Mailers test delivery time with USPS

Folio: The Magazine for Magazine Management, Nov, 1989

Mailers test delivery time with USPS

WASHINGTON, D.C.--For the first time, five mailers and the United States Postal Service (USPS) will work together to measure the delivery time of third class bulk business mail. The test, slated for March 1990, will measure delivery time to 25 major cities that receive roughly 40 percent of bulk mail. If successful, the test could result in an ongoing subscription service to mailers.

The new test follows another recent mailer-Postal Service collaboration, which measured third class non-delivery.

The Third Class Mail Analysis System (TCMAS) test is currently waiting to hire a contractor, who must be able to mail to a panel of 6,000 reporters. Reporters will telephone delivery information to the vendor as they receive mail, says David Beckerman, vice president, marketing services for Radio Shack and chairman of the TCMAS committee.

Radio Shack, one of the participating mailers, plans to merge its 6,000 seed mailings into the eight million pieces sent out to target cities, says Beckerman. "We don't want it to look like test mail," says Ann Robinson USPS consumer advocate. "We want it to look like something sent in a normal mailing process."

The test will allow mailers to retrieve their own mailing data from the vendor as it becomes available. The USPS will have access to all mailings during the test and can use the data to see if mail is being delivered according to its own performance standards. MAilers will be able to use the system to point out lapses in delivery time, but, at this time, are not able to make recommendations to the Postal Service.

"We don't intend it to be a hammer over the Postal Service's head," says Chuck Albright, vice president distribution services at R.R. Donnelley and a member of the TCMAS committee. "We intend it to be a management service tool."

In addition to Radio Shack, the five participating mailers include R.R. Donnelley, Foster & Gallagher, Alden Press and Harte-Hanks.

If the program becomes available to all third class mailers, a single year subscription, which would allow two test mailings per month, would cost $20,000 to $30,000.