Category: Alliance Report
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Nonprofits Speak Out
March 9, 2018 In response to the Postal Regulatory Commission proposal to allow the USPS to raise postage rates as much as 7 percent a year, or 40 percent in five years, the nonprofit community has spoken out. About 130 individual nonprofits wrote letters to the PRC urging Commissioners Taub, Hammond, Langley, and Acton to…
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USPS has a “flawed business model”
February 16, 2018 But what is the proposed new business model? The headline in an article quoting Postmaster General Megan Brennan on the Federal News Radio website this week: “Postal Service: ‘Flawed business model’ to blame for first-quarter loss.” We have been hearing that the USPS “business model” is broken, flawed, unsustainable, or obsolete for…
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Alliance notes
February 16, 2018 Linn’s: A proposal for multidenomination coils; could such a format help nonprofit mailers? Linn’s: Charities continue to use stamps on reply envelopes to encourage donations NALC: Trump administration’s 2019 budget targets letter carriers and their families R Street: THE U.S. POSTAL SERVICE’S FINANCIAL CONDITION: 2018 Government Executive: Trump Suggests USPS Cut Retirement,…
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New 2018 Postal Prices Routinely in Effect
January 30, 2018 Is This the End of Routine Rate Changes? A week ago, the latest annual price change by the Postal Service went into effect, smoothly and with little notice. What use to be a big deal, attracting extensive notice by the media, large mailers, and the general public, now is routine. For that…
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PRC Process in Place for Classification Changes that Amount to Rate Changes
January 30, 2018 But Will the CPI Cap Mean Anything? You might remember that the Alliance objected, along with many others, when the USPS first proposed to included new Full Service Intelligent Barcode requirements to qualify for automation rates in 2014. The PRC agreed with the objectors that it was a stealth rate increase. It…
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Union Not Shy About Criticizing Customers
January 30, 2018 But Don’t They Depend on Us? Many in the “mailing industry” are very reluctant to say anything negative about the U.S. Postal Service or its unions. We all realize that mailers and the USPS are inextricably co-dependent. Neither could exist without the other. And while there are a multitude of mailers, there…
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Jim Cochrane Retires; Jakki Krage Strako Acting CCMO
January 30, 2018 Recently, the well-liked and well-known USPS Chief Customer and Marketing Officer Jim Cochrane announced his retirement. Many mailers knew this would be coming but are concerned with the loss of someone who listened to customers and tried to bring marketing innovation to the USPS. Here is an excerpt from a statement by…
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Alliance Notes
January 30, 2018 Bloomberg Law: Postal Service Offers Early Retirement to Mail Handlers Chronicle of Philanthropy: Postal Rates Would Increase for Nonprofits Under Proposal Quad/Graphics Blog: Raising Prices Is NOT Managing Costs com: Trump signs bill to provide fentanyl screening equipment at borders, ports, postal facilities The Hill (Opinion): The Postal Service: A service Americans…
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Rates increase January 21
January 10, 2018 The Postal Service is set to raise most rates an average of 1.9 percent on Sunday, January 21. As the following tables indicate, Nonprofit Marketing Mail varies a lot around the average, with origin mail doing much better than drop-shipped. This is mainly because USPS is reducing work-share discounts that are calculated…
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Change it back to the Postal Rate Commission
January 10, 2018 In 2006, Congress changed the Postal Rate Commission to the Postal Regulatory Commission, in what was hailed as a much-needed broadening of authority for the regulator. The PRC proposal issued on December 1, however, seems to say that it has power over only one thing—rates. And it betrayed an inherent bias to…