Leader: Max Heath — “Senate bill gives Postal Service best chance to prosper”

News of Interest – Capital Hill Update

The Hill: Lawmakers hoping to force a House vote on a Senate-passed postal reform bill believe some of their colleagues could be swayed by their message of saving jobs and rural access to postal services. Rep. Peter Welch (D-Vt.), who is circulating a letter of support for the Senate bill with Rep. Michael Grimm (R-N.Y.), also told The Hill that the measure has momentum behind it after clearing the Senate in late April. But top House Republicans – like Rep. Darrell Issa (R-Calif.), the chairman of the Oversight Committee and the sponsor of a GOP postal overhaul plan – have called the Senate plan insufficient, and Issa even suggested that the effects of the Senate bill become worse over time.

 

The Hill: Congress is on track to ignore most major tax and spending decisions until the lame-duck session or beyond but there are some bills that just can’t wait. For these, Congress will have to take a break from the campaign trail and work together — even if the result is to simply extend the status quo. The following is a list of must-pass legislation: Postal service reform — Three deadlines loom related to the troubled U.S. Postal Service. On May 15, USPS will move forward with consolidation plans that could shutter local post offices and processing facilities, in the absence of enacted reform legislation that helps it get back on solid financial footing. On Aug. 1, USPS will be required to make a $5.5 billion prefunding payment for retiree health benefits and that is followed by another $5.6 billion prefunding due on Sept. 30. USPS has said the payments cannot be made and Congress must waive the requirements.

 

The Economist: Hit hard by the recession and the march towards electronic mail, the Postal Service is in desperate need of reform. To its credit, it has produced a bold plan to cut costs and increase revenue. But the agency inhabits a unique place in America’s bureaucracy. Although it receives no public money, it is obliged to reach every house, at a fixed price, no matter what the cost; and Congress has the final say over its business plan.

 

Boston Herald: The U.S. Senate has passed a bill to tie the hands of the Postal Service in trying to mend its ragged finances. It’s an instance of cheap posturing if we ever saw one. Ignoring realities, the Senate forbade change in delivery standards for three years and ending Saturday delivery for two years, and any change in labor contracts at all.

News of Interest – Legislative News

USA Today: For the most part, the Postal Service is a business. But it has a 535-member board of lawmaker-directors who can’t resist second-guessing the business decisions the post office desperately needs to make to survive in the Internet era. If this were an ordinary business, it would have closed thousands of its under-utilized facilities and reduced staff far more than it has. Or it would have filed for bankruptcy. But unlike a real business, that’s not an option for one of the country’s oldest and most important institutions. A House plan sponsored by Rep. Darrell Issa, R-Calif., is closer to what’s needed. Postal unions insist that the core business is fine. But the post office’s core business isn’t fine. Even without the pre-funding, it’s losing money, and that will only get worse. There’s nothing pleasant about cutting jobs and closing post offices and mail processing centers. But the alternative is forcing taxpayers to subsidize a bloated system that operates at a loss. Unless Congress is willing to make tough choices, the Postal Service’s woes could make the bailouts of General Motors and Chrysler look like chump change.

 

USA Today: Opposing view by Sens. Lieberman, Collins, Carper, and Brown — By a strong bipartisan vote, the Senate passed a bill last week that gives USPS the authority it needs to right-size, modernize and remain competitive. It isn’t a perfect bill, but it would put USPS on a path toward financial stability. Nearly 80% of Postal Service costs are workforce-related; these must be confronted. Under the Senate bill, USPS would use the same kinds of retirement incentives that private industry uses to restructure and voluntarily “right-size” its workforce, to further reduce the postal workforce by 20%, or roughly 100,000 positions, eventually saving $8 billion a year. The bill also establishes an orderly and predictable process for achieving a more optimal network of post offices and mail processing plants, requiring involvement of local communities to ensure that essential services are preserved, while reducing mail processing centers by a third. It’s not enough just to cut expenses; USPS must grow revenue through innovation, new products and services in a digital age.

