Tuesday, January 12, 2010

Biggest mailing ever: U.S. Census Bureau sends 447 million pieces

The Postal Service has been tasked with processing and deliver census forms and other mailpieces to every household in the nation.

Through mid-April, the Census Bureau will send six separate mailings — a total of 447 million pieces. For the Postal Service, it means $200 million in revenue as well as an opportunity to provide a valuable community service.

“This is the single largest mailing ever in U.S. history,” said Tom Day, senior vice president, Intelligent Mail and Address Quality. “It will have an impact on the lives of millions of Americans. Every postal employee plays a role in making this very important mailing program successful.”

What do you think about this?  How will it work in your office, plant or route? Click here to comment.

15 comments:

Anonymous said...

This a great service, however, it probably will not work in my community since there is no street delivery. We will have to trash or return this mailing because they are to the street address. Personal contact by the Census Bureau to each home would be best in this community

Anonymous said...

Sure would be nice to have these come during the rural mail count instead of the next week after ha ha

Anonymous said...

Great idea to MAIL census.
Wonder who pays the postage(?)
Hudson Station RR 17 D.Carey Modesto,Ca.

Joan said...

Wonder how many will put a stamp on to reply. Should have sold them on BRM for the reply. 447 million mailed & returned is a profit for the pO.

Anonymous said...

In previous years the Census mailings were mostly undeliverable in small towns without street delivery. The Census Bureau used street addresses and we didn't have the time or the records available to match street addresses to PO Boxes. I don't know if they plan to do it like that again, but if they don't address them to PO Boxes or use door-to-door Census takers small towns could be mis-counted. With Edit Books it should be possible for the Census to get mailing lists to all "rented" PO Boxes in non-delivery towns and have them delivered that way. It does make fiscal sense for the government as mail is cheaper that hiring and training thousands of temporary workers (I was a census taker in 1980 and I think it would be harder now.) As for who pays the postage, the Census Bureau does so it comes out of tax money. But it's still revenue for us!

Anonymous said...

In regards to the first comment entered, please tie all your street addresses to the P O Boxes in WebEES then all the pieces should be able to be delivered.

Anonymous said...

To the first poster...

The policy in our district (I actually thought it was company-wide) is to get each mailpiece to its intended recipient even if it has a bad address, i.e, street address instead of PO Box number. We know our box customers by name, and look up the ones we don't readily recognize. I wouldn't THINK of returning mail to the sender just because it was addressed to their street address rather than the box number! That just seems spiteful and irresponsible and is NOT what I call customer service!!

Anonymous said...

There is no such thing as a NON-DELIVERY town. If you put mail in a PO Box that is a delivery! And all PO Box's have a street address. I'm not sure where it is listed but it says if the mail comes in with a street address and the is no CARRIER delivery you put the mail in their PO Box. I have the name(s) of the box holders and the street address listed after the PO Box number on a word document. All PO Box applications have to have the PO Box holders street address. My MPOO said if we know where the piece of mail goes deliver it. That is on the Rural Route as well. No wonder we have so many complaints from customers about not recieving mail.

Anonymous said...

OUR OFFICE (86023) IS A PO BOX DELIVERY STATION (ONLY), SO IT SHOULD WORK JUST FINE PROVIDED THEY ARE ADDRESSED TO OUR PO BOXES AND NOT TO PHYSICAL ADDRESSES. IN THAT CASE, THEY WILL ALL BE RTS AS UDAA.

Anonymous said...

Our MPOO fired a PMR for returning mail that did not have PO Box numbers on it...she worked in an office with no carrier delivery. She said that she was tired of "babying" the customers who did not use their box numbers.

You have to consider, though, that it's not always the recipient's fault that the box number is not used!

I hope that the census forms contain names AND box numbers...but, even if they don't, my customers will still be receiving theirs!!!

Anonymous said...

If a customer can't get their own address correct(esp. after we repeatedly notify them), then shame on them & their mail WILL be returned as NMR.

Anonymous said...

I know the Census Bureau is using Federal Express for the Census Bureau workers to return their information nightly. In my county there is no Federal Express drop offs so the worker here will have to drive over 40 miles round trip and be paid mileage and time to do this each night. Why wouldn't the USPS get this business with Express Mail in these rural areas. It would have to be so much more cost effective.

Anonymous said...

Small towns without carrier delivery do not have access to WebESS (or at least we don't in our area.) I've found a report on WebBATS that prints the "E" boxes with street addresses but that doesn't include the ones that pay rent (from another town, two boxholders at the same physical address.) And customers move and "forget" to inform us that they don't live at that physical address. The previous Census mailings DID NOT have names on them. Sure if the mailpiece has a name and street address we deliver it if we know where it goes, but it's wrong to assume we always know. We get mail addressed to "The Smith Family" with a street address and we may have 10 Smith families in town - do we just keep putting it in successive boxes until we get it right? Some offices without street delivery have over 600 PO Boxes. It would take several days to look up an entire mailing of "Resident" mail addressed by street addresses and our workhour budget is barely enough to sort & box mail and work the window, much less the numerous reports and scans and emails, etc. During the last Census we were directed to return the street addressed piece to the Census Bureau. Maybe they've come up with a better solution this time, but this will continue to be a problem for small offices. Even when we try to educate the customers they ignore us - and it's a nightmare whenever there is a new employee trying to box mail that's not addressed correctly. We try our best but I agree that customers have to accept some responsibility for their address. Do they complain to the phone company when someone trys to call them and punches in the wrong number? Do they blame AOL or MSN wneh they don't receive an email because the sender typed it in wrong? DPS will never be a reality in small offices without correct addressing - but these small offices will probably all be closed in the future anyway. Then the customers will really have something to complain about!

Anonymous said...

Is it just me or does the "revenue" (yes, it's in quotes) seem to be funny money only: an inter-agency transfer which may or may not be made, versus hard currency that the USPS can use.

I truly hope that we receive the latter payment, especially since we are supposed to be self sufficient.

Anonymous said...

If you don't have routes, and are a BOX section office only, you can still create a R777 and tie the physical address to the boxes in webess.