Advanced Facer Canceller Systems 200 (AFCS 200)

Siemens wins $245M contract from US Postal Service

"...from the United States Postal Service (USPS) for 550 Advanced Facer Canceller Systems (AFCS) 200 to replace and modernize its existing fleet of AFCS. The AFCS currently being used has been in service for almost 20 years and is used by the Postal Service(TM) to cancel First-Class mail...."

Reference: siemens.com

More Related Resources: Siemens Postal Automation

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Federal Worker COLA -v- Retiree COLA

You Can't Take It With You

"...The horse race between a pay raise for workers and a COLA (cost of living adjustment) for retirees has some working feds thinking..."

Reference: www.federalnewsradio.com

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Baxter The Postal Cat Needs Home

Holland cat up for adoption after joyride under postal truck's hood

"...Baxter is in need of a good home, but keep him away from postal trucks...."

Reference: www.wzzm13.com

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TSP Rewards the Patient Investor

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TSP posts positive returns as interfund transfers drop

"..."Those people who stuck it out [and did not made withdrawals], they probably have come back to pretty much flat," FRTIB Chairman Andrew Saul said, suggesting that positive returns could begin to compensate for the market's decline earlier in the year..."

Reference: www.govexec.com

Resources: TSP investors should understand the concept of Dollar Cost Averaging.


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Netflix offers service alternative to Post Office shipping of DVD

Netflix to Sell a Device for Instantly Watching Movies on TV Sets

"...Netflix, which pioneered the business of offering DVD movie rentals by mail, is now offering its 8.2 million subscribers an option to watch movies easily on their televisions without involving the post office..."

Reference: www.nytimes.com

Other Resources: Netflix Ready Device

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Halma Post Office Closure

Minn. - Sen. Coleman fights to save Halma P.O.

"...has sent a letter to the U.S. Postmaster General to call attention to the closing of small-town post offices in Minnesota and the dwindling number of qualified postmasters in the region..."

Reference: www.grandforksherald.com

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More Post Office Closures

Some peeved by post office plans

"...“The boundaries you talked about far exceed Rockaway Beach — are you telling us you’re going to take our post office out of our city?” resident and business owner Carol Szabo asked...."

Reference: www.bransondailynews.com

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Encoding Center Closing

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Selma Postal Encoding Center Closing

"...About one hundred full-time workers will be offered transfers, while about three hundred part-time workers will loose their jobs..."

Reference: www.cbs47.tv

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Postal Service Faces Challenges

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Economy and Internet challenge U.S. Postal Service

"...This year, the Service expects about 10 percent growth in Priority Mail, Express Mail and related products that compete with Fedex Corp, United Parcel Service and other companies, Donahoe said. ..."

Reference: www.reuters.com

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PRICHARD, AL. -- Prichard postal worker shot

"...shot in the chest with a pellet gun while delivering the mail. Postal worker stated that he felt a sharp pain to his chest, it was later discovered he had sustained a minor injury to the chests and was not transported to a hospital..."

Reference: www.myfoxgulfcoast.com

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Postal Service remote-encoding center to close

Postal service to close East Pittsburgh facility

"..."We've closed 47 of these centers across the country already. Pittsburgh is one of the last eight of these sites," said Tad Kelly, a postal service spokesman for the Pittsburgh region..."

Reference: www.pittsburghlive.com

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Anger Over TV Series Titled Going Postal: 15 Shocking Acts of Violence

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William Burrus, President of the American Postal Workers Union recently wrote an article stating that the E! Television Series Is Offensive to Postal Workers. “The title of the series is an affront to more than 700,000 hard-working postal employees who are stigmatized by the cruel stereotype that suggests that postal workers are violent sociopaths,” APWU President William Burrus wrote in a letter to Brian L. Roberts, Chairman and CEO of Comcast [PDF], which owns E! “Of course, statistics show that postal employees are no more likely to engage in acts of violence than the public at large,” the union president said.

NOTE: We at The Postal Newsgroup understand this is television and the American people are intelligent enough not to lump all posties into the category of crazy. You can bet there will be as many postal employees watching this program as anyone else. I have my DVR programmed in that direction already! On that note, we thank Mr. Burrus for standing up for postal employees as he should, while at the same time we thank E! for the insight into these horrific events. Maybe this will help us identify the signs of people that are over the edge ...in all walks of life.

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RALEIGH, NC, USPS Telecommunication Services Office: Employment Opportunity

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While surfing the net for quality articles to provide our readers, we found an "Employment Opportunity" with the USPS.The position is in RALEIGH, NC, at the USPS Telecommunication Services Office. This looks like a great job. SPECIAL NOTE: Current career Postal Service employees are ineligible to apply to this posting. The closing date on this position is May 21, 2008. External Recruitment Announcement
Information Technology.

