Postal

Due to a decrease in mail volume during the COVID-19 pandemic, the U.S. Postal Service could be dry of funds by September. Earlier during the pandemic in the U.S., the USPS estimated that it would hit that mark around May, but thankfully was able to secure funds to stay afloat a little while longer. But,…

The U.S. Postal Service pulled a T-shirt from its online store after a retired aerospace engineer pointed out that the airplane on the shirt's design looked like a Cold War-era Soviet aircraft. USPS said the design, which had been selected by an unnamed vendor, was most likely just some stock art of an airplane. Weirdly, the shirt also included a typo that likely would have gone unnoticed if not for the whole strange sequence...

Although USPS mailing promotions took a break in 2018, they are back for 2019. This year there are five old ones and one new one.

Question: Should I put the real shipping or in-hands dates on the orders I send to suppliers? Answer: I always built in a cushion of a few days to prevent 11th hour heroics and to be prepared for client ignorance, like neglecting to tell me the event is at 8 a.m. or that they need…

The United States Postal Service announced that it is "contemplating amendment" of its mailing standards for domestic mail, changing the standards for letter-size and flat-size pieces. According to the release in the USPS Federal Register, the change would limit all mail that is shipped as Marketing…

EnvyPak, Columbus, Ohio, received another new ruling from the United States Postal Service that provides lower automation letter rates for a specifically-formatted, polypropylene envelope that now does not require an affixed mailing label, can be sealed with glue applied by lettershops and is fully machine-insertable. Using this specially formatted, Automation Letter Rate (ALR) clear poly…

Two months ago, news of scratch-and-sniff stamps from the U.S. Postal Service (USPS) had us pondering which promotional products would benefit from a similar treatment and which would violate considerations of common sense. For the latter, of course, we had some fun with it, as we doubt anyone would consider adding a scratch-and-sniff scent to…

The newest rounds of retaliatory tariffs from Canada announced yesterday point directly at a few items with direct ties to the promotional industry, like ballpoint pens.

According to the American Trucking Associations (ATA), there's a shortage of approximately 50,000 truck drivers in the U.S. This shortage is contributing to shipping issues for retailers and consumers, and it's seeping into the promotional products space, too...

With the USPS set to launch scratch-and-sniff stamps, we began to wonder which promotional products might benefit from a similar treatment and which should definitely resist the urge to be nosy about our noses’ inner workings. Just for fun, here are three examples of goods that would be more awesome and three that sound downright terrible in scratch-and-sniff form...