The USPS Logistics team has installed new barcodes on nearly 95 percent of the Postal Service’s fleet of owned and leased trailers and box trucks. The new 99V barcodes use two-dimensional data matrices, which are also known as QR codes, and are replacing traditional barcodes. The barcodes, when scanned, provide a vehicle identification number and […]
President Joe Biden has ordered U.S. flags flown at half-staff to honor the victims of last week’s mass shooting in Monterey Park, CA. Flags should be flown at half-staff until Jan. 26 at sunset. To fly the flag at half-staff, hoist the flag to the peak for an instant and then lower it to the […]
Letter Carrier Willie Shannon was delivering mail one day last summer in a Sacramento, CA, neighborhood when he spotted a balcony on fire. Shannon sprang into action, calling 911 while knocking on doors at the four-unit apartment building to let customers know there was an emergency. The Postal Service employee then used a garden hose […]
The Postal Service will hold a veterans roundtable discussion Sunday, Jan. 22, for employees who are in or have served in the military. The virtual event, which takes place at 1 p.m. EST, is hosted by the USPS Diversity, Equity and Inclusion team. Several topics — including the Wounded Warriors Leave Act, suicide awareness and […]
Postal Service employees can participate in an upcoming webinar to learn about the Federal Employees Health Benefits (FEHB) Program and Medicare. The session, “Medicare and FEHB,” will be held Jan. 26 at 2 p.m. EST. Representatives from GEHA, a not-for-profit provider of health plans for federal employees, will conduct the webinar and explain how Medicare […]
The Postal Service dedicated the latest stamp in its Lunar New Year series, Year of the Rabbit, at the Asian Art Museum in San Francisco on Jan. 12. “This is an important celebration for many Asian people, with an estimated 1.5 billion people around the world marking this special occasion,” said Derek Kan, a member […]
Customer Services Manager Renee Butler was recently on duty in Houston when an older customer came into the Post Office to seek help. The man, who has Alzheimer’s disease, said he was lost and needed assistance to get home. Butler immediately offered the customer water and a place to sit while she called 911. Responding […]
The Postal Service has rolled out new resources and tools to help employees resolve technology issues without IT support. These include: • Network outage dashboard. Network connectivity outages — outage effects, facility downtimes and county power outages — have been added to the Operations Automated Weather Alert & Realtime Events dashboard to help managers make […]
The latest Delivering for America postcard is on its way to Postal Service employees’ homes. This card touts USPS efforts to transform its delivery network, which include reducing reliance on third-party carriers, adding new mobile delivery devices and package processing machines, and introducing sorting and delivery centers. Also, a part of the mailing is a […]
Daniel Nerka knows he’s got it good. “Can’t get any better than delivering on the Hill,” the St. Paul, MN, letter carrier said. Nerka is referring to Cathedral Hill, which gets its name from the magnificent beaux-arts cathedral that anchors this historical and architecturally rich section of Minnesota’s capital city. The Cathedral of Saint Paul […]
The Postal Service delivered 54.4 million ballots during last year’s midterm elections, with 98.96 percent delivered from voters to election officials within three days. On average, completed ballots were delivered from voters to election officials in under two days. The data, which covers the period from Sept. 6 through Dec. 6 — the date of […]
The Postal Service is reminding employees to remain vigilant when using the organization’s computer network, to reduce the possibility of costly user errors. Several major companies have learned the hard way that user error, whether unintentional or the result of inaction, often contributes significantly to breaches in cybersecurity. Verizon and IBM recently reported that user […]
The Postal Service has begun closing inactive USPSCA accounts as it continues the process of shutting down the payment method on July 1. USPSCA, also known as United States Postal Service Corporate Accounts, is used to pay Express Mail Corporate Accounts and Priority Mail Express Manifest Accounts. The Postal Service is discontinuing USPSCA because of […]
James Fenton, a carrier technician in Cottonwood Heights, UT, was recently delivering mail on a hot day when he heard a customer yelling for help. Fenton soon located the woman behind parked cars in her driveway, where she’d fallen, leaving her stranded and struggling to get assistance for her broken hip. The Postal Service employee […]
I loved reading “Going home,” the article about the Perry, ME, postal employees who discovered a trove of “Dear Santa” letters from almost 30 years ago. The letters are priceless and couldn’t have been found at a better time. I am Postal Proud of the employees. […]
