Financial Review
Richard Strasser, Chief Financial Officer
107th Congress
Deborah Willhite, SVP, Government Relations & Public Policy
Deborah Willhite, Senior Vice President for Government Relations and Public Policy, provided an overview of the 107th Congress with a focus on key positions of importance to the Postal Service. She said Senator Cochran would remain as oversight subcommittee chair and Senator Stevens would again chair the Appropriations Committee. The key postal members in the Senate would generally be the same as they were in the 106th Congress. In the House, Ms. Willhite said it appeared the oversight postal subcommittee would be abolished with postal business handled at the full Government Reform Committee level. There will also be a change of leadership at the House postal appropriations subcommittee with Congressman Istook becoming the chair.
In response to questions, Ms. Willhite said the Postal Service would continue to push for legislative reform. She also said it was too early to know if the new Administration would focus on postal legislative reform. When asked if H.R. 22 would be the starting point for reform discussion this year, Ms. Willhite said there would probably be a different starting point in the 107th Congress.
Flats Workgroup Update
Clarence Banks, Steering Committee Representative
New Package Service workgroup on Parcel Delivery and Processing at the delivery office. Workgroup leaders are Lloyd Karls (Industry) and Mike Spates (USPS).
The USPS is seeking customers input on a national unique 5-digit policy. Interested mailers should contact Clarence Banks of RR Donnelley.
There is a new workgroup on mail preparation and presentation. Industry work group leader
is Joseph Schick. Tony Dobush provided update on first workgroup meeting. Test sites have been selected and schedule to start, March 2001.
There is also new workgroup on the 10-digit barcode placement on flat mail.
A communication team has been established to develop a plan to inform mailers of flats
addressing for optimal readability. The bundle collator test is two-thirds completed. One supplier of the three selected must be tested.
Initial parameters for the characteristic test have been established. Mailers have been asked to provide test decks.
Satisfaction Survey
Ann Wright, MTAC USPS Chair
Sixty-five survey were submitted. Tabulations are currently being inputted. Results will be mailed at a later date.
“USPS Business Development in the 21st Century”
Stephen Kearney, SVP, Corporate Business Development
Merlin/Save Update –
John Sadler, Manager, Business Mail Acceptance
Briefing not available for distribution.
Engineering & Technical Transportation Work Group Update
Robert Lindsey, Steering Committee Member
Briefing not available for distribution.
Standard Mail A Work Group Update
Anita Pursley, Steering Committee Member
There are currently three active workgroups:
1. Aligning Postal Payment and USPS Ownership
2. Mail.dat
3. Postal One!
Aligning Postal Payment and USPS Ownership is co-chaired by Alan Kline (industry) and
Pat Imes (USPS). Alan and pat were not available to provide a committee report during the January meeting. The committee; however, has not met since the last MTAC meeting (October 2000). A meeting was scheduled for Thursday, February 1 at 1:00 p.m.
A new workgroup was approved by the MTAC Steering Committee during their January 30 meeting. This committee will be chaired by Anita Pursley (Industry). The Postal co-chair has yet to be announced. The workgroup will focus on mutually agreed upon guidelines and procedures for the USPS field to follow when mail arrives too close, during or after the requested in-house delivery dates. The Postal Service is currently revising the procedures in place today. Additionally, the work group will focus on recommended verbiage (similar to ancillary endorsements) for the USPS to follow. These guidelines and verbiage will, most likely, be different for retail mailers (i.e., one day sales with coupons that have expiration dates) than for other mailers (i.e., summer catalog).
The expectation is that this group can act rather quickly and sunset in a timely manner. Interested workgroup members should contact Anita Pursley.
Mail.dat.
Report and discussion on Implementation of the Mail.dat "00-1" Specification Observations
--There has been some vendor confusion as to the context of Segment (this is resolved)
--PostalOne! requests a ten byte mailing facility ZIP+4 (xxxxx-xxxx) in the last ten bytes
of Header Record - Facility Name Field until all providers have unique Provider Codes
--There seems to have been, and may continue to be, more confusion than anticipated
regarding the difference between Container ID and Display Container ID
--Provider Code usage and allocation does not seem to be following the intent
--Focus on future communications
--In addition to all Mail.dat specification subscribers and Provider Code holders, additional
effort will be made to get announcement of new versions to end users of the Mail.dat
software vendors and to all parties that are PAVE certified.
--timing of the implementation window
--Suggested that future Mail.dat versions be planned for implementation during a period
beginning six months prior to the anticipated Rate Case change and concluding 90 days
later, or three months prior to the Rate Case change.
--Upcoming Meetings
--The Mail.dat Conformance Committee will meet March 7th to finalize enhanced
conformance criteria and compliance procedures.
