December 1, 2017

The Chairman of the Postal Regulatory Commission, Robert Taub, announced today that the current pricing system is not meeting all of the goals of the 2006 postal law. Therefore, the Commission is proposing to keep the CPI cap but also add several adjustments, all of which definitely or potentially add cost to customers:

• 2% above the CPI for all mail for 5 years.
• 1% more if USPS achieves performance goals: .75 based on operational efficiency and .25 based on service.
• 2% more for products not fully covering their attributable costs, the most prominent of which are Periodicals and Marketing Mail Flats.
• A requirement that products with workshare discount passthroughs significantly different than 100% must get into prescribed bands within 3 years: 75%-125% for Periodicals and 85%-115% for every other product.

There will be a 90 day comment period and 30 days for reply comments. The Chairman emphasized that none of the proposal will be implemented until the process is complete.

PRC Orders issued today: