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Each issue of CMO Close-up features an interview with a CMO, as well as other marketing executives answering that issue's "Big Question."
This week's feature:
Close-up with Laura Howard, CMO, ECI Telecom
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USPS issues final, more-inclusive ‘summer sale’ guidelines
Christopher Hosford
Story posted: May 18, 2009 - 2:35 pm EDT
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Washington, D.C.—The U.S. Postal Service has finalized its plans for a “summer sale” on commercial direct mail, offering discounts on increased volumes of bulk mail and opening up the program to previously excluded companies.
The USPS’ final rule provides for a discount of 30% on that portion of standard mail letters and flats mailed from July 1 to Sept. 30, 2009, that is above an individual company’s determined average.
To be eligible, companies must have mailed more than 1 million pieces between Oct. 1, 2007, and March 31, 2008. A “threshold” based on an average of mailed pieces over the following year then will be applied to the company’s increased summer volume, to determine the discount.
Mailers will pay full postage during the summer. After Oct. 31, the USPS will determine the rebate each mailer is due and credit that amount to the mailer’s permit account before Dec. 31.
In addition, the Postal Service is opening up the “summer sale” program to mailers participating in other USPS volume-incentive programs, which previously were excluded from the summer deal. This would include saturation mailers taking advantage of a program announced this spring, giving them credits on brand-new volumes ranging from 2.2 cents to 4 cents per piece. That program runs from May 11, 2009, to May 10, 2010.
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7 Comments
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David
July 6, 2009 06:07 pm
Gregg-
I was not posting in response to Seth. I am in agreement with him. It was in response to "A Rural Carrier." I apologize for any misunderstanding.
If you'll reread my post, my comment was directed at the union, not individual carriers.
The message I heard from "A Rural Carrier" was that the workshare discounts to the evil business mailers were so great that the USPS was taking a loss on each piece.
I appreciate your feelings on the subject. Maybe you could share them with "A Rural Carrier."
gregg
usps
June 15, 2009 05:37 pm
david,
where did you come up with that snide remark that seth got his info from the carriers union. believe me, i appreciate being able to deliver third class mail as well as first and second mail. i know that the cost to the mailers is not cheap and so do those who work with me. i appreciate how valuable every piece of mail is to the mailer and how much they spent to get their message across to the recipient. i love my job, i love my customers and i respect how much effort and cost went into each and every one of those third class mailings i deliver. so david, don't pick on the carriers, we appreciate our jobs and delivering the mail. we know it is not cheap. gregg morrisville pa
Pam Baker
May 18, 2009 03:01 pm
Once again, smaller publishers left out. More junk mail from saturation mailers, less valued, informative content to be mailed. Sadly, more flight from print to online to follow.
BTW, the flash ads before opening daily alerts will discourage me from opening your e-letters. Too long and simply annoying.
Karen
May 18, 2009 09:12 pm
Why??? is eligibility based on a single six month period ending more than a year ago?!
A Rural Carrier
May 19, 2009 09:23 pm
As a rural carrier I get paid about 4 cents per catalog to deliver. When the post office allows you to mail at 2 or 3 cents it is losing money. The post office is trying to help our economy with cheap mailings, so don't complain. As we all do a little to get the economy moving we will see recovery. Enjoy the sale while it lasts. Remember the rest of us now have to pay 44 cents for each piece of mail we send to make up for your cheap rates.
Seth
May 26, 2009 06:18 pm
Who mails a catalog for 2 or 3 cents? Are you kidding me.
David
May 27, 2009 09:47 am
The cheapest rate for a catalog is $.194 (saturation enhanced carrier route). Where did you get information that the rate was only 2-3 cents? The carrier's union? The union's drumbeat of the evil direct mailer is old and worn out.
Direct mailers DO get a discount from straight rates, because they are doing some of the PO work for them. In exchange, they are sorting the mail, barcoding for machine processing, and entering the mail closer to the destination address (read: work the USPS would have to do that it now doesn't have to).
If direct mailers stopped mailing the quantities they mail, the union wouldn't exist. There would be little left to deliver. A large number of postal workers would lose their jobs. They should stop trying to bite the hand that feeds them.
Also, the USPS should have gone further. They should announce six months ahead of time that they are going to discount postage... at the time of entry. Why would you not encourage EVERYONE who mails in quantity to mail more? Seems like a lot less work than tracking and rebating and would generate more volume... Something the postal service desperately needs.
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