Letter Writers Alliance

Do Be Scared of Postal Strikes

Hi Canada. Everybody, wave to Canada. Canada, I'm sorry, but it seems that your postal service has been unable to come to an agreement with the Canadian Union of Postal Workers. A series of rotational, 24-hour strikes began on Monday, and as of my writing, will be continuing and spreading to other postal areas until compromise is achieved. The strikes have impacted Victoria, Edmonton, Windsor and Halifax and Toronto so far. The main reasons cited by the CUPW for striking is that they say Canada Post needs to address issues that have stemmed from increased parcel delivery rates and health and safety issues surrounding forced overtime. The CUPW has used strikes successfully in the past. We hope that this can be resolved soon for the benefit of all Canadian mail receivers, senders, and postal workers. 

P.S. Image from a previous strike in 2016. 

Don't Be Scared of Rate Increases or the Postal Illuminati

From a U.S.P.S. Newsroom bulletin:

The United States Postal Service filed notice with the Postal Regulatory Commission (PRC) of price changes to take effect Jan. 27, 2019.

If favorably reviewed by the PRC, the new prices will include a 5-cent increase in the price of a First-Class Mail Forever stamp, from 50 cents to 55 cents. The single-piece additional ounce price will be reduced to 15 cents, so a 2-ounce stamped letter, such as a typical wedding invitation, will cost less to mail, decreasing from 71 cents to 70 cents.

The proposed Mailing Services price changes include:

Product Letters (1 oz.) Letters additional ounces Letters (metered 1 oz.) Outbound International Letters (1 oz.) Domestic Postcards

Current 50 cents 21 cents 47 cents $1.15 35 cents

Proposed 55 cents 15 cents 50 cents $1.15 35 cents

The proposed domestic Priority Mail Retail Flat Rate price changes are:

Product Small Flat Rate Box Medium Flat Rate Box Large Flat Rate Box APO/FPO Large Flat Rate Box Regular Flat Rate Envelope Legal Flat Rate Envelope Padded Flat Rate Envelope

Current $7.20 $13.65 $18.90 $17.40 $6.70 $7.00 $7.25

Proposed $7.90 $14.35 $19.95 $18.45 $7.35 $7.65 $8.00

What does all this mean for you and I? Well, first, the rate change has to get approval. (It probably will.) As ever, I am a strident supporter of our postal system and its incredibly reasonable rates. I find the decrease in the second ounce postage interesting and like that it seems like they want to keep things in nice nickel increments. It means you'd pay 55 cents for a regular letter and 70 cents for a heftier one, where it is currently a vexing 71 cents. Look at that penny, just dangling there. Annoying. This is much cleaner. Plus, no change to postcards or International.

First Class package rates would also start to follow zone-based pricing. That may change things a bit for us on the business end and for those of you who like to mail off little gift packages. 

Also in postal news, our government (when it isn't proposing to privatize the U.S.P.S.), is also making noises about leaving the Universal Postal Union, mainly do to the discrepancy in shipping to and from China which I told you about back in 2016. I got a lot of info on it from NPR's Planet Money. They've got a nice, new show up all about it called The Postal Illuminati. So, there, you see? Nothing to be scared of (except privatization).

The Question of the Postal Kilt

The Utilikilt company is selling an item called "The Postal Mocker." It's a rather fetching item, in "postal blue" and they claim they'll only sell it to you if you can prove you actually work for the U.S.P.S. I can't tell if it's actually allowed by the post office or not. There was a referendum at the National Association of Letter Carriers in 2010, but it doesn't seem to have gotten anywhere. There appears to be an official postal tartan, but the Utilikilt isn't made of it; so that's confusing. I've seen photos of carriers in kilts. But as far as I can tell, they aren't technically allowed.

Modernizing the Fleet

When we read Neither Snow, Nor Rain for L.W.A. Book Club, it mentioned the aging vehicles that are the backbone of the U.S.P.S. delivery service. Replacing those boxy little white truckcars is going to be a big job. It can't be put off forever and, to that end, the U.S.P.S. has been accepting proposals on conceptual vehicles fit for the 21st century since 2016.  Check out this Tesla concept car! It is a "Next Generation Delivery Vehicle Prototype." Gotta love DeLorean-like gull-wing doors and robo-arms! So future tech! You can read more about the proposals in this article from Truck.com.

