1 POSTAL NEWS No 66-2022
Formulated by UNI Apro Post and Logistics Sector
1.The green fleet of Poste is growing: in Tuscany hundreds of new ecological vehicles. August 19, 2022.
2.Geodis to acquire Need It Now Delivers. August 19, 2022.
3.Royal Mail workers vote for further strikes. August 18, 2022.
4.Emirates Post Group promotes technology innovation across the group. August 18, 2022.
5.Carbon neutral from 2030: Swiss Post is making progress on the climate. August 16, 2022
1.The green fleet of Poste is growing: in Tuscany hundreds of new ecological vehicles August 19, 2022
About 170 ecological vehicles are added to the fleet renewal initiated by the company to achieve the objectives of the Industrial Plan.
The
green growth of the Poste Italiane fleet also continues in Tuscany . The
"green" vehicle fleet available to postmen is increasing, making the
delivery of correspondence and parcels zero impact. This process has been given
great prominence in the local press, which now has impressive numbers. 
The numbers in the various provinces 169 new electric vehicles arrived in the region, specifically 75 in the province of Arezzo, 34 in that of Massa-Carrara, 31 in that of Pisa, 15 in the province of Prato and 14 in that of Grosseto. These are low-emission green vehicles, divided between four-wheeled vehicles, vans with endothermic engines of the latest generation: methane, hybrid or full electric.
The amenities All vehicles, before becoming part of the fleet of the Italian Post Office, were adapted to the needs of postmen. In some cars, the passenger seat is equipped with equipment for boxes or racks for transporting packages. Others still have the keyless Entry & Start system for remote recognition of the driver: with this technology, the doors and tailgate are unlocked automatically, facilitating the work of the operators.
The company's ESG strategy The renewal of the company fleet from a sustainable perspective is one of the objectives of the "2024 Sustain & Innovate" industrial plan of the Company led by the CEO Matteo Del Fante and will continue throughout 2022. At the moment there are 13,000 green vehicles on the national territory that Poste has put it on the road, to reach a total of 17,000 in 2024.
Source: https://tgposte.poste.it/2022/08/19/cresce-flotta-green-poste-toscana/
Note: The original article was written in Italian and the above article is an automatic translation
2.Geodis to acquire Need It Now Delivers August 19, 2022 Transportation and logistics company Geodis has agreed to acquire the American company Need It Now Delivers.
The acquisition is intended to strengthen Geodis’s American footprint and e-commerce services portfolio, with customers able to access the group’s end-to-end supply chain services in freight forwarding, road transportation, contract logistics and last-mile delivery. The agreement is subject to regulatory review and approvals, which are expected to be obtained by end of 2022. Both companies will operate as independent businesses and run their operations as usual until that time.
Need It Now Delivers operates a domestic road freight network with approximately 65 company locations and 300 distribution points, providing strong national coverage, particularly in the eastern USA. To offer its customers complete port-to-door logistics solutions, the company specializes in distribution, last-mile delivery, and in multi-channel contract logistics across a wide range of high-growth industry verticals. Owned in part by management along with the private equity fund Palm Beach Capital, the New Jersey-based company employs approximately 2,000 people and is expected to reach revenues close to US$750m in 2022. Marie-Christine Lombard, CEO of Geodis, commented, “The acquisition of Need It Now Delivers is a key step through which we will strengthen and diversify our offerings in the USA, providing our customers with a global and integrated end-to-end freight network in the United States, from international transport to last-mile delivery. This new acquisition represents an important milestone as we continue to progress on our strategic plan, Ambition 2023.” Mike Honious, president and CEO of Geodis in Americas, added, “Our US supply chain business has consistently grown over the last 10 years. With the services, capabilities and the leadership team of Need It Now Delivers, we will expand our offerings and support the growth strategies of our customers.” Eric Mautner, CEO of Need It Now Delivers, said, “Since our inception in 1987, Need It Now Delivers has scaled rapidly to position ourselves as an industry leader with a special focus on omnichannel and last-mile delivery. Together with Geodis, our teams can continue to build upon this momentum to provide customers with a more expansive network of flexible, efficient and reliable services that will ultimately allow us to successfully meet projected industry dynamics such as continued e-commerce growth and increasingly complex supply chains that require the need for omnichannel capabilities.”
