Last week, for the first time in recent memory, the U.S. Postal Service indirectly admitted that Standard A (advertising) Mail nationally is not properly being delivered to apartment houses.
The admission came several days after Postmaster General William J. Henderson reported that 94% of all first class mail was delivered on time, that is within two days of entering the mail stream, a 1% increase over last year.
While making that report to the postal service’s Board of Governors, Henderson predicted fiscal 1999, which just ended, will “end up being a terrific year” for the USPS, but wouldn’t go into specifics.
In the coming weeks the USPS, which previously predicted it will end the year with a $200 million surplus, is expected report an actual surplus in excess of $300 million based on a gross income of just under $63 billion.
In the October 7 issue of the Postal Bulletin, a publication for mailers and postal workers, the USPS said the number of complaints about mail “being left in apartment [house] vestibules rather than delivered into mail boxes” has increased recently. The exact number of complaints was not specified.
Reminding postal workers, especially letter carriers that they “must” properly deliver the mail and not “leave mail undelivered on racks, tables, shelves or other fixtures,” postal officials stressed that “customers see no difference between the service we provide and that of an alternative delivery service….devaluing both our mailer’s products and our service.”
The Direct Marketing Association has been aware of the problem for some time, according to Jerry Cerasale, senior vice president, government affairs. He was unable to recall the last time the USPS made such an admission, no matter how indirectly. “We’ve been aware that sometimes Standard A Mail is not left in mailboxes, but on a table somewhere, sometimes in the lobby of an apartment building but near the mail box,” he added.
Cerasale, conceding that there are occasions when that can not be done because of the size of the mailing, said the DMA “is pleased that the postal service is trying to make an effort to have Standard A Mail put inside the appropriate mailbox.”
According to postal officials oversized mail can be left in receptacles in “a designated location that affords adequate protection for the mail with the permission of the addressee.” Just what those receptacles could be was not explained.
Neal Denton, Alliance of Nonprofit Mailers executive vice president, saw the Postal Bulletin comments as “a reminder to postal workers that they have to deliver mail correctly if the USPS is to maintain its monopoly on addressed mail, a monopoly requiring the door-to-door delivery of hardcopy mail, magazines and parcels.”
