I just received an email from the USPS.  It reads; “This is to inform you of operational changes that will be taking place at the Indianapolis Processing and Distribution Center to accomondate planned activities associated with Super Bowl XLVI and necessary security requirements. The Indianapolis facility is located directly right beside Lucas Oil stadium, site of this year’s Super Bowl.”

The essence of the directive is that they are essentially moving the operation of the Post Office for the Super Bowl.  Their closing statement was; “We are working diligently to ensure these disruptions have minimal impacts on our customers.”  I believe that moving postal operations would have a big impact on their customers. It has been my experience,  that the USPS is really not that big on customer service.  They don’t think like a business, they certainly are not customer oriented like the businesses that I know and they very much have the attitude of, we will do what we want and you will like it.  After all, where else can you go to mail?

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I have wanted to have the capability to print, personalize and address for mailing all on one pass of the press for some time and in 2011 that wish came true.  We went in the mailing business in the early 1990′s to offer our customers something that would set us apart from other printers in town.  That has worked well for us over the years and most of the printing trade magazines are now telling printers that they need to be in the mailing business.  We feel that with the installation of our new Konica Minolta bizhub press and the software that we purchased that gives us the capability to print, personalize and address for mailing, all on one pass of the bizhub, helps once again, to set us apart from other printers in our area.  Printing a job and mailing all in one day seemed impossible just a few years back but now is a reality at Burns.  During the last election, we were printing and mailing political collateral in one day.  Again at Christmas, when companies had not printed Christmas cards but decided last minute to send them out, we were able to quickly turn the project for them.  The color is great, we are applying the intelligent bar-code, all postal regulations have been checked out so what is not to love?  If you don’t believe me, call me for a time to come over and see for yourself.

We are a printer who knows mailing and a mailer who knows printing.

Happy New Year!

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The Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee passed bill S. 1789, known as the 21st Century Postal Reform Act of 2011.  A full vote on the bill is expected on the Senate floor before the end of the year.

If the bill passes it would return $7 billion in Federal Employee Retirement Service payment to the United States Postal Service.  The bill also contains bipartisan proposals allowing the USPS to close post offices, do away with Saturday delivery and reduce its workforce by offering retirement incentives.  Most Republican senators believe that the bill does not get to the heart of the USPS problems.  There are a lot of issues to be worked out.  In the meantime, the USPS will end up the year with a $5 billion loss. Post Master General, Patrick Donahoe says “The Postal Service can become profitable again, if Congress passes comprehensive legislation to provide us with a more flexible business model so we can respond better to a changing marketplace”. I totally agree with the Post Master General.  If you have ever worked with the USPS on direct mail projects you know my concerns.  If I have employee who is not performing well, I can replace them with someone who will do the job correctly.  Not so easy at the USPS.  A lot of the postal worker’s I know can’t wait to retire.  It should not be that way.  I believe that the USPS should be able to function just like private business functions with the dictate of being profitable and effecient.  It could happen.

It is obvious that I have a great interest in what happens with the USPS because I am in the mailing business, but out come is vital to all of us.  Can you imagine not getting mail everyday?  I love opening that mail box to see what is in it that day.  Yes, junk mail and all.

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Mail has gotten a bad rap in recent years being called snail mail and lots of other bad things.  However, mail is delivered to every address in the United States every day with few exceptions.  Mail is something that you can hold in your hand and as I have blogged about before, research has shown that an actual printed piece has more of a lasting impression on the reader than electronic mail.  The reason that this came to mind is that I communicated today with someone in the non-profit world who told me that they were mailing but decided to go with electronic mailings because of money.  That has not worked out too well for them.  If you think about it, the recipients did not have something to hold in their hand, they did not have a reply envelope that they could send a check and they probably deleted the electronic message because we all get so much that we don’t have time to read them.  What I have heard from my many non-profit customers is that what works best is doing both.   As far as the US mail being snail mail, I am in the mailing business and I am also on lots of the lists that we actually mail.  If we mail presorted standard (previously referred to as bulk mail) one day I can be assured that direct mail piece will be in my mail box the next day.  I think it is just as fast as first class but not as expensive.  Also don’t get discouraged if you mail one mailing and do not get the results that you have expected.  It takes staying in contact to make a difference.  I have one non-profit organization that raised in the neighborhood of $100,000 on one mailing.  Not everyone does that well.  See what works best for you.

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Having knowledgeable print buyers is an idea customer.  Understanding the process of printing can be crucial to actually getting a good printed piece.  Now, I am not advocating that you take a course on printing but I am suggesting that you get your printer involved in the beginning or planning stages of your project.  If your printer is also a mailer even better, you can bring experts to the table that will save you hours of research and will insure that your mailer meets USPS specifications.  This can save you money on postage and sometimes determines if the mailer will mail at all.  How disappointing, not to mention costly, is to print 45,000 post cards and when they get to the USPS suddenly find that they do not meet specifications and they cannot mail at all. We have had that happened to organizations, who after making this mistake, seek our help. How much better it would have been to get the advice of a professional before making a costly mistake?

At Burns Mailing & Printing, Inc. consultation is free to our customers.  We will sit down as a team to discuss a project with our customer.  Sometimes we can make suggestions that save both time and money and our customers  know that when it goes to the post office, they are getting the lowest postage possible and with bar-coding a speedy delivery.

