August 2003

USPS Responds
In a little known area of its web site called "Setting The Record Straight," the USPS responds to inaccurate postal service information found in print and television media. 

Postal Rate Commissioner Ruth Goldway calls the USPS an "agency that keeps messy books and spends money inefficiently and wastefully." 

The Postal Rate Commission oversees postal rates and services and ensures consumers pay fair rates and that the postal service can break even.  Ms. Goldway was endorsing the USPS sponsorship of Lance Armstrong and the Pro-Cycling Team, which she defended as necessary advertising, when she made the cutting remarks about the service's financial abilities.
 
The USPS responded by listing several accounting and business awards received by the USPS and citing a quote from Treasury Department Fiscal Assistant Secretary Donald Hammond that the service's financial statement audits were "a model for all agencies."

In July 2003, Smithsonian Magazine marked the 40th anniversary of the ZIP Code. Azeezaly Jaffer, Vice President USPS Public Affairs and Communications, labeled the magazine's use of the term "junk" mail as a disservice to its readers. 

Jaffer also noted the irony of an article describing the birth of the potato chip as culinary history that grew to a $6 billion industry. Jaffer compared that to the $800 billion mailing industry employing 9 million people.

You can find a recent list of "Setting The Record Straight" articles on the USPS's web site at  http://usps.com/communications/news/strs.htm.

News Poll
Send your vote to mailto:webmaster@mailCCI.com or vote online. Visit http://www.mailCCI.com and in the Interactive menu choose Today's Survey.

Will there always be a market for postal mail?
____ Yes
____ No

We'll post the poll results here in next month's e-newsletter.
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Results of last month's poll: 

Have you ever used a one-stop print shop for mailing services?

38% Yes
62% No

See the results of other surveys CCI has conducted online at http://www.mailCCI.com/data/surveys.asp.

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