Source: Star Trek™ Forever Stamps to be Dedicated Sept. 2 in NYC – Postal Employee Network

From the Office of Inspector General –

Our objective was to determine the effectiveness of support for PostalOne!-BCSS operational availability.

What the OIG Found

Management is not effectively supporting and managing PostalOne!-BCSS availability and needs to improve the process for notifying all users of PostalOne!-BCSS outages. Based on reported outages, the Postal Service also does not maintain consistent records to track outages and the unavailability of PostalOne!-BCSS.

PostalOne!-BCSS did not consistently meet its daily 99.95 percent availability goal during FY 2015. We identified 22 reported instances where the daily average availability percentage ranged from 76.03 to 99.92 percent.

Additionally, the CIO scorecard did not accurately reflect actual system availability status because it excluded blackout maintenance hours, which should have been included according to best practices.

Full report at link

Source: PostalOne!-Business Customer Support System Availability | USPS Office of Inspector General

Responding to a Freedom of Information Act request, the USPIS told Deadline: “In reference to your request for how much money the USPIS has spent on the The Inspectors in direct financing, you are informed that the United States Postal Service has contracted with Litton Syndications Inc. to develop, write, produce, and air a consumer awareness and crime prevention 30-minute campaign titled, The Inspectors. The contract was awarded for $5.4 million and the period of performance is 9/15/2014 to 9/14/2016, with potential to extend the contract for an additional two one-year option periods.”

Source:  Alliance of Nonprofit Mailers Facebook post

From a USPS Industry Alert:

Flooding in Louisiana and Mississippi

Post Office Closures/Relocations/Service Impacts

The US Postal Service is monitoring the flooding in Louisiana and Mississippi. Due to severe flooding, the following offices have been closed and relocated to alternate sites as noted:

Louisiana Offices

Livingston P.O. 70754 – Delivery and acceptance is impacted due to flooding and road closures. The Post Office is open and offering retail and P.O. Box service only.

Prairieville P.O. 70769 – Delivery and acceptance is impacted due to flooding and road closures. The Post Office is open and offering retail and P.O. Box service only.

Mississippi Offices

The Postal Service has temporarily suspended operations at the Crosby P.O. 39633. Recent flooding caused water damage to the building, requiring the temporary suspension. The repairs are expected to take approximately three weeks for completion. Notices have been placed at the Post Office. During the suspension, Post Office Box customers will receive mail service at the Gloster P.O., located at 200 E. Main Street, Gloster, MS, 39638. Customers may also pick up packages and mail at the Gloster Post Office.

The Gloster P.O. offers retail services Monday through Friday between the hours of 8:00am to Noon and 1:00pm to 4:00pm; and Saturday 9:00am to 11:00am

We will continue to monitor the situation. As more information is made available and updates are made, we will continue to notify you about the impacts of this situation.

Washington, DC – The Postal Regulatory Commission will host an off-the-record technical conference on August 26, 2016, at 10:00 am in the hearing room at Commission offices, 901 New York Ave. NW, Suite 200 Washington, DC 20268, to discuss data represented in the Postal Service’s first two quarterly reports on its service performance measurement systems proposals for Market Dominant products. Representatives from the Postal Service will discuss the quarterly service performance reports and be available to answer questions relating to the data.

Source: PRC Hosts Technical Conference on USPS Performance Measurement Data – Postal Employee Network

Source: Video: Postmaster General visits Bismarck to address mail volume issues – Postal Employee Network

Source: Patriotic spiral Forever stamp features festive, energetic design