Author: Steve Kearney

  • USPS Files With PRC to Change Nonprofit Rates

    On July 31, the Postal Service filed a request at the Postal Regulatory Commission to change the methodology by which nonprofit rates are set. It relates to the legal requirement that nonprofit marketing mail revenue per piece must equal, as closely as practicable, 60 percent of commercial mail’s. Since the postal law change of 2006…

  • A Look at USPS Costs Versus Volume

    July 13, 2017 With the release of U.S. Postal Service financial results for the first 8 months of Fiscal Year 2017 (October 2016-May 2017), some have emphasized that the USPS lost 2.5 billion pieces of mail, equal to 2.4 percent. In the business world, this degree of contraction calls for stringent cost reductions to keep…

  • Alliance Notes

    July 13, 2017 Alliance notes FedSmith: USPS Gave Union Officials 2,776 Days For Election Work WCAI: Paper coupons are cool again The NonProfit Times: Study: Donors React To Direct Mail More Than Email Campaigns & Elections: AAPC & USPS STUDY: 5 INSIGHTS TO BOOST YOUR CAMPAIGN Atlas Obscura: When the U.S. Postal Service Used Gyrocopters…

  • USPS files 2016 Governors’ Resolution for 2018 Move Update Price Change

    July 13, 2017 As if to illustrate just one aspect of the lack of Postal Service Governors, yesterday the USPS took the usual step of publicly filing its Governors’ Resolution to raise the penalty fee for Move Update as well as the method of determining compliance. In spite of its plural title, the resolution was…

  • And Then There Were None…

    July 13, 2017 AND THEN THERE WERE NONE…HOW CONGRESS AND THE WHITE HOUSE HAVE ABANDONED THE POSTAL SERVICE We have reported before about the governance vacuum at the Postal Service. With the lack of action by the Senate, the usual nine Presidentially-appointed USPS Governors dwindled to only one at the beginning of December 2016, and…

  • USPS Files Notice with PRC on MOVE UPDATE

    On Friday, July 1, 2017, the USPS filed notice with the Postal Regulatory Commission proposing new fees for non-compliance with Move Update thresholds. Read the full notice here. Those mailers who uses a good mail service provider should have little problem with meeting the threshold and avoiding the extra 8 cent charge. But if you…

  • Informed Delivery® Webinar Series

    We highly recommend that our members and all nonprofit mailers attend a webinar and consider enrolling in Informed Delivery®. This opportunity has the potential to increase campaign fundraising results, and it currently is free. It is a way to get digital impressions along with hard copy mail at no extra cost and with only a small investment…

  • Alliance Notes

    Alliance notes – June 30, 2017 The Washington Post: UPS will freeze pensions for thousands of nonunion employees Los Angeles Times: Outgoing Rep. Jason Chaffetz will join Fox News as a contributor Linn’s: Another postal reform effort fades away The Washington Post: Powerful former chair of federal workforce committee leaves Congress on Friday What They…

  • Neither Rain, Nor Sleet, Nor Lack of Governors…

    Neither rain, nor sleet, nor lack of governors will stay USPS from filing for 2018 rate increases It looks like the USPS will file for a rate increase this October for January 2018, as we speculated they would in our last issue. We raised the uncertainty because normally only postal governors can take such an…

  • Singing the Postal Volume Blues

    Although U.S. Postal Service mail volume was flat in May, that was an improvement over the 2.9 percent decline for the first eight months of Fiscal Year 2017 (October-May). When you include package shipping, USPS volume was up 0.6 percent in May, but remains down 2.4 percent year-to-date. USPS reported controllable operating income of $341…