Category: Alliance Report

February 4, 2015 Liabilities could be Fully Funded with Realistic Changes in Assumptions Postal Service management has been warning frequently that it is in a large financial hole and needs substantial legislative reform to get out. As its cash position has gone from dire to healthy, management has relied more on unfunded liabilities to make…

February 4, 2015 But will Anyone Take Him up on it? Like last year’s budget proposal, the new version is more specific than usual about improvement it foresees for the U.S. Postal Service (USPS). The budget says that the White House will work with Congress and postal stakeholders to secure necessary reforms:  Return the Federal…

January 21, 2015 Aside from the unexpected timing of the rate increase filing, the main curve ball in it is a new set of rates and requirements for FSS preparation and processing of flats which include Standard Mail, Periodicals and Bound Printed Matter. Mail service providers like Alliance sponsors Quad Graphics and R.R. Donnelley are…

FSS pricing is the main area of uncertainty in 1.966% proposed price increase according to the Quad Graphics blog Senate Democrats are trying to tie a hold on postal cost cuts to the Keystone XL bill Reflecting changes in leadership, USPS pulled an RFP for a PR provider The Chaffetz-led House Oversight Committee plans civil…

January 21, 2015 The Postal Service decided to take a safer, bird-in-the-hand decision to file its latest Consumer Price Index (CPI) increase right before the close of business on Thursday, January 15. The timing is interesting because the next morning at 8:30 am another monthly CPI number was released by the Bureau of Labor Statistics…

Commentary on the need for more postal reform in 2015 Is this the way to start off a productive bipartisan session of Congress? Coverage of Pat Donahoe’s speech this week Changes are coming to House oversight of the Postal Service Donahoe blames customers and employees for “myopia” More on progress being blocked by those who…

January 8, 2015 Happy New Year, everyone! As 2015 dawns we continue to wait for the US Court of Appeals to make public its ruling on the exigent rate case. What’s at stake? Well, the Postal Regulatory Commission (PRC) ruled a little over a year ago that the Postal Service (USPS) should be allowed to…

Our sponsor Joe Schick at Quad Graphics nails the outlook and gives great advice for the holidays Sen. Carper continues to advocate for Postal Board nominees Time and People cut their ad guarantees Postal union continues to fight much-needed cost reduction efforts by Postal management Alliance member Smithsonian really relies on mail, even to receive…

December 23, 2015 USPS Will Most Likely Combine the Two in Their Next Price Change The chart above shows how the Postal Regulatory Commission (PRC) reports the Consumer Price Index (CPI) cap for the latest 12 months of inflation in the purple bar separately from the “Interim Unused Rate Adjustment Authority” in the orange bar.…

December 23, 2015 Possible Declining CPI Cap Could Drive Timing Court Decision Looms In our previous report we noted that it might have slipped out that Postal Service staff had begun preparing a CPI-capped rate increase for April 26, 2015. Following their usual practice the USPS would announce such an increase 90 days in advance, or…