Source : https://www.parcelandpostaltechnologyinternational.com/news/delivery/geodis-toacquire-need-it-now-delivers.html
3.Royal Mail workers vote for further strikes August 18, 2022
Royal Mail employees have voted in favour of further strike action over pay disputes - a move which is likely to negatively impact e-tailers.
The Communication Workers Union (CWU) union, which represents employees working for the UK's telephone, cable, digital subscriber line and postal delivery companies, announced on Wednesday that an estimated 115,000 Royal Mail union members across 1,500 workplaces had participated in the ballot - 98.7% of which were in favour of the strikes. Royal Mail workers are already expected to walk out on 26 and 31 August as well as on 8 and 9 September. Dates for the additional strike action approved today are yet to be announced. Royal Mail had proposed a pay rise of up to 5.5% in May 2022 in relation to the courier adding an additional, seventh working day as it expanded its Sunday delivery services on 31 May. The offer was rejected by the CWU due to being too low to cover the additional living costs brought forward by record-high inflation.
The additional strikes are likely to cause delivery delays which could impact more than 12,000 of Royal Mail’s etailer customers. CWU General Secretary Dave Ward said: “Today’s result is an
other rejection of those at the top of Royal Mail, who should consider their positions. "Postal workers in this country are being pushed to the edge, but there can be no doubt that they will fight the planned erosion of their workplace rights with determination. Right now, this country is growing sick of a business elite who are completely out of touch with ordinary people and their lives. "Things are getting harder and harder for normal working people so that incompetent bosses can have an easy life. But this union will fight this disgraceful state of affairs every step of the way. The CWU’s message to Royal Mail’s management is simple: do right by your workers." A Royal Mail spokesperson told Drapers: "Instead of engaging meaningfully on change that will secure future jobs, the CWU has decided to ballot against change. We are losing £1 million a day, and we need to change what we are doing to fix the situation and protect jobs. “The CWU has put forward ideas for change that would cost over £1 billion while not delivering the changes needed to ensure Royal Mail can grow and remain competitive in a fast-moving industry. These actions do not represent a union that supports change. We wanted to meet this week but were disappointed the CWU couldn’t make it - we hope to meet next week. The CWU have their heads in the sand and are failing to grasp the seriousness of the situation. "Royal Mail can have a bright future, but we can't achieve that by living in the past. Customers want more parcels, bigger parcels, delivered the next day, including Sundays, and more environmentally friendly options. By modernising, we can offer more of what our customers want at a price they are willing to pay, all whilst protecting jobs on the best terms and conditions in the industry."
Source : https://www.drapersonline.com/news/royal-mail-workers-approve-further-strikes
4.
Emirates Post Group promotes technology innovation across the group August 18,
2022 Emirates Post Group (EPG) has signed a sponsorship agreement with FinTech
Hive to promote the first sprint this year of its FinTech accelerator program,
‘HIVE 22.’
The agreement, signed by Abdulla Mohammed Alashram, Group CEO of Emirates Post Group and Raja Al Mazrouei, Executive Vice President of DIFC FinTech Hive named EPG as the ‘Logistics Partner’ of the program. Abdulla Mohammed Alashram, Group CEO of Emirates Post Group said: “As the world continues to shift even more towards technological adoption, we are excited to partner with DIFC FinTech Hive, and explore collaborations with innovative fintech start-ups that are known to be more agile and can bring rapid solutions to today’s challenges. Emirates Post Group’s growth and investment strategy will depend on supporting fintech start-ups, and we look forward to nurturing and sustaining those start-ups within the region.”
Raja Al Mazrouei, Executive Vice President of DIFC Fintech Hive, said: “As the first and largest financial technology accelerator in the region, the DIFC FinTech Hive Accelerator programme enables the most innovative start-ups opportunities for partnership, investment and mentorship to help shape the future of the financial services sector. We are excited to partner with Emirates Post Group this year to support participants in bringing their innovative ideas to contribute positively to the industry.” EPGs participation in the Fintech Hive accelerator program as the ‘Logistics Partner,’ demonstrates the groups vision towards enabling access into innovative technology solutions that will shape and further enhance the customer journey and widens the spectrum of technology co- creation amongst different players across the group. The selected start-ups will get access to a broader network of industry players that will enable innovative co-creation of technology solutions. The initiative welcomes a large number of forward-thinking start-ups and will pave the way for a prosperous future.
