It took twelve years, but postal reform legislation is only a Presidential signature away from becoming law. In the late hours of Saturday, December 9, the 109^th Congress was able to finally complete and pass H.R. 6407. This is an historic event, and an amazing effort by all those involved. I personally thought this would not happen during this “lame duck” session of Congress. Perhaps we’re witnessing another Festivus miracle, despite all the airing of grievances!

This morning, I had the wonderful opportunity to record my first podcast with Gene DelPolito, the President of the Association for Postal Commerce. During the podcast, Gene and I talked about CASS™ Cycle L and the aggressive approach to UAA mail. I wrote about this before in some earlier blog entries as well as some published articles. However, I wanted to also use this blog entry to provide an update on what this cycle is about and some recent clarifications.

A very important date was announced at the National PCC Day event in Dallas, Texas on September 20. Postmaster General Jack Potter stated that the USPS was preparing for a Rate Case implementation date of May 6, 2007. If he is correct, that means the timeline just got much, much tighter.

 It’s the END of the network as we know it

 It’s the END of the network as we know it

 It’s the END of the network as we know it

 And I feel fine……

Okay, maybe not everyone feels fine about END. I just couldn’t resist using that R.E.M. song! END stands for Evolutionary Network Design and represents the latest initiative by the USPS^® to restructure their delivery network to reflect current demographics, transportation changes, and the deployment of postal automation equipment. This is a massive project, and like many other major initiatives in this industry, this one also has a lot of people concerned.

Since not everyone is familiar with the details in such hotly debated topics as Postal Reform, END, and the pending Rate Case, I thought I’d take a moment to perhaps explain what one of these contentious issues is all about: worksharing discounts. And fortunately, I stumbled upon an example earlier this summer while shopping at a local retail store.

Mark your calendars now; effective January 2009, the 4-state barcode (aka 4-CB, aka OneCode) will be the official barcode for automation compatible letters and flats mail handled by the United States Postal Service®. This barcode will replace the Postnet code, Planet Code®, and Address Change Service codes currently used today.

The Mailers Technical Advisory Committee is meeting again next week, August 1 – 3, at USPS^® headquarters in Washington, DC. These are the quarterly meetings whereby industry and USPS representatives work together on various workgroups, striving to improve overall mail deliverability and reduce mailing costs. This quarter’s meetings also bring a few new initiatives to the table.

I was taking a look the other day at Frank Dravis’ blog (http://weblogs.firstlogic.com/dravis/) and his recent entry, “Just Plain Dumb”, caught my eye. In the entry, Frank talks about how continued solicitations from a financial company were not only irritating him, but were also perplexing. It turns out that Frank’s name and address, including the firm name of Postalsoft, are still turning up on a direct marketing list and standard mail pieces are still showing up in his mailbox bearing information that was outdated over 17 years ago.

There are likely a number of reasons why this mail continues to arrive at his door. Perhaps the information really is that outdated in the direct marketer’s database. Perhaps the information is on a rented list that just never received an update. Or perhaps it’s the result of some strange merge/purge. It’s hard to say, but that’s not what really caught my eye in his posting.

For the mailing industry, the only thing constant is change. Rates change, mail preparation rules change, addresses change, certifications change, and sometimes companies change ownership. We’ve certainly seen a lot of mergers and acquisitions in this industry and as you know Firstlogic has had some changes as well. However, despite now being called Business Objects, we have not changed our commitment to the commercial mailing industry. In fact, our Postalsoft^® legacy is as strong as ever. I wanted to use this week’s blog entry to update you on some recent activities to hopefully affirm our commitment to our customers and the industry.

If you’ve read my columns or attended any of the half-dozen PCC (http://www.usps.com/nationalpcc/welcome.htm) events I speak at each year, you’ve probably learned that I am pretty passionate about reducing undeliverable as addressed mail (UAA). UAA mail is not only costing the USPS $1.8 billion each year, it’s a significant contributor to the industry’s costs and mail pieces that never reach their intended recipients. In fact, it’s such a pervasive problem that the Postmaster General Jack Potter specifically called for a reduction of UAA mail by 50% by the year 2010.

To meet this aggressive goal, the USPS has recently proposed not only rate changes in the recent rate case filing on May 3, but also a significant change to the CASS certified software. Effective August 1, 2007, all CASS certified software will have to verify that the primary address number is truly deliverable in order to qualify for postage automation discounts. In effect, the USPS is cracking down on UAA mail by making a key part of the currently optional Delivery Point Validation (DPV) mandatory.