Letter Writers Alliance

Fun with Numbers

In case you want to improve your knowledge of postal trivia (and I can't think of why you wouldn't want that), here's a link to a PDF of Postal Facts. Also, they've got a website for tidbits like this too. Make new friends! Impress your family! Stress that the post office should remain a public service and that they don't get any tax dollars!

The Nice & The Naughty

Two news stories for Santa's list regarding postal happenings. Let's start with the good! The U.S.P.S. has a number of employees who have been working for the mail for over six decades. One of them is the charming Theodore Roberts from my very own Chicago. There have been quite a few 60+ year employees of the postal service which always comes as a surprise to me that someone can be with one organization for so long. Perhaps it's my age, or my generation, but it seems like such a fantasy story to me. 

And now, the naughty! The Daily Mail reported on the case of Paul and Samantha Harrison who were convicted of buying used stamps, "washing" them, and then reselling them for use. The article goes into a fair amount of detail about stamp washing which is interesting, but I was also thinking, "Don't go giving people more dumb ideas." I was mostly astonished by how long they got away with it for and to the tune of over 700,000 stamps. They defrauded the Royal Mail of about £421,000. That's insane. I'd also like to remind you to beware if you buy postage from a third-party seller. There's a lot of counterfeit out there, as well as shenanigans like this! Naughty list for sure for those two.

Package Tips from the U.S.P.S.

The U.S.P.S. blog has a nice list of handy tips for sending out holiday gift packages:

Select a durable box to protect the contents. Priority Mail and Priority Mail Express boxes are free at local Post Offices.

*Do NOT reuse boxes — they weaken in the shipping process.

Properly address packages. Include both “to” and “from” information and only on one side.

Print addresses clearly and include all address elements, such as apartment numbers and directional information (ex: 123 S Main St. Apt. 2B).

Never guess a ZIP Code. Look up a ZIP Code at usps.com under Quick Tools. NO ZIP is better than a WRONG ZIP.

Place a card inside the package with delivery and return addresses. This helps postal employees deliver the item should the mailing label become damaged or fall off.

Pay attention to batteries. In general, batteries should be securely packaged in the manufacturer’s original packaging. Items shipped with batteries installed that cause ticking, vibrations or other noises during transportation can be delayed due to security concerns.

Leave space for extra cushioning inside and stuff glass and fragile, hollow items, like vases, with newspaper or packing material to avoid damage. When mailing framed photographs, take the glass out of the frame and wrap it separately.

It's all good, common sense stuff really, *but I do reuse boxes because I can use my judgement to determine if a box is sturdy enough for re-mailing. I bet you can too. Also, a reminder from me about new mail regulations, from the Postal Bulletin:

"There have been some changes made to how you can ship your packages this year. For safety reasons, as of October 1, the Postal Service will no longer accept stamped packages — which means using individual stamps as postage — that are more than one-half inch thick and/or weighing more than 10 ounces into blue collection boxes, building mail chutes, or Post Office mail slots. This restriction also applies to all other mailpieces, apart from packages, using individual stamps as postage that are more than one-half inch thick and/or weighing more than 10 ounces. Instead, you must go to a retail counter or use the self-service kiosk to purchase a postage label. If you opt to use the kiosk to buy a postage label, you can drop your package in the package slots, not the mail slots, at a Post Office. If a restricted package or mailpiece is found in a collection box, mail chute, or lobby mail slot after October 1, it will be returned to sender with a Customer Return Label attached explaining the restrictions and reason for return. Click-N-Ship customers are unaffected by this change"

When people ask why we stopped selling pigeons, well, the above is certainly part of it. We smelled this change coming when they started altering blue collection boxes to only open up a couple of inches, if they open at all. Some now just have a slot for postings. You can always take more inventive stamped mail to the counter, but, to me, that removes part of the fun. I loved being able to send odd things just through mail magic. Now, I have to plead my case to a postal worker who may or may not fully understand (or care) about my need to be creative within the boundaries of the postal system. Sad to say, I do send less surprises these days because of it.

P.S. Image found on the Postal Museum instagram.

