US Postal Service

Postal Service sets major operational restructuring

The U.S. Postal Service plans a significant restructuring of its business, the quasi-governmental agency said Tuesday.

The Postal Service provided no details or a specific timetable in its announcement, which was included in its fiscal 2021 first-quarter results that included the peak holiday shipping season. The Washington Post reported Monday that a restructuring announcement could come as soon as next week.

Postmaster General Louis DeJoy, whose background is in private-sector logistics and not...

https://www.freightwaves.com/news/postal-service-sets-major-operational-restructuring

Postal Service may expand international parcel, mail delivery services

The U.S. Postal Service is inviting public comment on a preliminary proposal to expand the network of providers allowed to transport outbound mail and parcel traffic, an initiative that has been on the table for some time.

The program, which the Postal Service has called the Outbound Commercial Provider Initiative (OCPI), was introduced Monday in the Federal Register, the federal government’s publication of record. The action was classified as an “advance notice of proposed rulemaking,”...

https://www.freightwaves.com/news/postal-service-may-expand-international-parcel-mail-delivery-services

FedEx to impose residential delivery surcharge

FedEx Corp. (NYSE:FDX) said Friday that it will impose a 30 cent per-package surcharge on U.S. residential delivery traffic tendered by large customers, effective Feb. 15.

The surcharge will apply to customers that shipped, on average, more than 30,000 packages per week from Jan. 4 to Jan. 31, FedEx said in a note on its website. The levy will apply to any combination of FedEx’s air, ground and last-mile delivery parcels that hit or exceed the 30,000 weekly volume threshold, FedEx said. 

The...

https://s29755.pcdn.co/news/fedex-to-impose-residential-delivery-surcharge

Postal Service’s Priority Mail Cubic: Biggest bang for parcel buck?

The United States Postal Service’s “Priority Mail Cubic” product isn’t top of mind among those engaged in a broad-based discussion of the agency’s parcel shipping portfolio. The product is only available to the Postal Service’s Commercial Plus users who have tendered 50,000 or more Priority Mail shipments during the prior calendar year. It is one of four Priority Mail subproducts. Besides the volume requirements, eligibility depends on a shipper achieving the right mix of parcel configuration....

https://s29755.pcdn.co/news/postal-services-priority-mail-cubic-biggest-bang-for-parcel-buck

FedEx, UPS go different roads on new parcel surcharges

For decades, an immutable law of business has been that whenever FedEx Corp. (NYSE:FDX) changed its pricing or related terms and conditions, rival UPS Inc. (NYSE:UPS) would soon follow suit. Or vice versa. However, a few changes to peak-season delivery surcharges that the two carriers announced within a week of each other signal that the long-held duopoly bond continues to fray.

There are still similarities: Both carriers will reduce their levies to $3 per package to cover the “additional...

https://www.freightwaves.com/news/fedex-ups-go-different-roads-on-new-parcel-surcharges

Opioid crackdown deadline for international mail on brink of miss

Effective Jan. 1, the U.S. government will refuse to clear international mail parcel shipments if electronic documentation allowing U.S. Customs officials to check for illegal opioids isn’t transmitted in advance of the shipment’s arrival. Despite having more than two years to prepare, the international postal supply chain will likely miss the deadline.

It is still unclear what level of information Customs and Border Protection (CBP), the federal agency responsible for clearing goods into U.S....

https://s29755.pcdn.co/news/opioid-crackdown-deadline-for-international-mail-on-brink-of-miss

USPS limps away from FY 2020

The U.S. Postal Service (USPS) reported Friday strong fiscal year 2020 increases in shipping and package volumes but said any lasting gains in the segment are unlikely to ever offset the top-line damage the COVID-19 pandemic has wreaked on demand for its first-class and marketing mail products.

In a reflection of the extraordinary events that have turned the package-delivery business upside down, USPS’ shipping and package revenue of $28.5 billion exceeded first-class mail revenue for the first...

https://www.freightwaves.com/news/usps-limps-away-from-fy-2020

Postal Service faces challenges like no other business: USPS expert (with video)

The U.S. Postal Service faces a set of conditions that no other business in the U.S. confronts on a daily basis, and it isn’t helping that its potential and actual competitors get a seat at the table in determining its fate.

That was the view of Gordon Glazer, a senior consultant with Shipware LLC and a specialist on the Postal Service. Glazer was interviewed by FreightWaves senior writer Mark Solomon Thursday as part of the FreightWaves Last Mile Logistics Summit.

Glazer took aim at the...

https://www.freightwaves.com/news/postal-service-faces-challenges-like-no-other-business-usps-expert-with-video

FreightCasts Weekly Recap (8/10-8/16)

You can find every FreightWaves podcast conveniently in one feed via the free FreightCasts channel on freightwaves.com/podcasts, iTunes, Spotify or wherever podcasts are found. 

Subscribe to FreightCasts and never miss a FreightWaves podcast.

The full list of FreightWaves media can be streamed via the FreightWavesTV app available for your smartphone, Apple TV, Roku and Fire TV. The app is free on all platforms.

Users of the FreightWavesTV app also have access to a full lineup of FreightWavesTV...

https://www.freightwaves.com/news/freightcasts-weekly-recap-8-10-8-16

Drilling Deep: The US Postal Service at a crossroads

The untenable situation at the U.S. Postal Service is coming to a possible breaking point.

It is carrying a significant amount of e-commerce traffic but other competitors want that business. It continues to lose money and has an enormous pension burden that no other entity in America has. It suddenly has an unexpected role in the presidential election. And it has a controversial new leader.

On the Drilling Deep podcast this week, John Kingston speaks with his colleague Mark Solomon, a longtime...

https://s29755.pcdn.co/news/drilling-deep-the-us-postal-service-at-a-crossroads

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