Robot Letters

It's election primary season here and that means my mailbox is awash in flyers and faux letters from prospective candidates. In the field of campaign advertisements, it's hard to stand out from the crowd. I cringe at the appalling designs and I weep for the lack of concern about the environmental impact all this wasteful paper creates. Mostly, it's all destined for the recycling bin. However, I did take some time to investigate the "handwritten" ones.

"Wow," I thought at first glance, "that's some real care put into contacting me." Only it wasn't. It was a robot writing to me, a robot designed to mimic human cursive, complete with imperfections. What tipped it off to me was the strange shakiness of the line, like the pen was being slightly vibrated consistently throughout the writing. Also, the regularity of the lines seemed suspicious and the stamps were the boring pre-paid nonsense that I expect on all those election mailers. And then I also got two from two "different" people with identical "handwriting."

These machines have been around for a while, but this is the first time I've received any robot written mail. And I don't like it. It's very uncanny valley for me. Of course, I do appreciate that it's an option for people who are unable to write and they wish to have the handwritten look, but it seems more that it's not being used for "good mail" and is just another way to push some marketing. 

Have you seen this in your mailbox? How do you feel about it? Have you or would you send robot mail? Let's have a conversation in the comments.

 

 

Japanese Post Boxes

Kotaku has a picture round-up of a bunch of cool post boxes in Japan, including the World's Largest Post Box*. Not to be confused with the World's Largest Mail Box, and *also this is a hotly contested item. I found references to "World's Largest Post Box" in Thailand, Greenland, Canada, and the Faroe Islands. 

P.S. Please excuse my technical difficulties in which I posted this piece four different times. Thank you.

Addressing Systems International

Quite frankly, it is an enormous miracle that anything gets delivered at all, ever. (My latest wild-ride letter was a holiday card from my Grandparents which my grandmother mailed on the 30th of December from Colorado. It was postmarked "Syracuse, NY" on January 18th. I got it on the 22nd.) There's been all kinds of innovations and ideas around improving the efficiency of delivery. However, human beings are creatures of habit, and often, the delivery systems of a country reflect those habits. Postal systems seem to be most successful when embracing that rather than fighting it.

Take for example, a Nicaraguan address. The way people explain where they live in Nicaragua is based on local landmarks. Therefore, an address states how many blocks and in what direction away it is from, say, the orange-painted school. It can get more complex than that in places with large natural landmarks as the directional words might change. Instead of the words for the cardinal directions, words denoting "toward the lake" or "away from the mountain" might be used. (Of course, it is not without issues, like every postal service.)

Equally fascinating is the Japanese system. They don't use street names either (except for in some larger cities). The way they do it is by block. Each block has a number and each house within that block has a number. It's very logical, but feels super confusing to a non-number oriented brain like mine. It works for them as JapanPost is the second-most accurate delivery in the world, right after the good ol' U.S.P.S. (according to Foreign Policy magazine in 2013).

Now maybe if I started using my ZIP+4, I'd get better results. If only the U.S.P.S. had held beauty contests to promote +4 usage...

U.S.P.S. Postage Rate Increase on Jan. 21

We told you this would happen. Stamps are going up on January 21st to a whooping 50 cents even for domestic First Class, first ounce. It's a pittance, you guys. Personally, I'm excited to not have to deal with straggling pennies. It will also the addition for using vintage postage a bit easier on my mental math brain. Postcard stamps are up by a penny as well, to a total of 35 cents (which they were prior to the decrease, but whatever). Additional ounce and extra handling stays the same at 21 cents. Large envelopes now start at a dollar. No increases for International stamps.

You know what? Here's a chart:

Holiday Delivery Dates

The time draweth nigh! Holiday shipping deadlines are listed over at the U.S.P.S. site. For domestic mail, the goal for delivery by the 25th for packages is Dec. 14th. That is four weeks away, folks. It is go time. GO GO GO! You've got more time for your domestic cards; the deadline there is Dec. 19th.(Unless you're sending to or from Hawaii, in which case, you need to mail those by the 15th.) Military mail and International deadlines are all much sooner than that. Plan your mail accordingly!

The Spreadsheet That Rules the Mail World

 

I have never seen a video so nicely describe how mail works internationally. Turns out that there's one spreadsheet to rule them all, one spreadsheet to find them, one spreadsheet to bring them all and in the darkness determine exactly how much money you have to pay for international postage. I thought it was fascinating. Not fascinating enough to wander about in the spreadsheet, but you can download it if you are more intrepid in the data mines than I.