International Mailing Holiday Deadlines

Links for our major member mail centers deadlines for the holidays. If you don't see your postal system here, please add a link to their deadlines in the comments!

Royal Mail

New Zealand Post

Australia Post

Japan Post

DHL (hard to find one specifically for Deutsche Post)

 

P.S. Image from the Instagram of Paul Farnsworth.

U.S.P.S. Holiday Shipping Deadlines

You can find an extensive list of shipping deadlines by destination at the U.S.P.S. site. If you wanted something guaranteed First Class mail to Africa, you needed to ship, literally, like yesterday, but there's still hope. There's always hope with the mail! Every time I put something in a mailbox, some of my hope goes along with it. Good thing I have a pretty inexhaustible supply when it comes to belief in the postal process. Other things, not so much, but the post I keep believing in. Good luck everyone!

P.S. Images from the U.S.P.S. Instagram which is a good info source, just avoid the toxic comments.

Keep The Post Office Public

Lately, it seems like nothing but doom-and-gloom reporting when it comes to the U.S.P.S. Just yesterday, the court found that the latest stamp increase of a nickel was illegal. Every other op-ed I read about it has a new speculation, and none of them are good, if you want my own opinion about it. Recently, Amazon announced they wouldn't use FedEx for a portion of their shipping anymore. That touched off a rumor that Amazon is going to launch a bid for privatizing the U.S.P.S. 

 

The U.S.P.S. is already working with Amazon in a deal that might look good on paper, but seems to be running the postal people into the ground. Everywhere one looks, it seems like the "experts" want to solve the problems of lower revenues with cuts in service, both to the public and the postal worker. In addition to pension and insurance changes, 5-day delivery is being floated; so based on what is happening right now, that would probably mean only Amazon delivery on Saturday/Sunday. 

 

If the U.S.P.S. becomes privatized, we will all suffer and not just those of us in America. Almost half of all the mail in the world is processed by the U.S.P.S.  It delivers more in sixteen days than UPS and FedEx deliver together during the entire year. I don't have the answers here, but I do think that the congressional mandate that benefits for future employees of the post office be pre-funded is ludicrous and should be eliminated. The U.S.P.S. should also have greater control over themselves. They run without any tax dollar benefits, but are constricted in their operations as if they were funded by the government. It really seems like a rock and hard place situation for them. 

 

As long as they keep taking our letters, we'll keep sending them. We value what the mail and the postal service do for our community, both in life and online. We should keep the U.S.P.S. ours.

 

P.S. Instagram image from the Arizona Correspondence Society, featuring a rubber stamp from The Well-Appointed Desk.

 

Parcel Boxes

(Image from Post & Parcel)

While the corner mailbox in the U.S. is shrinking (I've been seeing reports of slot-only boxes; the horror!), the Royal Mail is taking an opposite approach. They are making nice big package boxes! From their announcement:

 

"Royal Mail is rolling out the UK’s first ever parcel postboxes to make sending parcels as easy as posting letters. It is just one of the ways Royal Mail is investing in its network to meet the growing demand for parcels – driven by the rise of online retail.

The 1,400 parcel postboxes will be positioned on high streets, at mail centers and in other convenient locations across 38 towns and cities. It means small businesses and online marketplace sellers can dispatch customer orders outside regular office hours using Click & Drop, Royal Mail’s market leading online labelling system."

What a concept! When you allow people to print their package postage at their homes, wouldn't it be great to have a way for them to also easily drop-off said packages? Come on, USPS, it is not that hard. I dare say, you'd get more people to use Click-N-Ship if you 1. told people about it and 2. didn't make drop-off such a pain.

 

But what about scheduling a pick-up, Donovan? Oh sure. Yep, that sounds great. Ya'll know I love the USPS, I really do, but I've been burned by no-show pick-up too many times to trust it. And I cannot just hand my packages to my carrier? Why? Because the carrier doesn't have the capacity for all the packages. A lot of city carriers are walking carriers and don't have vehicles. They carry the day's mail in their satchel. This has been my experience. If I could just put the packages in a box, I'd be so much happier. Right now, I do have the luxury of bypassing the line and leaving my packages in a spot on the counter, but that means that I still have to travel to the post office and that I kinda feel like a jerk skipping the line.

