Business Services
Summer 2008
Business Services
Summer 2008
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Equipment Rental | General Stores | Laundry | Mail Services | Parking & Transportation | Print Services | Surplus Into Print, The University of Iowa Business Services' quarterly newsletter, aims to educate, inform, and entertain its readers, with a goal of fostering positive communication between the departments, their staffs, and their clients. IN THIS ISSUE
General news General Stores Laundry Service Mail Services Parking and Transportation Print Services View PDF of this issue
NEWS BRIEFS The UI Employee Van Pool will be 30 years old in August. Celebrate! |
TypeStrikesfrom our typo treasure chestWash the incision with soap and water, rinse and pat dr. |
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GENERAL NEWS Sending mail to relocated departments: When you send mail to individuals who have moved due to flooding, please continue to use their old campus mail address. We will reroute items to their new locations. If your department has returned to its original location: Please let Mail Services know. Contact manager Kathy Battin with information or if you have questions. Copy Centers Laundry GENERAL STORES A. University of Iowa Central Receiving. Many trucks deliver University orders to the Mossman Business Services Building (MBSB), two miles from campus on Old Highway 218 South. Q. Ever wonder why you ever see large semis on campus? Central Receiving is a UI-funded service that ensures goods are received and delivered in a proper, safe, and expeditious manner. This reduces the shipping and receiving responsibilities of departments, enabling them to focus on their core missions. It has considerably reduced the number of vehicles on campus, as well. About 3,000 tons of freight arrive each year, with up to twenty trucks coming in daily. Each might contain multiple UI orders. Our dock was designed to handle such traffic. It features eight dock doors and 6,000 square feet for staging. Freight is received, sorted, and reloaded, combining many shipments onto smaller UI trucks for efficient distribution. Insurance coverage Multiple benefits Our experienced drivers know the people and the delivery locations on campus and can make sure the appropriate trucks and unloading equipment are used. They know which roads are open, which are closed, and where the docks and unloading facilities are located - and they have access to keys needed for some deliveries. Sometimes departments use our dock facility as a preparation area to assemble equipment before delivery. Typically we do not need departments to provide additional help unloading large or cumbersome items. Freight delivery guidelines If you would like more information about this service, contact Gary Anderson, gary-anderson@uiowa.edu. LAUNDRY SERVICE Mike is an Iowa State University graduate (We won't hold that against him!), with a degree in Industrial Management. He was awarded a full scholarship in track and excelled in Big 12 competition. An avid music lover, Mike earned money in college by singing and playing guitar at local events and establishments. His management philosophy focuses on dedication to customer service, staff,
operational efficiency, and organizational management. Feel free to contact him at 335-4960 or
michael-mortland@uiowa.edu.
One of the key green systems at the Laundry is the Kemco hot water reclamation system. Hot water used for washing is recycled back through equipment that captures ambient heat to raise the temperature of incoming well water. The heat rise is approximately 50 degrees, which means that hot water heaters use fewer BTUs of natural gas to raise the incoming water temperature to the required production levels. In addition the Laundry consistently revises washing formulas as seasonal climate changes occur, which reduces the need for steam to maintain proper water temperature levels during wash cycles. Improvements in the technology of hot water production used at the Laundry, in conjunction with excellent maintenance of the boiler equipment by Facilities Management staff, goes a long way toward reducing the overall use of natural gas. Low-energy light fixtures, which were installed when the Laundry building was
constructed, reduce electrical use. Making use of ambient heat generated from production equipment
to help warm the building during the winter months also reduces natural gas consumption, saving
thousands of dollars in heating costs.
MAIL SERVICES One zip code -- and rate -- is for postcards up to 4-1/4 inches. The next is for letter-size mail and includes envelopes that are #9 and #10, and those that measure up to 6x9 inches. The highest rate is for envelopes that are larger than 6x9 inches or contain return mail that weighs more than one ounce. Send us a mock-up of your business reply piece before it's printed. We will tell you the correct add-on to use so that you don't pay more than you should for the replies. Call Kathy Battin, 384-3809, for more information. The top is defined as either of the shorter edges, or the upper edge with the spine on the right, irrespective of the design or orientation of the piece to the user. The permit imprint or meter must be in the upper right corner of the mail piece or address area and the return address in the upper left corner, with both oriented in the same direction as the delivery address. All presorted and carrier route flats must be addressed using at least 8-point type. Flats using an 11-digit POSTNET or an Intelligent Mail barcode may use 6-point type if the address is printed in all capital letters. Addresses on automation pieces cannot have overlapping characters, touching or overlapping lines, or more than five blank spaces between elements. The new standards do not apply to first-class or single-piece mail. Visit the Mail Services website at www.uiowa.edu/~fuscmail/reference/flats09.pdf for more information and to see illustrations. Contact Kathy Battin, kathy-battin@uiowa.edu, at Mail Services or USPS mail piece design analyst* Laurie Bribriesco, laurie.l.bribriesco@usps.com, with questions. *Mail piece design analysts are Postal Service employees who advise customers on mail piece acceptability for automated rates, review pieces to confirm adherence to Postal Service standards, test paper and samples for thickness, color, flexibility, and barcode tolerances, and analyze pieces for readability. "When you look around the world, one of the first things new economies want to do is build a post and a logistics network that is connected both in their country and with the rest of the world. When people criticize the mail they don't understand the relevance for our economy or how it contributes to the growth of our economy." Reprinted with permission from MAIL: The Journal of Communication Distribution. The Postmaster General's comments were published in the May/June 2008 issue. For subscription information call 607-746-7600. PARKING & TRANSPORTATION
Unclaimed bicycles are impounded after seven days and cross matched with Public Safety's record of lost or stolen bicycles. If a match is found, an officer contacts the person who made the report. If a match is not found and the bicycle is not claimed after 60 days, it is deemed abandoned and transferred to Surplus to be sold. The number of bicycles and when they are taken to Surplus varies, but most are sent in the spring and early fall. Proactively, P&T provides free bicycle registration to help reunite owners with missing bicycles. This voluntary program is offered to all students, faculty, staff, and the general public. Registration serves as a deterrent to theft and assists in the identification of abandoned, lost, or stolen bicycles. You may register your bicycle at the Parking Office, by mail, or online. Over the years, the reasons given for leaving bicycles on campus have varied. Some people thought it was okay to store their bicycle in a campus bike rack, others didn't want to take it home for the summer so just left it behind. We also have heard they forgot where they parked it, thought it was stolen, and left it because they didn't want to fix it. To help reduce the number of abandoned bicycles, P&T publishes information in the Daily Iowan asking people not to abandon their bicycles on campus, and it places posters on Cambus buses, various University bulletin boards, and in residence halls. A considerable number of abandoned bicycles are picked up near the residence
halls, so University Housing has helped with the effort by posting notices informing residents
to take their bicycles home with them. This has been effective, but P&T continues to look at ways
to help reduce the number of abandoned bicycles on campus.