Source : https://postandparcel.info/149638/news/e-commerce/emirates-post-group-promotestechnology-innovation-across-the-group/
5.Carbon neutral from 2030: Swiss Post is making progress on the climate August 16, 2022
If we look into the near future, Swiss Post will still be a reliable partner in the day-today lives of its customers, but with one difference: the company will be carbon neutral. This isn’t a work of science fiction, but rather the result of its ambitious climate and energy target.
A
huge responsibility Sustainability has been a major priority at Swiss Post for
over 25 years. But we’ve got to be honest with ourselves: despite really
important programmes, such as efforts to electrify our delivery vehicles and a
number of other things we’re doing, Swiss Post generates a lot of CO2 – 1
percent of the total emissions in Switzerland annually to be exact. The reason:
Swiss Post is one of the largest logistics companies in the country. But this
is precisely where Christian Plüss sees the biggest opportunity for Swiss Post:
“This very fact actually gives us the leverage to make a real difference on
emissions.” Swiss Post’s more ambitious climate and energy target is something
that Plüss, a climate scientist himself, is very passionate about.
Specifically, Swiss Post aims to be carbon neutral in its operations by 2030.
We are striving to achieve net zero across the entire company − including our
value chain − from 2040. This target is line with the specifications of the
Science Based Target Initiative and will help to limit global warming to 1.5
°C. A whole host of measures will make this possible. Here is an overview of
how the Group will develop over the coming two decades, and in doing so take on
responsibility for society as a whole and the environment.
E-vehicle fleet: Swiss Post sees its future as electric. Very soon Swiss Post will no longer have any vehicles with conventional petrol or diesel engines. As early as 2024, the company aims to have 100 battery-powered Postbuses in operation. And that is only the start: by 2030 all our delivery vehicles will be electric, and our entire Postbus fleet will be electric by 2040. The proportion of delivery vans and buses with an environmentally friendly drive system will also increase significantly. This also means a shift for Swiss Post employees: “Our delivery staff and bus drivers will gradually need to get to grips with electric vehicles,” Plüss notes.
The electricity will be environmentally friendly too but where will the energy for such a huge fleet of electric vehicles come from? From Switzerland of course! Swiss Post solely sources certified green power from Switzerland, for instance from wind and solar power. Talking of solar power, we even generate some of it ourselves. After all, Swiss Post has a lot of buildings − which means a lot of roofs. Needless to say, the company is not going to let such huge spaces go to waste, and so the company operates some of the largest PV systems in Switzerland on its roofs, and increasingly on building facades too.
Switching to modern heating systems Of course, even without gas central heating, it’s important nobody goes cold in the winter at Swiss Post: by 2030, Swiss Post is planning on equipping 80 percent of its premises with modern heating systems. The plan is to then use green heating technologies, for instance heat pumps, pellets and district heating systems. And there is still so much more potential to save on energy in Swiss Post buildings: when it comes to new builds and modernization, the company is committed to ensuring excellent insulation and to meeting the most stringent of energy efficiency standards.
Carbon neutral Unfortunately, CO2 emissions can’t be completely prevented – and probably not even in 2040, either. Yet Swiss Post can still reach the target of 0.0 g of CO2 on its environmental balance sheet by neutralizing the remaining emissions. In practice, this means removing CO2 from the atmosphere. This can be achieved with a range of environmental technologies. Plüss: “We are testing various methods and will put together a portfolio of measures that will enable us to achieve this by 2030.”
Source :
3. DHL Supply Chain expands pharma logistics near Frankfurt August 18, 2022 DHL Supply Chain has further expanded its Life Sciences & Healthcare (LSH) Campus in Florstadt near Frankfurt Airport.
