Author: Steve Kearney
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Alliance Objects to Nonprofit Postal Discrimination
February 19, 2015 Groundhog Day came twice this month for the Alliance of Nonprofit Mailers. Once when Punxsutawney Phil saw his shadow on February 2 and thereby predicted six more weeks of winter. And a second time when the Postal Service explained its pricing for Standard Mail in its response to the PRC Chairman’s Information…
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Alliance Alert: USPS Reports Huge $1.1 Billion Q1 Profit; $7 Billion Cash
February 6, 2015 USPS Quarter One Fiscal Year 2015 Results Controllable Net Income: $1.124 Billion Postal Cash Nearly Doubles to $7 Billion Revenue up 4.3% Standard Mail Volume up 3.5% Package Volume up 12.8% First Class Volume Down 1.1% You probably will read that the Postal Service reported a $754 million loss for the first…
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USPS Reports Profit
USPS reports ‘controllable income’ profit of $1.1 billion in first quarter By Bill McAllister, Washington Correspondent, Linn’s Stamp News February 6, 2015 While continuing to report it still operates at a deficit, the United States Postal Service made a major concession to critics who say the government agency is in far better financial shape than…
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147 Days and Counting Since Exigent Oral Arguments
February 4, 2015 Inexplicably, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit has taken much longer than anyone expected to issue a decision in the appeal of the PRC’s exigent rate case decision. The D.C. Circuit normally issues its decisions on Tuesday and Friday mornings before 11 AM, so we keep watching and waiting.…
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February 4, 2015: Mailers Notes
PRC Order granting our motion for more time to evaluate FSS pricing. PMG Brennan will host a web conference Friday at 11 AM ET. New PRC web site is launched. Questions raised about USPS entry into same-day delivery. Elizabeth Johnson named VP, corporate communications, USPS. Royal Mail video about their IMb. Video about direct mail…
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PRC Approves Mailers’ Request
February 4, 2015 Extension of the Comment Deadline in the Current Rate Case While a deadline extension might seem small or technical, in this case it is meaningful. The Alliance along with two other mailers associations, MPA and Postcom, filed the request on January 26 and it was approved on February 2. The decision by…
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Inspector General’s White Paper Puts Postal Service Financial Condition in a New Light
February 4, 2015 Liabilities could be Fully Funded with Realistic Changes in Assumptions Postal Service management has been warning frequently that it is in a large financial hole and needs substantial legislative reform to get out. As its cash position has gone from dire to healthy, management has relied more on unfunded liabilities to make…
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President’s FY 2016 Budget Proposal Again has Ambitious Goals for USPS Reform
February 4, 2015 But will Anyone Take Him up on it? Like last year’s budget proposal, the new version is more specific than usual about improvement it foresees for the U.S. Postal Service (USPS). The budget says that the White House will work with Congress and postal stakeholders to secure necessary reforms: Return the Federal…
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Alliance Alert – We Filed Questions About 2015 Nonprofit Prices
January 28, 2015 Today, the Alliance of Nonprofit Mailers asked the Postal Regulatory Commission (PRC) to pose questions to the United States Postal Service (USPS) regarding “several apparent anomalies in the prices proposed by the Postal Service for Nonprofit Standard Mail.” One set of questions is related to the law that requires the average revenue…
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New Pricing for Flat Sequencing System (FSS) Could Produce Surprises for Nonprofit Magazine and Other Flats Mailers
January 21, 2015 Aside from the unexpected timing of the rate increase filing, the main curve ball in it is a new set of rates and requirements for FSS preparation and processing of flats which include Standard Mail, Periodicals and Bound Printed Matter. Mail service providers like Alliance sponsors Quad Graphics and R.R. Donnelley are…