Category: Alliance Report

January 27, 2021 What to expect for postage in 2021–PMG says higher rates “imminent”   First, a plea…   Service is quite poor.  People are losing confidence in mail.  Everyone is talking about Christmas cards that took a month to be delivered and bill payments that were late.  We’ve heard the rationale—employee absences and resignations…

January 7, 2021   A temporary 4.3% surcharge reduced nonprofit mail.  How much will 5.6% to 7.6% annual permanent rate increases add to the spiral? Nonprofit mailers have been hit with three major events in the past dozen or so year that have forced them to greatly reduce their use of USPS Marketing Mail and…

January 7, 2020 Continuing to prioritize businesslike profitability over public service is leading USPS and PRC down the wrong path Two federal agencies, the Postal Regulatory Commission and the United States Postal Service, are in violent agreement that it’s OK, even advisable, to raise rates well above general inflation for mailers who must use USPS…

  December 7, 2020   Regulator issues final rule Yes, the postal regulator is done—for now.  In its 484-page ruling, the Postal Regulatory Commission laid out a potential timeline in which the Postal Service would make its surcharge proposal by the end of this month, the PRC would approve it by the end of March,…

December 7, 2020   In a speech to mailer associations, Postmaster General Louis DeJoy seemed to mirror the approach of his three predecessors: Jack Potter, Pat Donahoe, and Megan Brennan.  Perhaps after his calamitous start this summer, Mr. DeJoy is following the advice of the public relations firm that is advising him, likely the long-time…

December 7, 2020   The Postal Service reported a very successful October, much better than their budget plan and last October.  Large growth in packages and election mail were evident, as well as under-spending the plan for personnel expenses.  As October is the first month of fiscal year 2021, it makes one wonder how USPS…

December 7, 2020   And the beat goes on.  The labor negotiation trend that proliferated during the boom years of USPS volume doubling from 100 billion in 1980 to 200 billion in 1999, somehow continues in 2020 with volume down in the dumps and a broken “business model.”  The proximity and content of the USPS…

  November 11, 2020   What we learned from this summer’s postal fiasco   The summer of 2020 was like no other in USPS history.  It already was a historic summer as the Postal Service grappled with the pandemic that threatened to shut down the economy but also boosted package volumes by 50 percent or…