USPS Reports Steady Service Performance Across All Categories

Following other major social media platforms, LinkedIn has announced that it will begin adding labels to in-stream content created by generative artificial intelligence (AI) so its users better understand the posts they are interacting with. To carry out the labeling process, the business-to-business social network is partnering with the Coalition for Content Provenance and Authenticity (C2PA), a project that aims to develop technical standards for certifying the origins of digital content by enabling consumers to trace the source and authenticity of media content, especially with the use of generative AI. Now, AI-generated content on LinkedIn will include a small C2PA tag in the top right of in-stream visuals. By tapping on the icon, users will be able to find more information about the tagged image. The Coalition’s automatic tags are devised from the code data embedded into the image.

Quarter-to-date service performance data for July 1 through Sept. 17 included: *First-Class Mail: Delivered 88.3 percent of First-Class Mail on time against the USPS service standard, an improvement of 0.8 percentage point from the third quarter. *Marketing Mail: Delivered 92.5 percent of Marketing Mail on time against the USPS service standard, an improvement of 1.5 percentage points from the third quarter. *Periodicals: Delivered 82.2 percent of Periodicals on time against the USPS service standard, an improvement of 3 percentage points from the third quarter. Service performance in recent weeks has been affected in markets impacted by Hurricane Ida and ongoing employee availability challenges posed by COVID-19. Delivering for America, the Postal Service’s 10-year plan for financial sustainability and service excellence, seeks to meet or exceed its goal of 95 percent on-time service performance for all mail and shipping product delivery based on standards as all elements of the plan are implemented. The Postal Service continued preparations for the higher delivery demands of the 2021 holiday peak season this week. Ongoing efforts have included a national drive to hire delivery and plant personnel that is expected to result in an additional 40,000 seasonal hires by year-end, the leasing of 7.5 million square feet of additional space across more than 40 multiyear annexes where we are experiencing year-round space constraints due to parcel growth, and the installation of new processing equipment to accommodate higher volumes reflecting customers’ delivery needs. Since April, the Postal Service has installed 65 of 112 new package sorting machines, reflecting the Delivering for America plan’s $40 billion of planned investment over ten years. Additionally, more than 50 package systems capable of sorting large packages are expected to be deployed prior to December. 4.5 million additional packages can be sorted each day utilizing newly deployed package sortation equipment.

Guitar Center expects to emerge from Chapter 11 bankruptcy by Dec. 31 after recently winning approval in federal bankruptcy court for its reorganization plan, the company said in a press release. According to the musical instrument retailer, the plan allows it to shed more than $800 million in debt. At the same time, Guitar Center has raised $350 million in new secured notes and expects to have a new asset-based facility worth up to $375 million, as well as $165 million in new equity investments.