Understanding The Postal Service Reform Act of 2022 and How It Can Impact Your Business
You probably know about the new Postal Service Reform Act of 2022 if you are someone who closely follows the news. Reforms are rarely simple, and they often bring in many changes. It is understandable if you are concerned that the new reform may affect your marketing and communication operations.
However, the Postal Service Reform Act of 2022 may benefit your business operations. This article will explain everything you need to know about the latest postal service reform and the impact it may have on your marketing and communication efforts.
What Is The New Postal Service Reform Bill?
The new Postal Service Reform Bill, brings in long overdue changes to the United States Postal Service. President Biden signed the bill into law on Apr 6, 2022, and it is all set to pave a new path for USPS toward financial stability.
There are four significant provisions in the new US Postal Service Reform bill, which are as follows.
- Terminate the mandate on pre-funding for retiree health benefits.
- Provide medicare integration.
- Enhance transparency concerning the service issues of USPS.
- Provide guaranteed six-day delivery.
The last two provisions of the Postal Service Reform Act are the only ones that matter to your business organization. With the new reform, USPS makes significant changes to its financial and operational processes.
Companies that regularly use direct or postal mail marketing for business can benefit from the USPS’s enhanced transparency. The new mandate for six-day delivery is another highlight in the new Postal Service Reform bill that’s worth your attention.
What Are The Benefits of The 2022 Postal Service Reform Bill?
The most exciting part about the Postal Service Reform Act of 2022 is its many benefits. Although irrelevant to your business organization, two primary aspects of the postal reform bill deal with retiree benefits.
Understanding the primary aspects of the Postal Service Reform bill is essential in getting a comprehensive idea of the reform. According to the new reform, USPS receives some relief from funding health and retirement benefits for its employees for 50 years.
Besides that, the Postal Reform Bill also ensures that the primary insurance of future retirees moves to Medicare. These two benefits of the Postal Service Reform Bill do not apply to your business. Nonetheless, these benefits are worth mentioning and give you a complete picture of the reform.
Here are some more significant benefits of the Postal Service Reform bill that are more compelling for your business organization.
Better Transparency
One of the most significant benefits of the latest Postal Service Reform bill to businesses is enhanced transparency. According to the new reform, USPS must maintain a publicly accessible dashboard. The public should be able to use this dashboard to track the performance of the USPS service.
It also lets the public regularly report USPS operations and financial conditions. This portion of the Postal Service Reform bill benefits your business by ensuring the post offices meet their desired standards.
Transparency paves the way for better oversight of the USPS offices, effectively allowing the mail service provider to improve its services. The new Post Office Reform bill forces the Post Offices to strengthen themselves by maintaining transparency and open oversight.
Guaranteed Six-Day Delivery
The guaranteed six-day delivery is another significant benefit of the Postal Service Reform Act of 2022. In most cases, USPS delivers its mail relatively fast. In the past, there was only a guarantee of the delivery time for some special or fast delivery services.
With the Postal Reform Act of 2022, you now have guaranteed 6-day delivery for your business mailers. If you ever had a problem with the delivery time of the USPS mailing service, the new reform should be a welcome sight.
Business organizations can better plan their mailing operations without worrying about the mail getting too late. The Postal Service Reform bill also ensures that all your mailers, including packages, flats, and letter mail, remain together as a single postal network.
Also Read: How to Write a Cheque in Canada?
How Does The Postal Service Reform Act of 2022 Boost Transparency?
For most businesses, the best part about the Postal Service Reform Act of 2022 is the transparency it brings to the table. The new reform requires USPS to reveal its overall operations to its customers, allowing you to better plan your postal mail campaigns. But how does USPS ensure postal service transparency according to the new reform? Here is how they do it.
Public Dashboard
According to the mandate of the Postal Service Reform Act of 2022, USPS developed a public dashboard. The primary purpose of this public dashboard is to publish USPS performance data every week. However, you can use it to identify factors that could be slowing down your mailing process and rectify them.
You can even find ZIP codes and pinpoint them depending on whether or not they experience low performance over an extended period. As a result, the Postal Service Reform bill lets the public decide if any areas in the country require improvements.
Improvements for a specific area or ZIP code can include implementing better transportation routes and other similar operations. The Postal Service Reform bill facilitates faster, more efficient deliveries for your business by ensuring these improvements happen regularly and on time.
Upholding Union Rights
One of the main concerns people have with the new Postal Service Reform Act of 2022 is undermines union rights. Fortunately, the new reform act does not threaten the consumer’s collective bargaining rights.
In the past, some postal reforms undermined union rights. But, there is no reason for any such concern with the new Post Office Reform bill of 2022. The reform also gives customers the freedom to official grievances or check-off dues.
What Does The Postal Service Reform Act of 2022 Mean For Customers?
At first glance, the Postal Service Reform Act of 2022 may not seem relevant for US Postal Service customers, including your business. However, over time, USPS’s financial stability will have a noticeable impact on its services. This impact ultimately transfers to the consumers and enhances the overall service quality of the postal service provider…
Avoiding Pre-Funding Mandate
The pre-funding mandate is the primary reason behind most of the financial problems of the USPS. According to the PAEA (Postal Accountability and Enhancement Act) of 2006, the postal service must pre-fund 100% of its retirees’ health benefits/liabilities. The new US Postal Service Reform bill changes the dynamics of this system.