 

Washington Post: S.1789 leaves postal union leaders ambivalent, at best. John F. Hegarty, president of the National Postal Mail Handlers Union, said: “We’re not endorsing it whole¬¬heartedly. We’ve come out in cautious support, recognizing there are still some improvements that need to be made.” James Sauber, chief of staff for the National Association of Letter Carriers, said: “We’re sort of disappointed. . . . It’s sort of a missed opportunity, sort of tinkering around the edges.” And Greg Bell, executive vice president of the American Postal Workers Union, said: “It’s an improvement over the original bill, [but] we have some issues.” The first issue Bell cited is a provision in the legislation that would reduce some workers’ compensation payments three years after enactment, not including those who are totally and permanently disabled or already above retirement age. This would apply to federal employees generally, not just postal workers.

News of Interest – April 26th

Bloomberg Businessweek: A Senate bill to overhaul the cash- strapped U.S. Postal Service would make it more difficult to shutter post offices considered too costly to maintain. The legislation would create an appeal process to let customers protest plans to close individual offices. The Senate began voting today on proposed amendments to the bill, S. 1789, including at least eight that would delay decisions on shutting down postal sites.

 

Washington Post: The final bill (S. 1789) is expected to pass the Senate but faces an uncertain future. The House has yet to begin consideration of a different version of a postal bill, which seeks to create a national commission that would make major decisions on postal cuts and make it easier to eliminate Saturday delivery. The commission, which would have authority to do away with no-layoff clauses in postal employee contracts, is fiercely opposed by postal unions. “This of course kicks the can down the road,” complained Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., who unsuccessfully pushed for a commission in the Senate bill. He argued that the current bill failed to address longer-term fixes, instead hiding behind studies and reviews that unnecessarily delayed major decisions.

 

National Association of Letter Carriers: The NALC has argued for months that S. 1789 would fail to preserve the long-term viability of the Postal Service because it embraces the downsizing plans of Postmaster General Pat Donahoe. By voting against an amendment offered by Sen. Tom Udall (D-NM) to preserve six-day delivery (by a vote of 56 to 43) and by voting to slash federal employee workers’ compensation benefits (by a vote of 53 to 46), the Senate has failed to improve a deeply flawed bill. Tell your senators to vote “NO” on S. 1789.

 

The Star-Ledger: What many observers fail to give weight to, though, is just how burdensome the terms are under which the postal service is forced to operate. Congress has the obligation to change those terms if it wants the U.S. Postal Service to perform as a modern business. It isn’t a level playing field, not at all. Every effort the postal service has made to generate business (e.g. online bill paying; shipping certain products; providing new services; banking; phone cards, money transfers; email accounts) either private companies objected (e.g. Internet industry; banks; FedEx) or Congress itself (prompted by the lobbying crowd) put a stop to it, forcing the postal service to abandon the effort.

News of Interest – April 23rd

New York Times: How vital is the United States Postal Service? The Senate is attempting to answer that this week as it debates the service’s obvious need to drastically reform its business model in the age of electronic communication. Postal officials say they must close about 3,700 underused post offices (there are 32,000 nationally) while offering alternative services through local businesses. They also want to consolidate hundreds of regional processing centers and eliminate Saturday mail deliveries. Lawmakers in both houses, fearful of constituents’ wrath, would prefer to procrastinate as usual. But the quasi-independent service — which receives no revenue from the federal government but is subject to tight oversight from Congress — has set a May 15 deadline to begin making cutbacks if it is to avoid bankruptcy.

Washington Post: On Tuesday, the Senate is set to vote on up to 38 amendments to a major bipartisan bill that would reform the Postal Service, including proposals to end six-day mail delivery, continue six-day mail delivery, require USPS to wait two more years before closing small rural post offices, and to close post offices on Capitol Hill. As we’ve noted before, the issue is tricky to track because it doesn’t break down along traditional partisan or ideological lines. Instead, postal reform pits lawmakers from smaller rural states against colleagues from larger, more urban areas. Lawmakers who normally work closely together — such as Sens. Joseph I. Lieberman (I-Conn.) and John McCain (R-Ariz.) — are on opposing sides of the issue. Senate leaders may trim the list of amendments to 20 or fewer by votes beginning Tuesday. Lieberman, Senate Majority Leader Harry M. Reid (D-Nev.) and Sen. Susan Collins (R-Maine) negotiated late last week to permit votes on the amendments as a way to keep skittish colleagues happy and to allow at least a few of them the opportunity to say they tried to protect small post offices, the concerns of senior citizens and home-state businesses that rely on or profit from the mailing industry.