The new branch adds a third logistics centre to the multi-user campus specialising in pharmaceutical and medical products. The new 32,000 sq m centre is within walking distance of both the existing warehouse, which DHL has operated since 2015 for a major pharmaceutical company, and a second site that opened in January 2018 and serves various customers in the medical and healthcare sector. The multi-user campus simultaneously offers space for various customers requiring efficient logistics in Germany, Europe or worldwide. DHL provides single-source solutions in Florstadt to suppliers of medical and pharmaceutical products – from customary storage and order picking through value added services such as kitting, labelling or sampling to highly complex and highly automated logistics solutions. The site is registered in accordance with the German Federal Immission Control Act (BImSchG). A capacity of 10,000 pallet locations has been established in one dedicated section of the facility. Different temperature-controlled zones – ambient, cooled and freezer areas for temperatures as low as minus 20 degrees Celsius – are also available 24/7.
“Florstadt offers outstanding opportunities for medical and pharmaceutical product suppliers thanks to the skills of our experienced and specially trained team, the strategically advantageous location in the Rhine-Main area and the availability of three temperature zones,” explained Rainer Haag, chief executive, DHL Supply Chain Germany & Alps. “We’re confident that our facilities and services will help our customers continue to develop and expand their business in Germany, Europe and around the world. Our customers here do not just benefit from our many years of experience in pharmaceutical logistics and our flexibility to individually align operating processes to customer needs. They also enjoy the advantages of the campus’s great location, which offers good connections to all possible modes of transport.” The multi-user campus in Florstadt is located about 35 km from the centre of the Frankfurt Rhine-Main economic region and offers access to Frankfurt Airport, DHL’s parcel and Express network, and rail and highway networks. The new logistics centre has been awarded Gold Standard by the German Sustainable Building Council (DGNB). It features a 750 kWp photovoltaic system, heat pumps and a 320 sq m solar air heating system that continuously supply the carbon-neutral warehouse with environmentally friendly energy and a controlled climate.
Source: https://www.aircargonews.net/sectors/pharma-logistics/dhl-supply-chain-expandspharma-logistics-near-frankfurt/
4.NZ Post research shows Kiwis spent $1.6 billion online this quarter, down 4 percent on the same period last year
August 16, 2022 NZ Post’s latest Spotlight report shows Kiwis spent $1.6 billion online on physical goods in the second quarter of 2022 (Q2 2022), down 4 percent on the same quarter in 2021.
NZ Post General Manager of Business Marketing Chris Wong says we need to consider the decline in online spending in the context of the wider economic and retail environment. “The 4 percent decline we are seeing in spending this quarter is likely the result of retail shoppers feeling the bite of our economic reality and it’s reducing their ability and willingness to spend – both online and instore,” Wong said. “But when we compare these trends to prepandemic data, we see that online shopping has grown at a phenomenal rate over the last 30 months or so, fuelled by new shopper habits established when COVID restricted our ability to shop in stores. Comparing Q2 2022 to pre-pandemic days, we see online sales up 52 percent on Q2 2019,” Wong said. “Online spending has fared comparatively well to other channels, reinforcing that online shoppers are not making the switch back to instore, but they are tightening their purse,” Wong said. “Kiwis are also continuing to make the positive choice to buy local. 75 percent of spending online in Q2 2022 was with NZ-based retailers, up from 71 percent a year ago,” Wong said. “Our latest eCommerce Spotlight report also shows shoppers moving away from non-essential spending. The largest online sector - Speciality Food, Groceries and Liquor held its ground online (0 percent spend decline on Q2 2021). Within the sector, however, we see two different stories. The grocery store/supermarket sub-sector saw a 14 percent rise in online shopping spend. Contrast this with liquor stores which saw a 10 percent decline in spend. Shoppers are clearly putting less liquor in their basket or substituting products with lower priced items,” Wong said. “Health & Beauty was the only online sector to show spend growth in the last quarter, up 4 percent on Q2 2021, driven by pharmacy and medical spend in a period of COVID and flu sickness,” Wong said. “Discretionary spend sectors like Department, Variety & Misc. Retail (down 12 percent), and Recreation, Entertainment, Books & Stationery (down 10 percent) experienced the largest declines in online sector spend compared to Q2 2021,” Wong said. “Looking beyond the last year, Q2 2022’s online transaction volumes were up 28 percent, with basket size up 19 percent, compared to pre-pandemic Q2 2019. There’s no doubt, despite a short-term decline in growth, that online shopping is still in a strong position,” Wong said.
