Alliance Report 14/20 October 22, 2014 In what might be a foreshadowing of what the United States Postal Service (USPS) […]
Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-VT) says he wants to stop the effort to privatize the Postal Service, stop the plans to […]
Based on the September CPI release this morning the new cap is 1.72%. The next update will be based on […]
Politicians are continuing to make their opposition to further postal plant closings clear. They are unlikely, however, to pass legislation preventing January’s start of the next round of closings.
Much uncertainty about USPS pricing in 2015 and beyond remains because of the pending appeals court decision on the exigent rate surcharge of 4.3 percentage points that customers are currently paying. With the oral arguments on September 9 that we reported in our newsletter the next day, the timing and substance of the court decision remain in doubt for all concerned. The USPS chose to ramp up the uncertainty when they decided to appeal the Postal Regulatory Commission (PRC) ruling that the recovery of lost revenue from the recession should be limited. The USPS Governors want the surcharge to be permanent and yield a present value of approximately $60 billion versus the $3.2 billion that the PRC ruled appropriate.
Part of the reason the Governors were able to make the announcement they did on October 1 maintaining current prices through the next few months is that their financial results and liquidity are doing quite well. The latest Monthly Treasury Statement dated August 31, 2014 shows the Postal Service Fund with $5.1 billion in liquid assets. The USPS income statement through August 31 has a year-to-date controllable operating income of $1.465 billion versus a loss of $711 million at the same point last year, a $2.176 billion year-over-year improvement. It is safe to say that the financial and liquidity crisis that USPS management declared a couple of years ago is over for now.
When the Postal Service was down to about as many days of cash as you can count on one hand, it had a pretty compelling narrative to convince everyone including Congress that major new legislation was needed. In its latest 10-Q financial report, USPS has changed from quoting the exact number of days to "the present cash balance can fund less than one month of operating activity." To be clear, that means if all revenue were turned off which will never come close to happening.
Wounded Warrior Project® (WWP), which provides vital support to wounded veterans of this generation, is joining the Board of Directors of the Alliance of Nonprofit Mailers (ANM), the nation’s only organization that exclusively represents the mailing rights and needs of nonprofits. As a nonprofit that serves a widespread community through ongoing outreach, WWP relies on affordable, reliable mail service in order to fulfill its mission. This year alone, WWP expects to send more than 60 million pieces of mail as a key component of its multichannel communications strategy. It also receives a significant amount of its donations, 30 percent, directly through the mail.
Much uncertainty about USPS pricing in 2015 and beyond remains because of the pending appeals court decision on the exigent rate surcharge of 4.3 percentage points that customers are currently paying. With the oral arguments on September 9 that we reported in our newsletter the next day, the timing and substance of the court decision remain in doubt for all concerned. The USPS chose to ramp up the uncertainty when they decided to appeal the Postal Regulatory Commission (PRC) ruling that the recovery of lost revenue from the recession should be limited. The USPS Governors want the surcharge to be permanent and yield a present value of approximately $60 billion versus the $3.2 billion that the PRC ruled appropriate.
Part of the reason the Governors were able to make the announcement they did on October 1 maintaining current prices through the next few months is that their financial results and liquidity are doing quite well. The latest Monthly Treasury Statement dated August 31, 2014 shows the Postal Service Fund with $5.1 billion in liquid assets. The USPS income statement through August 31 has a year-to-date controllable operating income of $1.465 billion versus a loss of $711 million at the same point last year, a $2.176 billion year-over-year improvement. It is safe to say that the financial and liquidity crisis that USPS management declared a couple of years ago is over for now.