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These days I am all about making things easier.  Maybe it is because as I get older things are a little harder to do.  For instance, due to my husband’s illness, I am doing things that I have never had to do before.  Ken always took care of grilling, that was his thing.  I did not light the grill, I did not cook on the grill.  It seemed like something that just might be a little dangerous if you did not know what your were doing.  At least, that was my story and I stuck to it. Now that I am charge of grilling things are a little more complicated.  Did you know that propane tanks weigh 40 pounds?  They have to be loaded up and exchanged or refilled, who knew. Actually, I did know but hubby was taking care of that.

I have also found that there are ways of making things easier.  Today, I am having a natural gas grill installed.  No propane tanks, no running out of gas in the middle of cooking a steak, it is going to be wonderful.  That is what got me to thinking about having someone else make the problem go away.  That is why a lot of our customers come to us, because we make things easier for them and we make their problem go away.  If you have ever stuffed envelopes with a group of volunteers and tried to sort mail yourself you know what I am talking about.  My point is that sometimes it justs pays to let a professional handle the problem.  You may be surprised that it may even save you money in the long run.

Call the mailing professionals at Burns Mailing & Printing, Inc. and let us make mailing and printing easier.  866 288-5618

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That is according to a letter that I got from the USPS dated October 25, 2011.  It was from the United States Post Master, Patrick R. Donahoe.  Now Mr. Patrick R. Donahoe doesn’t know me personally and granted it was addressed to Dear Valued Customer, which in my experience as a mailer is not really a good idea.  I am just saying that I send thousands of dollars of postage to the local USPS but Mr. Donahoe doesn’t know my name.  I digress, what the letter says is a paraphrase of Mark Twain, “I’d like to assure you that the reports of our imminent demise are greatly exaggerated.” He concedes that First Class Mail is declining but that consumers still prefer and welcome receiving mailed statements and other business correspondence. He also reports that standard mail (they don’t call it bulk mail anymore and please don’t call it junk mail) has stayed about the same and has been largely unaffected by digital trends.

It seems the that the decline of First-Class revenue is driving major changes within the Postal Service. They are consolidating and streamlining their operations, and reducing the size of their work force.  However, Mr. Donahoe says “although the Postal Service is facing a severe cash crisis, a nationwide delivery disruption is inconceivable. Any such disruption would paralyze America’s economy to an extreme extent, and Congress and the Administration are well aware of this fact. Even if Congress should fail to pass the comprehensive, long-term postal reform legislation we are seeking, it will act to ensure the operations of the Postal Service are not interrupted. The Postal Service will not go out of business or be privatized.”

As a direct mail company, I hope the there is a re-structuring in the Postal Service to make it more effecient.  One of the things that they need to work on is customer service.  Yes, we are customers yet most of the postal employees don’t know that yet.  Please someone tell them.

My fingers are crossed that the USPS can get things worked out because it will affect all of us personally and business wise.  Nothing can stop the U.S. mail, I certainly hope that is true.

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Yes, direct mail can be scary.  Even being in the mailing business it is a little scary dealing with the USPS and all of its ever changing regulations.  However, that is my business and we do know what the regulations are for mailing, we know how to design for mailing and we even know how to print for mailing.  When printing, paper thickness, height-length ratio and size  are all important.  Knowing postal regulations can mean the difference in the amount of postage that is paid or in some cases if the direct mail piece will be accepted by the USPS at all. Some times it just pays to let professionals handle a project.  At Burns the project moves from one knowledgeable department to another.  There is no need to run all over town for a graphic designer, a printer and then a mailer.  We are a one stop convenience for all three.  So I have given you three good reasons to let Burns handle your project.

O.K. so today I have just made an unashamed pitch for using my company.  It must have been the goblins who made me do it.  Happy Halloween!

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It is really hard to believe that Christmas is right around the corner.  This week we received the USPS recommendations on mailing for the holidays.  To ensure delivery of holiday cards and packages by December 25th, the USPS suggests that mail be entered by the recommended mailing dates as follows:

First Class Mail – December 20th

Priority Mail – December 21st

Express Mail -December 22nd

Parcel Post – December 15th

DNDC Drop Ship – December 19th

DDU Drop Ship – December 22nd

Remember, all mail addressed to military Post Offices overseas is subject o certain conditions or restrictions regarding content, preparation and handling. You can check with your local Post Office or online at www.usps.com.

At Burns we have many non-profit customers.  We recommend that the annual appeals go out in November to avoid all the volume of mail that occurs in December.  The fall mailings typically are the most successful appeals campaigns for non-profit organizations.

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The USPS is awaiting a decision from the Postal Regulatory Commission on their request for rate increases in 2012.  The have the option of ;

• Approve the changes as submitted
• Approve the price changes with modifications
• Deny the entire request

If the approve the rate increase it will take affect in January 2012. The following is the proposed rate increase.

• Letter (1 oz.) – 1 cent increase to 45 cents
• Letters additional ounces – unchanged to 20 cents
• Postcards – 3 cent increase to 32 cents
• Letters to Canada or Mexico (1 oz.) – 5 cent increase to 85 cents
• Letters to other international destinations – 7 cents increase to $1.05

Since the rate increase would take affect in January 2012 if approved, I expect that a decision will be made shortly.

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