News

Due to the update USPS made to their PostalOne!® system on Sunday, Jan. 26, USPS calculations may vary from your printed PS 3541. Specifically, PostalOne!® may claim an error when entering the Preferred Price Discount.

It was determined with USPS headquarters contacts Wednesday that the Interlink-generated hardcopy postage statement is correct.

As a result of this discrepancy, Interlink Technical Support has experienced a higher than normal call volume. We appreciate your patience as we continue to work with the postal service to address these inconsistencies.

Postal officials confirmed in conversations with Interlink on Wednesday that an update to address the PostalOne!® issue is targeted to be deployed on Feb. 6.

USPS also confirmed that USPS Bulk Mail Entry personnel were to be notified late Wednesday concerning the issue, and the employees would be advised to “keep the mail moving.”

Interlink’s USPS headquarters contacts said that should questions arise, postmasters and clerks may call the internal USPS helpdesk at 800-877-7435 (1-800-USPS-HELP), say “technical assistance” then say PostalOne!®. They should reference the internal ticket number INC000000968333.

If you encounter problems, please send an email to support@ilsw.com with information so that we may follow up with you and your local post office as needed.

Again, thank you for your patience.

Helen Sosniecki, Interlink’s Senior Sales and Marketing Manager, above center, visits with Texas Press Association members during the TPA’s recent Mid-Winter Conference and Trade Show. Sosniecki and Angela Kurtz, Interlink’s Associate Marketing Manager, visited with dozens of customers and potential customers during the two-day tradeshow held in Frisco. Texas is Interlink’s largest customer state.

Interlink photo/Angela Kurtz

From National Newspaper Association

WASHINGTON DC – National Newspaper Association joined a broad coalition of postal customers and suppliers on Jan. 23 to ask the United States Court of Appeals in Washington, D.C., to overturn a Dec. 24 decision of the Postal Regulatory Commission (“PRC”) approving a postage rate hike of six percent—more than triple the rate of inflation.

The PRC justified the rate hike as an emergency measure to offset losses that the 2007-2009 recession supposedly inflicted on the United States Postal Service (“USPS”).

The main cause of the Postal Service’s losses in recent years, however, is the public’s increased use of the Internet instead of mail. The law was designed to prevent the Postal Service from recovering this kind of loss through above-inflation rate increases.

The appeal is sponsored by a broad coalition of companies and mailer groups that represent every major class of mail, and the majority of mail volume, in the United States. The mail affected by the rate hike includes personal correspondence, bills and invoices, magazines and newspapers, catalogs and other advertising mail, and many kinds of parcel mail.

Read more …

Unlimited postal rate increases proposed by Senate leaders

From National Newspaper Association

Sens. Thomas Carper, D-DE, and Tom Coburn, R-OK, are proposing new legislation that would remove rate regulation from the Postal Regulatory Commission and give the U.S. Postal Service’s own Board of Governors unlimited authority to adjust postage rates for mail within its mail monopoly.

The Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee intends to review this bill for passage to the Senate floor on Jan. 29. NNA recommends that you urgently contact your senators to ask them to contact the committee and urge that this bill be suspended until proper rate regulation is included.

Background

Despite a postage rate increase that more than triple inflation rates for most Periodicals-mailed newspapers, the Postal Service continues to argue for more “flexibility” in setting rates. That flexibility could be manifested in higher Periodicals rates, lower saturation mail rates for newspaper competitors and other outcomes that affect mail distribution.

Now, the law limits postal increases to a common Consumer Price Index for each class of mail (e.g,.First Class, Periodicals, Standard), to be exceeded only with prior review of the PRC.

But the new proposal would let the presidentially-appointed Board of Governors, which includes two seats for postal management, decide to raise rates by the CPI index plus 1 percent as a total revenue figure for all monopoly mail. That means major adjustments for Periodicals mail, Standard mail or other classes used by newspapers could occur so long as all mail together produced revenue under the cap.

This provision could mean a chain of triple- or quadruple-inflation increases, without even PRC oversight, in the future.

Read more …

The January 2014 USPS postage statements are available on Postal Explorer under ‘January 2014 Price Change Information’.

From National Newspaper Association

The U.S. Postal Service on Dec. 27 notified the mailing industry that the requirement to use the Full Service Intelligent Mail Barcode (IMb) to qualify for automation discounts after January 2014 has been indefinitely suspended.

