Category: Alliance Report

September 28, 2020 Ten things you need to know about 2021 postage increases   Next year will be a tale of two rate increases.  One will happen as expected on schedule.  The other is very likely to happen, but its amount and timing are very uncertain.  The potential range for rate increases on Market Dominant…

September 28, 2020 USPS delivery service continues decline We mailers know very well that USPS delivery service performance dropped substantially as a result of the pandemic.  Using the third fiscal quarter of 2019 as a baseline, our table below shows that in the April-June 2020 quarter, roughly when the pandemic started its impact, First-Class Mail…

September 28, 2020 Postal Service financial performance through August The Postal Service filed its 11-month fiscal results through August.  The rotation out of mail and into packages is stark.  Year-to-date, Market Dominant mail volume was down 11.5 percent, and revenue declined 8.8 percent.  Competitive packages, on the other hand, were up 20.8 percent in volume…

August 28, 2020 In case you haven’t noticed, the U.S. Postal Service has been at the center of attention in recent days.  There is a mixture of fact and fiction, but we believe some things are pretty clear.  Of course, surprises always happen, so there are no guarantees.   The focus is on Postmaster General…

  August 13, 2020   These are crazy times regarding the Postal Service.  We see a choice between following the political debate about whether the new Postmaster General, Louis DeJoy, is purposely sabotaging the USPS, or staying with the facts we know and continuing our mission.  Of course, we choose the latter.  The Alliance always…

July 14, 2020   Alliance files comments noting that the PRC proposal for multiple rate surcharges is now obsolete; urges reconsideration; USPS opposes, saying “nothing has changed.”   On July 2, the Alliance, along with MPA and PostCom, filed supplemental comments responding to the April 2 PRC order denying our March 23 request that the…

July 14, 2020 Alliance Supports Emphasis on Efficiency while Attaining Service We have long expressed our concerns with lack of cost control and declining productivity at USPS, in filings at the PRC, Alliance Reports, and elsewhere.  Recently, we received the following email from a postal employee who was reacting to one of our articles.  We…

July 14, 2020     We reported on June 22 that the United States Postal Service revised its financial forecasts.  First, we must note how pessimistic it is to have “this is when we run out of cash” as the primary metric for your forecasts.  How many organizations do that?   Second, we have to…