Daily printout: Jan. 21

The Postal Service is now accepting bids for access to its last-mile delivery network.

A new online platform allows customers to submit proposals for access to any of more than 18,000 delivery destination units and local processing centers.

While the Postal Service has been selling delivery service direct from its delivery destination units, or DDUs, for years, this option has generally been for a limited number of large customers. The new bidding platform opens up this network to customers, large and small.

“We recognize trends in the shipping marketplace — as well as changing market conditions, supply chain disruptions and the effects of a post-pandemic world — have driven our customers to prioritize convenience. To best accommodate the evolving needs of American commerce, and consumers, we are evolving our business strategies to better reflect the value in our last-mile delivery network,” said Postmaster General and CEO David Steiner.

Customers will have the ability to suggest a combination of volume, pricing and tender times at each available DDU location for USPS delivery either the same day or the next day.

The Postal Service expects to formalize accepted bids for its Parcel Select product through a negotiated service agreement. The organization anticipates it will notify winning bidders in the second calendar quarter, and service under those agreements would begin in the third calendar quarter of 2026.

The organization’s Jan. 20 news release has more information.

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A restaurant in Freedom, ME, has such a high demand for seating that it does not take reservations over the phone or online.

Instead, the owners ask potential customers to mail them a postcard if they want to eat there.

The Lost Kitchen is a 50-seat, farm-to-table restaurant housed inside a restored 1834 gristmill in a town with a population of 719. It serves dinner two days a week, from May through October.

Time magazine named the Lost Kitchen one of the world’s greatest places, and Bloomberg News dubbed it one of the 12 restaurants “worth traveling around the world to experience.”

When the restaurant received 10,000 phone calls over 24 hours after it opened its reservation window in 2017, owner Erin French and her husband, Michael Dutton, knew something had to change.

“The volume of requests was not workable,” Dutton said. “Erin wanted something much more personal, so she came up with the idea of a mail-in reservation system.”

The restaurant now requires would-be customers to mail postcards containing their contact information. The postcards are then randomly selected.

“We receive upwards of 65,000 postcards per year. It’s eye opening because people also share family recipes, jokes, tragedies. It’s a very grounding, humbling experience as we read them,” Dutton said.

Leigh Juskevice, a retail associate at the Freedom Post Office, sees the deluge of postcards firsthand.

“We’re located about a quarter-mile from the restaurant, and customers will pull in to take pictures of the Post Office all the time,” Juskevice said. “It’s kind of neat.”

She said restaurant employees have brought muffins to her, and they’ve even let her pick a winning postcard.

At the end of each dinner, restaurant employees place that night’s selected postcards on the counter for the customers to see on their way out.

“When they see their postcard, it’s an emotional moment,” Dutton said. “They never expected to see it again. They reconnect with it, knowing that the meal and the experience they just enjoyed began with that one artifact.”

The restaurant keeps every postcard it has ever received.

“It’s an honor to have them,” Dutton said. “You can’t help but be humbled.”

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The Postal Service is reminding employees of the rules they must follow while on the organization’s property.

Known as the Conduct on Postal Property regulations, these rules cover all USPS premises, including within facilities and in parking lots.

The regulations apply to certain activities also governed by ethics rules and the Hatch Act, a law that prohibits federal employees from engaging in partisan activity, among other things, while on the job.

For example, the regulations prohibit electioneering activities for both partisan and nonpartisan candidates for public office from taking place on postal property.

The regulations also generally prohibit solicitation, commercial vending and the display of commercial advertising on USPS premises. An exception is made for activities involving the Combined Federal Campaign, the federal government’s annual workplace charity drive.

Additionally, the regulations generally prohibit gambling activities, including buying or selling lottery tickets, as well as the posting or display of non-USPS materials on postal premises.

Poster 7, Rules and Regulations Governing Conduct on Postal Service Property, which is displayed in all USPS facilities, summarizes the rules that must be followed on postal property.

The Ethics Blue page has more information.

Employees with questions or concerns should email the USPS Ethics Office or call their helpline at 202-268-6346.