USPS and the Postal Police Officers Association have reached a tentative agreement on a 66-month contract, covering more than 360 postal police officers represented by the union. The tentative agreement is subject to a ratification vote by the union membership, a process that will take several weeks. Upon ratification, the agreement will expire at midnight […]
The USPS Continuous Improvement team is offering Lean Six Sigma black belt training. Registration closes Jan. 13 and applicants must have completed green belt certification to apply. Lean Six Sigma is a business improvement methodology that uses data to reduce waste, increase revenue and streamline work processes. The training will take place in person beginning […]
January is Glaucoma Awareness Month, a time to learn more about the second leading cause of blindness worldwide. Glaucoma is a group of eye diseases that damage the eye’s optic nerve, leading to vision loss and blindness. Glaucoma usually first affects peripheral vision — what you can see on the side of your head when […]
The Postal Service wants employees to take precautions when walking in winter weather. Snowy and icy conditions increase the likelihood of slips, trips and falls that could result in pain, injury and lost productivity. To avoid these accidents, employees should follow these tips: • Wear proper footwear with good tread and grippers (ice cleats); • Walk […]
Link is looking back at the year in “Heroes’ Corner” with a countdown of the 10 most-viewed articles. Coming in at No. 1 is “He’s not joshing,” the story of Josh Williamson. The letter carrier was off duty at a Louisville, KY, bar on a summer night when a crisis erupted: A man wielding a […]
The Combined Federal Campaign’s cause of the week is community improvement. People of all ages have a need for safety and security, for belonging and purpose, for clean air and fresh water: That’s where the nonprofits in the “community improvement” category come in. The charities under this umbrella provide the social and physical infrastructure for […]
The Postal Service plans to discontinue offering Priority Mail Regional Rate Boxes A and B, effective Jan. 22. The boxes were introduced in 2011 to appeal to commercial customers by combining Priority Mail and Priority Mail International shipping with zone pricing. The boxes come in packages of 10 or 25 at no cost to the […]
Shakespeare probably said it best: The readiness is all. Preparations for peak season were robust during the first full calendar year under Delivering for America. In a cover story, The Eagle magazine explored the planning, with a special emphasis on the complex orchestration between processing, transportation and delivery operations. USPS debuted its popular “Holiday Ready” […]
After the hard-won gains of the first six months, a more playful spirit prevailed in summer. A philatelic edition of Monopoly and a puzzle featuring stamps of the 1980s were both released in July and quickly sold out. Soon after, The Great American Mail Race, another licensed board game, made its debut at the Gen […]
Link is looking back at the year in “Heroes’ Corner” with a countdown of the 10 most-viewed articles. Coming in at No. 2 is “A losing proposition,” the story of Stacy Jorgensen. The retail associate was on duty in Spencerville, OH, when she grew concerned about an older customer who purchased a $600 money order […]
On April 6, President Joe Biden signed the Postal Service Reform Act of 2022 into law. The long-sought legislation eliminated the organization’s burdensome retiree health benefit prefunding requirement and integrates the USPS retiree health benefit program with Medicare in a manner that is consistent with private sector best practices. In May, the National Postal Forum […]
The Postal Service began the year on an upbeat note, following a strong peak season. “More than 10 months of planning and preparation paid off,” Postmaster General Louis DeJoy said in a January video message to employees. USPS accepted more than 13.2 billion mailpieces between Thanksgiving and New Year’s Eve in 2021, up half a […]
Link is looking back at the year in “Heroes’ Corner” with a countdown of the 10 most-viewed articles. Coming in at No. 3 is “Not so fast, son!,” the story of Wendy Pollard. The rural carrier was delivering mail in Comstock Park, MI, when a little boy startled her. Pollard had stopped at a mailbox […]
The USPS Diversity, Equity and Inclusion team will hold a veterans roundtable discussion Sunday, Jan. 22. The virtual event will provide employees who are in or have served in the military with information and resources beneficial to them and their families. This roundtable will focus on the Wounded Warriors Leave Act, suicide awareness and the […]
The Postal Service has updated ARIS to help employees with ACE IDs easily select applications based on their job roles. ARIS, which stands for Access Registration and Identity Services, is the organization’s new platform for requesting access to USPS digital resources on ACE computers. Here’s how to find applications based on users’ roles: • Go […]