Dead Tree Edition: The longstanding problems of inaccurate pension estimates and slow pension payments for Postal Service and federal employees may finally be addressed by Congress. Sen. Mark Warner Sen. Mark Warner (D-VA) has proposed an amendment to the postal-reform bill in the Senate that would require monthly reports on the accuracy and timeliness of pension estimates, the backlog of retirement applications, and the status of the retirement systems modernization project.

New York Times: Well before online bill paying was popular, the Postal Service in 2000 began operating a secure system that would have allowed it to remain the primary conduit for most Americans’ monthly payments. Getty Images But the Internet industry objected, and Congress successfully pressured the Postal Service to abandon it. The same pattern has repeated several times over the last decade, with the Postal Service identifying a way to cope with the decline of traditional mail, only to have companies — and ultimately Congress — object.

National Association of Letter Carriers: NALC opposes S. 1789 as currently drafted and will urge senators to vote “NO” on Tuesday unless three amendments are adopted: The Udall Amendment (#2043) to strike the authorization to eliminate Saturday delivery in two years; The Shumer Amendment (#2050) to preserve door-to-door delivery for 35 million to 40 million households that would be phased out under S. 1789 as drafted; and The Akaka Amendment (#2034) to delete the draconian reform of the federal workers compensation system (FECA) and replace it with the NALC-supported FECA reform bill (H.R. 2465) that already has passed the House of Representatives.

News of Interest – Senate Postal Reform Bill

Government Executive: The debate on the 21st Century Postal Service Act (S. 1789) is slated to continue in the coming days, with additional amendments likely to be introduced. The Senate will vote on the bill after 30 hours of floor debate. Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., has told senators that he would like the vote wrapped up by the end of this week, but it could spill into next week, according to senate aides with knowledge of the process. The House still is working to gather enough Democratic votes to pass its major postal reform bill. On Tuesday, the National Association of Letter Carriers released its own overhaul recommendations, developed with Lazard Group, an independent advisory firm. The union, which represents about 275,000 mostly urban letter carriers, proposed addressing USPS prefunding requirements, growing some of its services, and raising selected postage and parcel rates. The Senate bill is “a stop-gap, not a solution,” NALC said.

 

Wall Street Journal: The nation’s largest mail-carriers union wants the U.S. Postal Service to raise stamp prices and expand mail delivery. In a report to be released Tuesday, it sharply criticizes the agency’s own rescue plan and argues the Postal Service will become profitable only if it restructures itself like a business.

 

Coalition for a 21st Century Postal Service: The Coalition for a 21st Century Postal Service supports the Manager’s Amendment to S.1789 being offered by the bill sponsors, and applauds the efforts they and their staffs have put in to reach a result that takes major steps toward preserving a useful postal system to serve the mailing public. We strongly recommend a yes vote for this very constructive substitute. We understand there will be amendments offered to the substitute. We urge opposition to any that would direct or cause rate increases beyond the agreed-upon provisions in section 402. Rate increases of any kind beyond the annual CPI increases in current law will prove toxic to USPS, driving substantial additional mail volume out of the system, and worsening an already grave financial situation.

 

Washington Post: The Senate is slated to resume consideration of legislation that would significantly overhaul the operations and finances of the U.S. Postal Service as the struggling agency nears the end of a self-imposed moratorium on closing post offices and processing facilities. The bill set for debate in the coming days is co-sponsored by Sens. Joseph I. Lieberman (I-Conn.), Susan Collins (R-Maine), Tom Carper (D-Del.) and Scott Brown (R-Mass.) and would delay the Postal Service’s move to a five-day delivery schedule for at least two more years while requiring the agency to downsize, rather than close, most of the processing facilities it wants to close. In recent weeks, the bill has been changed to address the concerns of several senators — mostly from smaller, rural states — regarding how and when the Postal Service can shutter small post offices.