--The Mail.dat Specification Review Committee will meet March 8th to review any
pressing 00-1 version updates and to begin preparation for the next version
-Postal One!
Meeting Notes for January 30, 2001
This meeting focused on answering questioned posed by industry representatives.
The questions and answers are summarized below:
In response to questions submitted by the mailing community, Larry Goodman opened the meeting with information about the Decision Analysis Report (DAR) to the Board of Governors (BOG). It was reported that the DAR was scheduled to appear before preliminary committees this month and was on schedule to be presented to the BOG in the April meeting. It was stressed that there was a strong showing of support for the program by the continuation of interim funding. The funding request would cover the development or enhancement of five major areas: Permit redesign, electronic exchange of information (or e-Mailings) integration with the Information Platform, a data warehousing capability, and continued support of e-verification initiatives.
The subject of using a ZIP+4 in the mailing facility name field to identify a specific location was discussed. The ZIP+4 occupies the last 10 bytes of this field. This is an interim measure until it can be ensured that a provider code can provide the same functionality.
Bruce Szmajda gave an overview of the security measures in place in the system and the requirements for customers accessing the system.
The other questions addressed included the status of the program. The system has been able to validate mail.dat version 00-1 files since November 15th. The ability to transfer files was completed in December, but not implemented until January 27th.
It was stressed that the primary focus for development would be postage statements. The order of statements would be 3602's, 3541's, and then 3605's. There is currently an estimated statement for a 3602 and we are currently working on processing updates, or individual statements, against the estimated, or the statement based on the original file. There will also be a reconciliation at the end of each job, and the ability to download information from the job for reconciliation in a mailer's system. We are working with our legal department to ensure that all requirements are met and that mailer agreements address the requirements.
There was a question on piece weight changes and how these changes are accommodated in the system. It was stated that the system allows for the scenarios identified in the mail.dat specification. There was a follow-up question asking about efforts to certify weight and advertising percentage calculations. This effort, called PAGE, is under the purview of the NY RCSC and the system will accommodate whatever requirements are decided upon.
A closing question asked for milestones that were scheduled for the next six to nine months. It was reiterated that postage statement development, postage statement interfaces, and testing of postage statements would be our primary focus. Other efforts under way include working on a manifest verification system, enhancements to the e-documentation and e-verification portions of the system, supporting pilot efforts for Unit Load Tracking, downstream notification, and utilizing the Postage Statement Wizard for manual entry of data in the system.
Fall Mailing Season Update –
Nick Barranca, VP, Operations Planning & Processing
Periodicals Work Group Update
Jack Widener, Steering Committee Member
EPubWatch System
System is now live
Anticipate test on “complaints” page 2/12 – 3/15
Anticipate test on ePubwatch 3/15 – 4/l15
Implementation anticipated mid-April
3 parts to system
Publishers complaint page
ePublication watch
USPS Resources and Worksheet
Service Improvement Work Group Update Began August 1997
Joyce McGarvy
Tom Tulley – Industry Co-Chair
Paul Vogel – Postal Co-Chair
Introduced process management to the process of periodicals.
Mail make-up changes/ Linda Kingsley discussed several changes yesterday
Identified issues for significant operational changes
Established area and district periodical coordinators
SOP for Periodicals
Identified periodical mailflow analysis
ESP
Thanks to the industry and postal reps for all of the hard work
Sunset – February 1, 2001
Group met at the Washington P&DC on Monday to gather information
Developing a check list for the workroom floor
Identify of mail owner or mail preparer
Mail that the group reviewed was mail that had been handled several times / BMC LA
3749 will be available to USPS workers on Thursday
Demonstration of Postal One applications
Status of the R2000 Rate Case
Ashley Lyons – Manager, Pricing
Rate Case Implementation
Connie Totten-Oldham, Manager, Pricing & Classification
First Class Work Group Update
Mury Sauls – (Representing Laine Ropson, Steering Committee Representative)
Sue Taylor, BRM workgroup chair, reported that approval has been received for early payments for permit renewals. Payments may be made up to 60 days before the renewal date. The renewal period will not be changed based upon an early payment, but continue from the anniversary date. Pub 25 corrections for BRM should be published in March. In addition, procedures for MDA and QBRM will be included in a February Postal Bulletin. The work group has made some progress with the use of commercial credit card payments. Permits can be paid, but there are still a few issues to be resolved. The workgroup’s next step include work on delivery delays, internet applications, and a “Bet Practice” check list for operations.
Dan Goodkind solicited mailer participation for a new workgroup on First-Class Delivery. The purpose of this group will be to identify systemic delivery delays and recommend solutions. Those interested should contact Dan or Laine Rposon.
Addressing & ZIP+4
Peter Moore, Steering Committee Representative
Briefing not available for distribution.
Confirm/Planet Code Workgroup Summary