Source : https://www.nzpost.co.nz/about-us/media-centre/media-release/nz-post-research-shows-kiwis-spent-16-billion-online-this-quarter
5.A people-first approach to postal transformation August 15, 2022
Canada Post Chief People and Safety Officer Susan Margles provides her point-of-view on the importance of company culture to successful postal transformation. Canada Post’s Postal Transformation Project is something that has been in the works for a few years now. How has the project evolved and what are you currently targeting? What I’ve learned in 15 years in the postal industry is that we’re always transforming – there isn’t a discrete start and stop to the different chapters or plans. We are certainly living our company purpose of “A stronger Canada delivered,” which is the highest expression of where we are moving with our transformation plans. Coming through COVID-19, we have learned a lot about how important we are to Canadians in delivering the things they need every day. That has been a big underpinning in this chapter of our transformation. The plans we are undertaking now are organized under three pillars. Providing a service that all Canadians can count on is the first pillar. That includes expanding our capacity, making sure we are supporting small and medium enterprises, and enhancing our service, our tracking, and our retail network, which is the bread and butter of the business. The second pillar focuses on establishing a position of environmental leadership and social purpose – which is tied to our role as a Crown corporation – to ensure that we are serving Canadians in the way in which they expect to be served. This means taking a leadership position on things like the environment and climate, equity, diversity and inclusion, and indigenous reconciliation. The third pillar is what we call “doing right by our people” and that is the one that my team is most immersed in. Under that pillar, we are making health and safety an even stronger part of our culture going forward. We are making sure we work collaboratively and seek alignment with our different unions to create a fair and respectful workplace. In today’s market with somuch going on post-COVID and people questioning how they want to work, who they want to work for etcetera, this pillar is very important in terms of our positioning as an employer.
The Post is a very particular kind of organization - it has a public service mandate, but is expected to be a profitable business. What are the challenges of managing transformation in this kind of environment?
I think it is about finding the right trade-off. In our constituting legislation, we have the dual mandate of providing the service for Canadians, but doing it in a financially self-sufficient manner. That is challenging because, as the market shifts, the letter monopoly is running away from us and the competitive parcels business is becoming our future. It means we need to be more dynamic and think differently. The way we have articulated our purpose – “A stronger Canada delivered” – speaks to where we have grounded ourselves. Post-COVID, we have made many discoveries about how important we are to Canadians and I think it’s fair to say we’ve gone through different phases of balancing the financially self-sufficient piece with the service piece in different ways, shapes and forms. I think it is probably ever-thus for most postal organizations. What is particularly germane when you look at transformation in that context is a real effort to engage and work with different groups of stakeholders because you can’t make a decision focused only on the bottom line. We need to think about the federal government, who is our owner and represents all Canadians. We need to think about different stakeholder groups amongst our customers and how they are going to react to, live with and understand the transformation that we are going through. Our unions and our employees are also stakeholders.
How do internal stakeholders need to come together to execute the transformation process?
If you have people working in silos, you are never going to reach the maximum impact of your transformation plan because you will miss things along the way. We have a number of different processes and fora in which we bring together different parts of the company on a regular basis to make sure that we understand how each of us impacts the other in the initiatives we’re leading. We then share those plans amongst ourselves so we know how other people are counting on us. From my vantage point, I think it is important that my team and I are injecting the question of culture, along with our human resources pillars, into all other areas of the transformation. Our people are the ones who have to deliver this transformation at the end of the day, so if we do not include them in what we are building then I think we face the risk of falling flat. We are working hard to do that whether through formal or more informal processes.
What has gone into Canada Post’s culture change efforts?
We came to the conclusion early on that we couldn’t achieve business transformation unless we also transformed our culture. That’s not to say we wanted to throw out our culture entirely – we had a lot of very positive aspects to our culture that we wanted to enhance, such as employee pride. We went through a process of discovery to determine those aspects that were not serving us as well as they had in the past. Not unlike many other posts, we were built up in a time of hierarchy and I think today’s world requires a more agile, more responsive, more flexible approach. One example we have been hearing from our people that we’re still a little too hierarchical in terms of decision-making, that things take a long time, and they’re looking for a way to have more responsibility in their areas and, in turn, more accountability for decision-making.
