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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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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We finally have a decision on penalty fees for bad addresses.  The effective date is January 4, 2010.  Below is the DMM advisory published today.  This applies to both Standard Mail and First-Class Mail.

DMM Advisory dated October 16, 2009

Move Update  

The Move Update standard requires periodic matching of a mailer’s address records with customer-filed change-of-address (COA) orders. Its goal is to reduce the number of mailpieces in a mailing that require additional handling for forwarding or return.

Yesterday we filed notice with the Postal Regulatory Commission (PRC) to describe the new method our Business Mail Entry Units (BMEU) will use to determine whether or not to assess the $0.07 Move Update charge to First-Class Mail and Standard Mail pieces evaluated during acceptance.

Originally intended for a Standard Mail implementation date of May 2009, we deferred the effective date of the new standard until January 4, 2010. For consistency with the treatment of Standard mail, we also apply the same effective date to First-Class Mail. Both classes will be assessed the additional postage charge on pieces determined at acceptance to have an error rate above a 30% tolerance level.

Sample testing will be done for each mailing accepted at MERLIN locations, and the BMEUs will provide feedback to the mailer on the effectiveness of their Move Update process. The assessment applies only to those pieces in the mailing that are found to exceed the tolerance level, based on the sampling.

Example: if a mailing is found to have an error level of 50%, then 50% minus 30% (tolerance level) = 20% of the mailing that will is assessed $0.07 per piece.

Any mailing that has five or fewer update errors is not assessed the fee, regardless of the percentage that is not updated.    

Complete details of the assessment process are available at: http://ribbs.usps.gov/move_update/documents/tech_guides/Move_Update_Advisement_Policy.pdfh

The Domestic Mail Manual (DMM) is available on Postal Explorer (pe.usps.com). To subscribe to the DMM Advisory, send an e-mail to dmmadvisory@usps.com. Simply indicate “subscribe” in the subject line.

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