Category: Alliance Report

  • USPS files 2016 Governors’ Resolution for 2018 Move Update Price Change

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    Steve Kearney
    in

    July 13, 2017 As if to illustrate just one aspect of the lack of Postal Service Governors, yesterday the USPS took the usual step of publicly filing its Governors’ Resolution to raise the penalty fee for Move Update as well as the method of determining compliance. In spite of its plural title, the resolution was…

  • And Then There Were None…

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    Steve Kearney
    in

    July 13, 2017 AND THEN THERE WERE NONE…HOW CONGRESS AND THE WHITE HOUSE HAVE ABANDONED THE POSTAL SERVICE We have reported before about the governance vacuum at the Postal Service. With the lack of action by the Senate, the usual nine Presidentially-appointed USPS Governors dwindled to only one at the beginning of December 2016, and…

  • Neither Rain, Nor Sleet, Nor Lack of Governors…

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    Steve Kearney
    in

    Neither rain, nor sleet, nor lack of governors will stay USPS from filing for 2018 rate increases It looks like the USPS will file for a rate increase this October for January 2018, as we speculated they would in our last issue. We raised the uncertainty because normally only postal governors can take such an…

  • Singing the Postal Volume Blues

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    Steve Kearney
    in

    Although U.S. Postal Service mail volume was flat in May, that was an improvement over the 2.9 percent decline for the first eight months of Fiscal Year 2017 (October-May). When you include package shipping, USPS volume was up 0.6 percent in May, but remains down 2.4 percent year-to-date. USPS reported controllable operating income of $341…

  • Informed Delivery® Wildly Popular

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    Steve Kearney
    in

    The most important innovation by the Postal Service to retain mail volume and remain relevant is growing organically at 3,000 new users per day. And when the USPS puts on a promotion, it can yield as many as 20,000 new customers in a single day. Over 2.25 million Informed Delivery® household customers are distributed across…

  • Total Charitable Donations Rise to a New High

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    Steve Kearney
    in

    Giving USA: Total Charitable Donations Rise to New High of $390.05 Billion Giving by individuals grows nearly 4 percent, driving the rise in total giving; contributions to all nine major philanthropy subsectors increase—the sixth time in the last four decades CHICAGO [June 13, 2017]—American individuals, estates, foundations and corporations contributed an estimated $390.05 billion to…

  • USPS testing legal limits

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    Steve Kearney
    in

    June 14, 2017 The USPS is pushing the legal envelope in two ways. First, it wants to override the CPI price cap that is written into law. And second, it is likely to propose rate increases for 2018, even if it has no Governors to approve the decision. The Postal Service is now testing whether…

  • Rep. Trey Gowdy taking over chair of House Oversight

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    Steve Kearney
    in

    June 14, 2017 As Rep. Jason Chaffetz leaves Congress on June 30, Rep. Trey Gowdy, Republican of the 4th District of South Carolina, will take over leadership of the House Oversight Committee. This is the Congressional committee that is taking the lead in any possible postal legislation. Gowdy is not one of the group of…

  • USPS retirement obligations comparatively well-funded

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    Steve Kearney
    in

    June 14, 2017 Anyone worried about the prefunding of USPS retirement obligations should read our expert declaration by Michael Nadol filed in the PRC ten-year review. The Postal Service is very well funded compared to all other categories for both pensions and health care. And this is using very conservative, some would say pessimistic, assumptions…

  • Mail survey presents opportunities for USPS financial stability

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    Steve Kearney
    in

    June 14, 2017 Alliance of Nonprofit Mailers members recently participated in the 2017 Mail Industry Survey that reveals important opportunities to improve the private sector’s use of the mail service provided exclusively by the USPS federal agency. You can download a free copy of the survey’s results here. Idealliance, the association for the Visual Communications…