"Parking is very personal -- people love their cars. Some customers are not very satisfied with parking on campus, so we have a discussion with them and try to provide them with options. I like being able to talk to people about our services and tell them why we do things the way we do." Some of the options are lower rates if they use a parking lot further from campus, free Cambus, and reduced-price bus passes. Jim enjoys Geocaching, a web-based international game, in his spare time. Individuals hide a container with a log book and often something else inside, then give its GPS coordinates and hints to the location on the web. Hunters who find the cache sign the log book and document it on the web. His wife, Tara, a teacher, will begin work at an Iowa City elementary school in August. Jim says they moved here because they were looking for a place to raise a family -- away from the violence and other problems common to large cities. "Soon after my wife arrived we were watching the evening news and the big headline was that a local high school sports team won a state championship. We just looked at each other and laughed," he says. That, and leaving behind the Arizona heat, have helped make it a good move. And the people. "I'm happy to be here. I've met a lot of great people and look forward to working with them," he says. PRINT SERVICES The two Heidelberg presses that printed large-sheet, higher volume work were sold and removed in April. By today's standards the presses were dinosaurs, and the operators demonstrated great skill, producing pieces that many considered nothing short of miraculous. The presses will be replaced by a single, mid-size, four-color offset press. "The press fills a business and a customer need. The printing industry overall has changed -- color and print on demand have become standard," says Business Services assistant director Chris Kula. The department's workhorses, the small presses which print UI stationery, envelopes, memos, and other small pieces, and the web press which prints forms, remain. They and some bindery equipment were moved around to create a more efficient workflow. "We consolidated the bindery equipment in one area," Kula says. "We're looking to make it more uniform." "The Copy Center [the former CopyHawk in the IMU] has been incorporated into the printing operation. We expanded our campus and courier delivery service so our customers wouldn't see a difference in turnaround time with their print jobs. With the capability to send files electronically, it's seamless. The location shouldn't matter," says Kula. A fervent housecleaning effort has gone on for weeks. Several truckloads of desks, shelves, cabinets, tables, and curiosities went to Surplus. "We're getting rid of nonessentials to make things more efficient and less cluttered, to provide a better, safer work environment," Kula says. Toward that end, the department disposed of its historical equipment. Printing transferred ownership of several antique pieces to the Center for the Book. It donated its historic Linotype, one of four that were shared by Printing Services and the Daily Iowan for many years, to the Johnson County Historical Society. The Working Linotype Museum in Denmark, Iowa, purchased the remaining equipment to use for display and for teaching at its annual Linotype University. "We will be working on prepress next. We're getting ready for a computer-to-plate system," says Kula. The changes are "going to provide a more stable work environment at Print Service. This will allow us to move forward, meeting our customers' wishes for the next ten to fifteen years." Chris Kula
Customers who called about their job waited while someone would dash off to the board and scan the cards to locate the right one. Nowadays, thankfully, all it takes is a click of the mouse -- and, still, a job number! WE LIKE FEEDBACK!Story ideas: Are there topics we haven't covered that you would like to see in our newsletter? Do you have questions you would like us to address? Send an e-mail to jenean-arnold@uiowa.edu or a memo to Into Print, 126C MBSB. Address corrections and additions:
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Business Services: Equipment Rental, General Stores, Laundry, Parking & Transportation, Print and Mail Services, and Surplus, serving The University of Iowa community. The print version of Into Print is distributed free and on request to UI faculty, staff, and students. Contributors to this issue Gary Anderson/Business Services, Stores, Surplus; Kathy Battin/Central Mail; Chris Kula/Central Mail, Copy Centers; Michelle Ribble/Parking and Transportation; Dave Gray, Jo Anne Worley/Laundry. Editor and web administrator: Jenean Arnold, phone 384-3723, jenean-arnold@uiowa.edu, 126C MBSB. |