When leading change, you have to match where you are trying to take the culture with the business transformation you are trying to lead, and then work to ensure that it will enhance what you’re doing. Part of that is articulating to our people what our culture is, what it is not, and where we might want to make some changes. It is about engaging people and getting their perspective. It is a big effort. There is definitely an importance on tone from the leadership, but it is also about engaging people all across the company all the way down to the front lines. Those are the people Canadians see every day, who really represent the Post.
How are customers part of this process?
I would say that our sales team, who is our face with customers on the business side, is probably one of the groups most excited about the culture change because they love to have something new to talk about with customers. We worked with the sales team in developing our new values and behaviours and putting together the workbooks and different sessions that we are going to be rolling out across the company to equip them to have that conversation. But first we did some listening through the sales team to gather feedback from individual customers – the good, the bad and the ugly – to learn more about their expectations. We want to put Canadians first in our culture discussions. As an example, when we developed the new expression of our values, which are “trust, respect and deliver,” we looked at them through three different lenses. That is: how do we relate to those as individuals, how do we relate to them as a team, and how to we relate to them vis-à-vis Canadians. Then, when I say I “deliver,” that does not just mean delivering for my team in my role; it is also how I am delivering for Canadians. I think that by putting customers front and centre in our culture, we’re going to have much more resonance out there. We are going to continue to listen to them and adjust to make sure we are living up to their expectations of us as a Crown corporation.
What are some lessons learned that you might share with other postal operators embarking on their transformation and culture change journey?
Don’t shy away from change and start thinking about it early. We can get very caught up in the business and what we need to do to change the business and then we expect culture to follow, but I don’t think that’s reality. You need to think about what aspects of the culture you need to fire up or tamp down in order to deliver real transformation. It is also important to include all sorts of stakeholders, all sorts of elements of your employee base, in that culture conversation. Whether that conversation is about the elements of the culture people really want to hang on to, that work for us and make us who we are, or whether it’s the things people feel it is time to let go. It is important you don’t do that from an ivory tower. It is not a one-and-done approach, it is a process of checking back and making sure that things are resonating, that they are landing the way you intended. Also, be inclusive and have an open mind. People who have been in the organization a long time can get stuck on what they think is the most important part of the culture, but we’re seeing a real shift generationally. Younger people are coming in with different expectations of what a good employer is and what culture they want to develop and thrive in.
Source : https://www.upu.int/en/News/2022/8/A-people-first-approach-to-postaltransformation#.YvpiaJBkXv0.twitter
https://www.post.ch/en/about-us/news/2022/carbon-neutral-from-2030UNI Apro Post & Logistics
1 POSTAL NEWS No 65-2022
Formulated by UNI Apro Post and Logistics Sector
1.The Questionable financial basis for the U.S. postal service’s receipt of $10 billion from taxpayers. August 19, 2022.
2.Union intervention sees withdrawal of unreasonable and unsafe scanner signature directions. August 19, 2022.
3.DHL Supply Chain expands pharma logistics near Frankfurt. August 18, 2022.
4.NZ Post research shows Kiwis spent $1.6 billion online this quarter, down 4 percent on the same period last year. August 16, 2022.
5.A people-first approach to postal transformation. August 15, 2022.
1.The Questionable financial basis for the U.S. postal service’s receipt of $10 billion from taxpayers
August 19, 2022 In March 2020, Congress passed the Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security (CARES) Act. Regarding the U.S. Postal Service, the CARES Act stated: …[I]f the Postal Service determines that, due to the COVID–19 emergency, the Postal Service will not be able to fund operating expenses without borrowing money — (1) the Postal Service may borrow money from the Treasury in an amount not to exceed $10,000,000,000… [Emphasis added.]