USPS was ordered by the Postal Regulatory Commission in December to either suspend the IMb requirement or to adjust its annual cost-of-living postage increase to subtract the extra cost to mailers. USPS elected to keep its postage increase. The Dec. 27 notice is its official word that it has no current plans to reinstate the requirement.

NNA Postal Committee Chair Max Heath said NNA welcomes the suspension of the requirement, but continues to encourage its members to consider use of the IMb software so they can take advantage of electronic documentation.

Read more …

From National Newspaper Association

The Postal Regulatory Commission handed everyone who uses the mail a lump of coal on Christmas Eve: approval of the U.S. Postal Service’s proposal to raise postage rates by more than triple today’s inflation.

The new rates will likely go into effect Jan. 26 if USPS elects to accept the PRC’s decision.

The PRC did disagree, however, with the Postal Service’s justification for a proposed “exigency” rate increase that it lost more than 53 billion pieces of mail because of the Great Recession. Rather the PRC continues to blame Internet diversion as the principal reason for Postal Service losses. The PRC only credits the recession with less than half the USPS financial loss — but granted the increase anyway — noting USPS needs the money.

Read more …

The Postal Regulatory Commission (PRC) dropped a lump of coal in publishers’ stockings on Christmas Eve by authorizing the USPS to temporarily raise postage by 4.3% on top of the 1.7% they previously authorized as a permanent rate increase.

Both increases are permitted to take effect as on January 26, 2014. The USPS has not announced whether it will be ready to collect the ‘surcharge’, as it was termed, on that date.

The surcharge is not authorized for a defined period of time. It is a temporary rate hike authorized until USPS collects an estimated additional $2.776 billion to offset losses due to what the PRC terms the “Great Recession” of 2008 and 2009.

The PRC is ordering the USPS by May 1, 2014, to provide “a proposed plan for removing the surcharge from postage rates with a complete explanation of how the plan will operate.”

The official PRC announcement can be found here:
http://www.prc.gov/prc-docs/home/whatsnew/Exigent%20Rate%20Increase%202%2024%2013%20(2)_3428.pdf

Interlink will automate any required postage rate changes for our clients as the USPS implements new rates in 2014.

EDITOR’S NOTE: The newly formed NNA “Postal Protection Team” includes Interlink President Brad Hill. NNA’s current President is long-time Interlink customer Robert Williams. As an NNA Partner, Interlink urges all community newspapers to support NNA through membership in the organization to help support NNA’s postal efforts on behalf of the community newspaper industry.

Reprinted with permission
From The National Newspaper Association

The National Newspaper Association this month announced an expanded “Postal Protection Team” to serve the community newspaper industry and broaden services for its members.

The team will consist of longtime NNA Postal Chair Max Heath, the nation’s foremost expert on Periodicals mailing issues, NNA Chief Executive Officer and General Counsel Tonda Rush, NNA representative on the Postal Service’s Mailers Technical Advisory Committee, Brad Hill, and a second NNA representative on the U.S. Postal Service MTAC yet to be named.

The expanded team dealing with postal issues is formed in answer to a request by Heath to continue the postal work but eliminate the need for him to travel the country. Heath, who has led the community newspaper industry’s solutions-oriented approach to postal matters for nearly 30 years, announced this month that, in part to some health issues, he has decided to slow down on travel. Heath’s plans call for him to phase out his postal affairs work during coming years while others increase their involvement.

Read more …

EDITOR’S NOTE: The newly formed NNA “Postal Protection Team” includes Interlink President Brad Hill. NNA’s current President is long-time Interlink customer Robert Williams. As an NNA Partner, Interlink urges all community newspapers to support NNA through membership in the organization to help support NNA’s postal efforts on behalf of the community newspaper industry.

Reprinted with permission
From The National Newspaper Association

The National Newspaper Association this month announced an expanded “Postal Protection Team” to serve the community newspaper industry and broaden services for its members.

The team will consist of longtime NNA Postal Chair Max Heath, the nation’s foremost expert on Periodicals mailing issues, NNA Chief Executive Officer and General Counsel Tonda Rush, NNA representative on the Postal Service’s Mailers Technical Advisory Committee, Brad Hill, and a second NNA representative on the U.S. Postal Service MTAC yet to be named.

The expanded team dealing with postal issues is formed in answer to a request by Heath to continue the postal work but eliminate the need for him to travel the country. Heath, who has led the community newspaper industry’s solutions-oriented approach to postal matters for nearly 30 years, announced this month that, in part to some health issues, he has decided to slow down on travel. Heath’s plans call for him to phase out his postal affairs work during coming years while others increase their involvement.

Read more …