Category: Alerts

Alliance Alert — July 22, 2015 Any day now, the Postal Regulatory Commission (PRC) is likely to issue what should be the final decision on the 4.3 percent exigent surcharge that customers are paying to compensate the Postal Service (USPS) for losses it sustained from the 2007-09 recession. The case was remanded to the PRC…

July 6, 2015 Today the reply comments were due at the Postal Regulatory Commission (PRC) in the seemingly never-ending attempt by the United States Postal Service (USPS) to increase the amount of above-inflation surcharge revenue it gets from its customers to “compensate” it for mail volume losses due to the 2007-2009 recession. The Alliance of…

Alliance Alert – June 11, 2015 Today, the Alliance and many other groups of customers filed a response at the Postal Regulatory Commission to the Postal Service attempt to expand the remand beyond the “count once” methodology. Our response can be read here and begins as follows:   “The undersigned mailer parties submit this response…

June 5, 2015 Today, we received the much-anticipated decision by the court on the 4.3 percent exigent surcharge that all mailers have been paying. The US Appeals Court ruled today that the Postal Regulatory Commission (PRC) was reasonable to determine that the impact of the 2007-2009 recession is exceptional only for a limited time until…

Alliance Alert – Consumer Reports Announces Discontinuance of Two Publications May 29, 2015 Consumer Reports announced that it will end publication of its ShopSmart magazine and Money Adviser newsletter following the mailing of one final issue. This decision comes as the 79-year old nonprofit implements a new digital transformation strategy. The flagship Consumer Reports magazine…

Alliance Alert — May 20, 2015 Three Letters Sent to Court of Appeals Regarding Exigent Surcharge It has now been 255 days since the oral arguments were held by the D.C. Circuit of the U.S. Court of Appeals in the appeals of the Postal Regulatory Commission (PRC) decision in the exigent rate case. And no…

Alliance Alert — May 7, 2015 Today, the Postal Regulatory Commission (PRC) approved the latest rates proposed by the United States Postal Service (USPS) for implementation on May 31, 2015. This was the USPS response to the second remand by the PRC. The USPS fixed discriminatory disparities in Standard Mail workshare discounts between commercial and…

Alliance Alert – April 20, 2015 On April 16, the Postal Service filed the third version of its new rates and set May 31 as the implementation date, assuming approval by the Postal Regulatory Commission. They are not much changed from the previous versions. Many nonprofit publications will be hit with increases in postage several…

Alliance Alert–April 16, 2015 The Postal Service today announced that, in response to concerns raised by the Alliance, it has reduced the large price increases it had previously proposed for light weight, low advertising magazines, primarily published and mailed by nonprofits. Nonprofit mailers are urged to contact their mail service providers for a recalculation of…

Blending Rates Increase with Decrease Looks Increasingly Likely When the United States Postal Service (USPS) notified the Postal Regulatory Commission (PRC) that it will delay all of the 2015 Consumer Price Index (CPI) postage rate increases until further notice, it said that the notice will be announced “in the coming weeks.” There are very good…