Following this, the Consolidated Appropriations Act, 2021, another major COVID-19 relief package signed into law on December 27, 2020, stated the Postal Service would not have to repay the funds if it met the criteria to obtain them as specified in the CARES Act. The remainder of this commentary is focused on the determination required of the Postal Service for access to CARES Act (taxpayer) funds, starting with brief coverage of two agreements with the U.S. Treasury, the second of which nullified the first. In July 2020, Treasury and the Postal Service agreed to a CARES Act term sheet, which required the Postal Service’s cash balance to be $8 billion or less when receiving taxpayer funds. Reaching the $8 billion would have required cash to decline by almost $5 billion. On January 19, 2021, the Postal Service reached a new CARES Act agreement with Treasury, which apparently did not contain a maximum cash balance for access to funds. Despite an adjusted $1.9 billion of net positive cash flows in-pandemic,[1] and an adjusted Postal Service Fund balance of $11.2 billion at the end of February, the Postal Service requested and received $8.7 billion from Treasury in March, in two transactions. The Postal Service accessed the remaining authorized $1.3 billion in at least two more transactions by the end of July. At the end of September 2021, the adjusted Postal Service Fund balance totaled $22.4 billion. For each transaction, the law required a Postal Service determination that, “due to the COVID-19 emergency,” it would “not be able to fund operating expenses without borrowing money.” Based on review of two public documents, one pre- and one in-pandemic, the author questions any such determination. About one month before the March 2020 presidential declaration of the COVID-19 national emergency, the Postal Service released a Five-Year Strategic Plan, in which it stated: “…[W]e expect to run out of liquidity by 2021 if we pay all our financial obligations — and by 2024 even if we continue to default on our year-end, lump sum retiree health-benefit and pension related payments.” The Postal Service’s use of similar text in Appendix A of its March 23, 2021 Delivering for America 10-year plan, calls into serious question any determination that inability to fund operating expenses would be “due to the COVID-19 emergency,” as required: “Under this status-quo forecast by 2024, we would not have cash to operate even if we were to continue to default on RHB normal cost and RHB, FERS and CSRS amortization payments and fully exhaust our borrowing authority.” The projection of a 2024 cash shortfall in both the pre- and in-pandemic forecasts prompts the following question: When requesting CARES Act funds on different occasions, how did the Postal Service comply with the required determination that it would be unable to fund operating expenses due to the COVID-19 emergency? As a first step toward answering this question, the Postal Service should release to the public its January 2021 CARES Act agreement with Treasury and the subsequent requests that summed to $10 billion of taxpayer funds. [1] The Postal Service Fund balance in Treasury at the end of February 2021 minus the balance one year prior, adjusted for deferred Social Security taxes and change in debt. The author applied this adjustment formula to all subsequent Postal Service Fund values. [2] When the Five-Year Strategic Plan was released, the Postal Service had statutory authority to increase its debt by $4 billion. When the Delivering for America was released, the same statutory authority was $1 billion. This difference does not alter the author’s analysis, which incorporates adjustments for changes in debt. About the Author: Robert J. Pedersen retired from federal service in 2021, after a career that included 19 years as a Postal Service finance executive and five years with the Postal Service Office of Inspector General. Viewpoints expressed herein are solely those of the author, and not those of any organization or governmental entity.
Source : https://www.postalconsumers.org/the-questionable-financial-basis-for-the-u-s-postal-of-services-receipt-of-10-billion-from-taxpayers/
2.Union intervention sees withdrawal of unreasonable and unsafe scanner signature directions
August 19, 2022 Today, some members across various regions received directions, during toolbox talks, to wind-back contactless deliveries of signature-required articles. A wider distribution of this direction was scheduled to occur on Monday.
This unsafe directive to members involved questioning a customer on their COVID-19 infection and symptomatic status prior to handing over a scanner to receive a signature on delivery. This unreasonable directive put members at an imminent, unnecessary and avoidable risk of contracting COVID-19 and/or potentially abusive confrontations with customers. This direction occurred without any consultation with employees or the Union. It was unreasonable, inappropriate and presented a real and imminent risk to members’ health and safety. Following urgent talks between your Union and Australia Post, this directive has now been withdrawn – effective immediately.
Source : http://www.cepu.org/2022/08/members-advised-to-ignore-unsafe-managementdirectives-to-question-customers-covid-status-when-delivering/
CLICK HERE TO VIEW RMS Sentinel August 2022