newsworthy
short takes
Columbia Machine has published an
updated version of The Science of
Palletizing, which it is offering for free to
the industry. The newly revised book
includes information on the latest trends
in conventional and robotic palletizing,
palletizer accessories, and multiple line
solutions as well as tips on selecting the
right system. The book can be ordered
through Columbia Machine’s Web site,
www.palletizing.com. ... Saddle Creek
Corp. has acquired ServiceCraft
Logistics, a third-party logistics company
headquartered in Buena Park, Calif. With
this acquisition, Saddle Creek gains
eight warehouse locations in key markets in Northern and Southern California
and Dallas/Fort Worth and increases its
total managed square footage by more
than 20 percent. The move also expands
Saddle Creek’s transportation offering.
The company will now offer regional
fleet transportation in the California
markets in addition to its existing
nationwide transportation brokerage
service. … The American Logistics Aid
Network (ALAN), which serves as a primary point of industry contact for disaster relief support, announces that
NASSTRAC is its newest industry association partner. … The D.W. Morgan Co.,
a Pleasanton, Calif.-based third-party
logistics service provider, has joined the
Environmental Protection Agency’s
Smart Way transportation partnership. …
CSX becomes the first transportation
provider selected to join the Maryland
Green Registry, a voluntary self-certifica-tion program that promotes and recognizes sustainable practices by organizations throughout the state. … Glacier
Computer, a developer and supplier of
rugged industrial computing solutions,
has expanded into Europe with the
opening of a sales office in Essen,
Germany. … The Union Pacific
Railroad has opened its Donner Pass
route to domestic double-stack intermodal container freight traffic.
USPS launches sweeping re-evaluation
of business model
The U.S. Postal Service (USPS), facing what it termed the most “urgent
financial challenge” in its 217-year history, has launched what is expected
to be a sweeping and intensive re-evaluation of its current business model.
Noting that “bold changes” to its operations are needed, USPS said even
those options “that have been dismissed in the past” must be put on the
table for discussion.
The re-evaluation, which USPS says is at the beginning stages, comes in
response to massive losses in the past three years due to escalating costs
and a continued deterioration of USPS’s core first-class mail revenues in
the face of increasingly popular electronic mail delivery alternatives. USPS
has lost over $12 billion in the last three years and expects to lose almost
$8 billion in 2010, the Postal Service said in a report titled “Assessment of
the U.S. Postal Service Future Business Model.”
To underscore how dire the situation has become, the Government
Accountability Office, which under a landmark 2006 postal reorganization
law was slated to complete by 2011 a study on the future of the Postal
Service, has moved up the deadline of the study’s release to this spring.
In a statement on its Web site, USPS said current laws and regulations
“make it nearly impossible” for it to effectively respond to the combined
impact of the recession, diversion of mail to electronic alternatives, and the
requirement that it pre-pay between $5.4 billion and $5.8 billion each year
through 2017 into a health benefits fund for future retirees. Without this
requirement, USPS said, it would have earned $4 billion from 2007 to
2009.
USPS fixed part of the blame for its current woes on the 2006 reorganization law, which was intended to give USPS more flexibility to market and
manage its products, but which, according to USPS, placed stringent price
caps on revenues it could generate while doing nothing to help it control
its costs.
“An underlying presumption of the Postal Act of 2006 was that mail vol-
ume would continue to grow. That premise has proven false,” USPS said.
USPS and the Postal Regulatory Commission, the body with jurisdiction
over postal rates, have begun to reach out to stakeholders for their input.
Among the issues expected to be discussed are the need for deeper closings
of post office branches, reducing weekly deliveries from six days to five,
and the more holistic question of redefining USPS’s future role in a changing world.
Another issue that may be debated is the possibility of privatizing USPS
along the lines of the European postal organizations. Most notable among
the European examples is the German postal agency, Deutsche Post, which
has leveraged its privatized status over the past decade to aggressively
expand into non-traditional businesses like package delivery and logistics
services.
However, in recent congressional testimony, former Deputy Postmaster
General Michael Coughlin said European-style postal reform would not
work for USPS given the country’s enormous geographic size and scope. “I
think what the foreign posts are doing is interesting, but not terribly applicable to the Postal Service,” he said.