Due to this pre-funding obligation, USPS is now $35 billion in depth with the government. Most people don’t realize this, but this unreasonable pre-fund mandate significantly affects USPS’s normal functioning. The new Postal Service Reform Act stops this practice and frees up valuable resources for the USPS.
Cut Down On Postal Mail Expenses
Due to the pre-funding mandate, USPS had to close down several processing plants and increase subcontracting. Moreover, it is also the primary reason USPS is curtailing their standard working hours and reducing a significant number of their staff. Thanks to the new Postal Service Reform Act, USPS no longer has to hold itself liable to the pre-funding mandate.
As a direct result, the United States Postal Service can finally upgrade its infrastructure and logistics capabilities. With better facilities and equipment USPS can now deliver your business mailers more efficiently and effectively. Moreover, the Postal Service Reform bill can eliminate unnecessary price hikes and help consumers save money on postal services.
Medicare Integration
Besides removing the pre-funding mandate, the Postal Service Reform Act of 2022 also highlights the use of Medicare integrations. According to the reform, any future USPS retiree is eligible for Medicare at age 65. These retirees can remain in the FEHBP or Federal Employee Health Benefits Program after retirement.
The Postal Service Reform bill also requires USPS retirees to enroll in Medicare to create a combination between FEHBP and Benefit Programs. According to the new act, these new provisions will only take effect until the beginning of 2025. The Medicare integration does not apply to existing USPS retirees by default.
However, an existing USPS retiree over 65 years with FEHBP can join Medicare B if they are not already members. But, this is only a one-time chance for retirees to join Medicare waiver of any penalty for late enrollment. All this is possible now because of the new Postal Service Reform Act that is now in place.
Medicare Integration And the Public Postal Service
Medicare integration may seem like it has nothing to do with the public postal service. But, the truth is that the Postal Service Reform Bill and Medicare integration can help the public postal service in more ways than one. For instance, the Medicare integration minimizes the health insurance premiums for FEBHP. Typically, the USPS pays this insurance premium for its employees and retirees.
By accomplishing maximum participation in Medicare, USPS can significantly reduce its healthcare costs. Although USPS still has to spend money on insurance, the amount is considerably lower than the old insurance program. Using Medicare integration, the Postal Service Reform bill saves USPS money.
Medicare is not something new for postal employees. Postal services, including USPS, have long used Medicare and have significantly contributed to Medicare. USPS uses all the money the postal service provider saves on the bulk insurance premium to optimize its operations. As a result, the Postal Service Reform bill optimizes your mailing operations better thanks to Medicare integration.
How To Optimize Your Business's Postal Mail Expenses Using PostGrid?
By the end of the day, the Postal Service Reform Act of 2022 benefits USPS customers in two ways. It helps USPS customers minimize their expenses and streamline their overall delivery operations. But you can do the same for your business mailers using PostGrid’s advanced direct mail automation tool.
If you think about it, direct mail automation can have the same effect on your business mailers as the Postal Service Reform Act. With the postal reform, USPS can enhance its infrastructure and logistics capabilities. Direct mail automation does the same thing for your business mailer.
The only difference is that the process optimization in direct mail automation tools deals with the processes before handing the mailers to USPS. Similar to the Postal Service Reform Act of 2022, you can save money on your business mailer using PostGrid’s automated solution. Some of the ways direct mail automation can help your business’s marketing and communication efforts are as follows.
Bulk Mailing
One of the most attractive features of PostGrid’s direct mail API is that you can easily send bulk mail to your customers. It lets you quickly send bulk mail campaigns for your business using a simple CSV file. It helps you get the most out of the Postal Service Reform bill by quickly handing your bulk mail to the USPS.
You can also integrate PostGrid’s direct mail API to your website and send your business mailers directly from the backend. Besides, USPS provides you with special discounts for pre-sorted bulk mail. With the bulk mail discounts and the regulated postage cost due to the Postal Service Reform bill, you can keep your expenses to a minimum.
Full Automation And Personalization
Another compelling reason to use PostGrid for your business mailing operations is its automation and personalization ability. Advanced direct mail automation solutions can automate the entire direct mail process and eliminate human errors. By minimizing your mailer’s return rate and optimizing your direct mail expenses, PostGrid can save more money than the Postal Service Reform bill itself.
Additionally, you can save valuable time and resources necessary for personalizing your business mailers using automation. You can connect PostGrid’s direct mail solution directly with your CRM and quickly personalize your USPS marketing mail and communication materials. Similar to the Postal Service Reform Act of 2022, PostGrid also helps streamline mail delivery with accurate addresses and standardized business mailers.
You can also access PostGrid’s template gallery and editor to design marketing materials like postcards. PostGrid uses standard-size mailers and an address format that allows faster processing of your business mailers. With the Postal Service Reform Act, the process becomes even more streamlined, making way for quicker and more efficient mail deliveries.
Want to get the most out of the Postal Service Reform of 2022 with PostGrid’s fully automated direct mail tool? Sign up for a free demo now!