USPS Proposed Destination Service Areas

In a move to help ensure the future of the nation’s mail system, the Postal Service has completed its area mail processing consolidation studies announced in September 2011.

Consolidation implementation is contingent on the outcome of pending rulemaking regarding a proposal to revise existing service standards.

Implementation would not occur before before May 15, 2012, due to the Postal Service’s commitment to members of the U.S. Senate not to close or consolidate any postal facility prior to that date.

 

Facility List

http://about.usps.com/news/facility-studies/facility-list-02222012.htm

 

FAQs

http://about.usps.com/news/facility-studies/business-faqs.htm

 

USPS Profitability Plan

http://about.usps.com/news/national-releases/2012/pr12_0217profitability.pdf

 

Map of Proposed Destination Service Areas

Map of Proposed Destination Service Areas

Click Map for Larger View

Lancaster DWTS is May 11th, 2012!

If you are not a regular viewer of the hit TV show, then you may not know that DWTS is short for “Dancing With The Stars”.  Lancaster DWTS is a fundraising event that will benefit the Partners For Youth at the Fox Family YMCA.  This event takes local “stars” and pairs them with professional dancers as they compete for two trophies – Best Dancer and Most Funds Raised.

 

NFocus will be represented by Edward Luby, our Director of Business Development.  If you know Ed, you know he is married, a father of two, and a guitarist.  If you really know Ed then you also know he cannot dance –no rhythm in his feet, no moves to speak of, and is an embarrassment to his wife on a dance floor.  However, with some lessons and a strong desire to support the community, Ed has become a “Dancing Fool”.

 

What did Ed have to say about the upcoming event?  “This event is definitely taking me out of my comfort zone.  Playing a waltz on the guitar is MUCH easier than gracefully gliding across an entire dance floor without falling!! Not to mention that my “Latin” dance requires hip movements and gyrations that will leave you speechless”.

 

Tickets for this event are $50.00 a person and include dinner.  You can purchase your tickets at the YMCA and local branches of Fairfield National Bank.  Tax deductible donations are being accepted in Ed’s name (which counts as a VOTE).  Checks can be mailed to Robert K. Fox Family Y, 465 West Sixth Ave, Lancaster OH 43130 • (740) 654-0616.

 

Dancing With The Stars Lancaster

News of Interest – April 11, 2012

Auctionbytes: On April 12, the National Association of Letter Carriers will hold demonstrations outside of Senate offices across the country in order to pressuer senators to oppose S. 1789, which it believes will be brought up in the Senate after the Easter recess.  Letter carriers say the legislation will hurt the Postal Service.  MORE

 

Saginaw News: As protesters prepare to demonstrate in front of lawmakers’ offices across the country to demand changes in a United States Postal Service reform bill, U.S. Sen. Carl Levin said today he shares some of their concerns. Levin plans to introduce an amendment to Senate File 1789 that would give the public a chance to first appeal the closure of any postal facility. The amendment could impact all facilities proposed to be closed, including two in Saginaw. MORE

 

PRNewswire: In speech at Rutgers, NALC President called on Congress to take time to draft comprehensive reform instead of pushing through flawed legislation. Fredric V. Rolando, president of the National Association of Letter Carriers, said Friday that Postal Service legislation pending before Congress lacks any long-term vision and fails to provide for the creation of an effective business plan for a vital American institution. “What the Postal Service needs most is a new business model,” Rolando said, “built from the bottom up, one that looks above the immediate financial and structural problems to find opportunities to meet the evolving needs of the American people in the 21st century.” MORE

 

Business Insider: Direct mail does work. Sure it’s hard to track the results, sure it’s not as fancy as a digital campaign, but it does drive sales. Business owners and markets don’t  down one method of doing marketing (or anything else), if it works. One type of marketing might be great for one segment of customers and one particular thing and one method might be great for something else. MORE

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