 

Thanks to member Alan for the link about this wisdom from the Royal Mail. I do hope someone at the USPS is paying attention!

 

Informed Delivery

Did you know that the USPS has a program where you can sign up to see images of your mail online before it gets delivered to your mailbox? It's called Informed Delivery. My mom uses it. She likes it OK. I've heard reports from other L.W.A. members that they use it and it's... fine. Sometimes you know what you're getting and sometimes you don't. I haven't ever tried Informed Delivery. Why not? Well, for the longest time, my address wasn't available in the program. Also? I dunno, I LIKE the wonder of not knowing what's in the box. For me, that's part of the fun. I suppose I could try signing up again, with my new home address, but there's a whole saga* there which makes me extremely glad that I have the security that is paying for P.O. Box. I don't know what's in it, but I know what's in it will stay in it until I take it out. That's the sort of information I can feel is necessary when it comes to my mail.

 

There have been some reports of scammers signing up to steal checks and credit cards from boxes; so it is advised that you sign up to reserve your spot, as it were. How annoying is it that a program designed to give people more security about their mail is vulnerable to such an easy "hack"? It feels to me like the USPS made more problems for itself with this "solution" to something that wasn't really a "problem" in the first place?

 

*My lease says one address, my utility bills say two other addresses, the USPS says none of those addresses exist. Also, the mailbox bank that I have a key to has been completely open since I moved in over a month ago. Yeah, really glad I have a P.O. Box.

 

Thanks to Member Chris for sending me a note to remind me to post about this. I kept waiting until I could try it out for myself, and well... Anyways, are you on Informed Delivery? How do you like it? Let your fellows know below!

Dimensional Rate Change in Effect

Okay, so despite the helpful graphic above, I'm still a bit perplexed by the new rate change for packages. What is Dimensional Weight anyways? (L x W x H)/166 = Dimensional weight which is easy, right? (No.) If the calculated Dimensional Weight is higher than the physical weight of a package, you are required to pay the higher of the two.

Basically, it boils down to big boxes cost more even if they weigh less, which makes sense, but is also a big (pun intended) bummer. Oh, you didn't know there was a new rate for packages? Well, it's not like they exactly shout these things from the rooftops. And PDFs of rates, while full of information, aren't exactly helpful. This means that you'll be seeing a lot more smaller boxes sent with a lot less packing material. When you think about it, this does have the potential for good. It'll mean less waste, smaller boxes, and less packing materials used. It will also mean a big change in price. Here's the example that Shopify emailed me:

Example shipment:

Priority Mail 5 lb box measuring 15 x 15 x 15 in. from New York to Washington DC (Zone 3)

	New	Previous
DIM weight	21 lbs	Did not apply
Cost	$19.27	$8.25

There is a big difference between those prices. I'm posting about it here because I don't want you to be mailing a cookie jar to your grandma and think "I'll put this in a big ol' box with lots of packing peanuts for safety" and then get to the Post Office and they say, "That'll be elventyjillion dollars." "It only weighs 3 pounds!" "But the DIM weight is elventyjillion." Pitney Bowes is pretty good at explaining it. They have the graphic I used above. Unfortunately, they haven't updated the rest of their helpful site tips yet with the new rate info. 

Don't know your zone? Here's a calculator. Put in the first three digits of your ZIP and they'll give you the zone calculation for the ZIP you're mailing. Ok, now you at least know to be on the lookout for the difference in price. When in doubt, use a smaller box. That's my advice.

An Appreciation of the Postal Mailbox

We all appreciate the post box here. It's nice to know that other people think about the mailbox too; people like Paul Lukas who wrote this article for Gizmodo. He points out that there is yet another mail-restrictive design being rolled out. I sigh heavily and hang my head. Yes, I understand that there are security issues. Yes, I understand that it is extremely troubling that some humans misuse mailboxes for things other than mail. I wish these things didn't result in a sapping of the vitality of this crazy, giant system that I love. This is still the Year of the Postbox and I will continue to post things from the corner box as long as they exist in whatever form they take.

P.S. Do read the article. It goes into good detail about the history of postbox design.