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Postal Early Out: VERA Information in case the rumors come to fruition

Are you contemplating a possible early retirement from your postal career? If you are, and you are reading this, then you are already one step ahead of the majority. You are obviously someone who is seeking information so you can make the most informative decision you can make. Anyone keeping up with the economics of the mailing industry can tell you there are changes going on in this industry. The leader in this industry is the United States Postal Service. The mailing industry has been seriously eroded by the internet. The USPS has been damaged not only from the internet, but by the corporate competition of large mailers and large mail movers. These groups have pressured congress to force the Postal Service to relinquish the monopoly it had once held. They have found success in convincing government and the masses, that the USPS should compete with large mailers. So unless the Universal Service requirement prevails, the postal service employment numbers will decline substantially. According to the USPS, mail volume has declined substantially. As we have been taught, "for every action, there is an equal..." or greater reaction. So the writing on the wall is this: Mail volume is rapidly declining, the postal service must reduce employees. The hopes are that this reduction will take place through attrition. However, it must be factored in that people are working longer than in the past due to a greater life expectancy, as well as the fact that cost of health care and energy have made retiring cost prohibitive. Therefore, as the rumors support, the USPS will more than likely have to convince employees to retire by offering some type of voluntary early retirement incentive. Most likely, since the USPS has been forced to compete with private industry, the employees of the USPS and their unions, will insist on buyout incentives equating to large cash offers, no early-out "age" penalties, and reasonable health insurance coverage. OPM has the basic starting point for this. The OPM website explains this as VERA or Voluntary Early Retirement Authority, which allows agencies that are undergoing substantial restructuring, reshaping, downsizing, transfer of function, or reorganization to temporarily lower the age and service requirements in order to increase the number of employees who are eligible for retirement. The authority encourages more voluntary separations and helps the agency complete the needed organizational change with minimal disruption to the work force. By offering these short term opportunities, an agency can make it possible for employees to receive an immediate annuity years before they would otherwise be eligible.

An agency must request VERA and receive approval from the Office of Personnel Management (OPM) before the agency may offer early retirement to its employees. The approval from OPM will stipulate a period of time during which the option will remain available. Many agencies have been granted agency-specific VERA and are not required to seek OPM approval for their use of this option.

With this being said, as a postal employee or federal employee, you should familiarize yourself with VERA. Take a look at OPM's website at https://www.opm.gov/employ/vera/vera01.asp.

The website says, Voluntary Early Retirement offers apply to employees covered under both the Civil Service Retirement System (CSRS) and the Federal Employees Retirement System (FERS). When an agency has received VERA approval from OPM, an employee who meets the general eligibility requirements may be eligible to retire early. The employee must:

1. Meet the minimum age and service requirements -
* At least age 50 with at least 20 years creditable Federal service, OR
* Any age with at least 25 years creditable Federal service;
2. Have served in a position covered by the OPM authorization for the minimum time specified by OPM (usually 30 days prior to the date of the agency request);
3. Serve in a position covered by the agency's VERA plan; and
4. Separate by the close of the early-out period.

There is no annuity reduction in FERS for employees who retire on an early voluntary retirement under age 55. A FERS Transferee with a CSRS Component in his/her annuity, who retires before age 55, will have the CSRS portion of the payable annuity reduced by one-sixth of one percent for each full month he/she is under age 55. No reduction will be applied to the FERS component of the annuity.

A FERS Annuity Supplement is payable to an employee who has completed at least one calendar year of FERS service when he/she reaches Minimum Retirement Age (MRA). MRA is age 55 to 57, depending on date of birth. The annuity supplement is payable until eligibility for Social Security begins at age 62, subject to an earnings limitation.

The OPM VERA website is very informative and a "must" read for all postal employees considering retirement.

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Postal Service revoked Centralia's ZIP code

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Centralia Mine Fire

"...Centralia is a borough in Columbia County, Pennsylvania, United States. Its population has dwindled from over 1,000 residents in 1981 to 12 in 2005[1] and 9 in 2007,[2] as a result of a 46-year-old mine fire burning beneath the borough. Centralia is now the least-populous municipality in Pennsylvania..."

Reference: en.wikipedia.org

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Nalcrest Florida 33856 ...Postal Retirmement Community

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Nalcrest: A retirement that's union-made

"...Bill Doherty turned the first shovel of earth on July 1, 1962, and Nalcrest—it stands for National Association of Letter Carriers Retirement, Education, Security and Training—began to take shape in central Florida.

Down the road is one of only a handful of union-built communities in the country, but Fedhaven went bankrupt years ago. No so for Nalcrest, which remains nonprofit. In 2002, the Nalcrest Foundation made its final mortgage payment and is no longer under U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development regulations...."

Reference: www.nalc.org

Postal Service service must act more like a private company

Price of Stamps Not the Only Thing to Change for U.S. Postal Service

"...A new federal law mandates that the mail service must act more like a private company by showing profits. Also, it has not and will not receive government subsidization. "Tax payers aren't paying our wages. They haven't for years, and a lot of people still think that we're government subsidized and we're not," says Liz Snow, an Idaho Falls Post Master..."

Reference: www.localnews8.com

Postal Rate Change Tips

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USPS Rate-Change Tips for E-tailers

"...No Fuel Surcharge for USPS
While this may discouraging, Mike Colgate, of Endicia, said that one benefit of the USPS service is that there are no extra charges. "There are about 90 different surcharges you can get from private carriers, the top four being for fuel, rural addresses, incorrect addressing and residential status," he said. "Private carriers can cost up to three times as much as the USPS with these added to the bill."..."

Reference: www.ecommerce-guide.com

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Undelivered Mail Found at Former Postal Service employee's home

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100,000 Pieces Of Undelivered Mail Found At Postal Worker's Home

"...the mail was taken to the Raleigh distribution center where they are still going through the mail to determine what can and can not be delivered at this late date..."

Reference: www.nbc17.com

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Postage Stamps Rise 1 cent on Monday, May 12, 2008

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USPS Announces New Prices as of Monday

"...The restructured price list offers some savings, among which reduced Express Mail prices for items shipped to addresses closer to home, lower online postage prices for Express Mail and Priority Mail and Volume Express Mail price rebates for frequent shippers...." Reference: www.efluxmedia.com

From the Auderbach Collection

Posted: 05.11.2008 @ 10:00 PM Central

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