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In an unexpected announcement late Friday, September 20, the Postal Service announced that it will not be increasing prices for market-dominant products next January as had been forecast. In its press release and concurrent Industry Alert, the agency stated: “A recommendation by Postmaster General Louis DeJoy not to raise prices in January 2025 for Market Dominant products, which includes First-Class…
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A widely-redacted audit report, titled Planning and Deployment of the Matrix Regional Sorter, issued September 5 by the USPS Office of Inspector General, focused on another example of the agency’s recent shoot-ready-aim behavior. Background and findings As the OIG described the machine: “ … The MaRS is a package sorting machine designed to increase package processing capacity and efficiency while…
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For Postmaster General Louis DeJoy, the new Atlanta Regional Processing and Distribution Center, 25 miles southwest of downtown, was to be a centerpiece example of how his 10-Year Plan would replace the “inefficient” network of “randomly” located processing centers with a matrix of “high-performing” facilities enabling “service excellence.” Six months after its February 24 activation, the Atlanta RPDC is anything…
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It’s not often that ratepayers and a postal union can find common ground, but the Postal Service’s proposal to again reduce service standards has provided one. The example was an August 23 statement by Mark Dimondstein, president of the American Postal Workers Union: “The American Postal Workers Union is deeply concerned regarding the August 22nd announcement from postal management, with…
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Though spun to appear as improving service performance, the Postal Service has announced a proposal to further reduce service standards so it can eliminate afternoon collections nationally. The announcement preceded a planned webinar to discuss the proposal in advance of filing for an advisory opinion from the Postal Regulatory Commission. Though the USPS is overtly committed to going through the…
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A bill introduced in the Senate last May, and last week in the House, would ban additional pricing authority for Periodicals unless the Postal Service can improve service for the class. S 4378, titled the Deliver for Democracy Act, was introduced May 21 by Senator Peter Welch (VT) with eight bipartisan cosponsors. The companion House bill was introduced July 23…
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As has become its custom, the Postal Service coordinates price changes for market-dominant and competitive products so both can be implemented on the same day; the price change implemented yesterday was no exception. What was different – in both – was that the Postal Regulatory Commission did not silently go through the motions of checking compliance with statutory and regulatory…
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The Postal Service’s continued poor service performance and the ongoing disruptions caused by changes to its transportation, processing, and delivery networks remain a concern to members of Congress. This was reflected in a June 24 letter to Postmaster General Louis DeJoy from nineteen members of the US Senate seeking additional information about the agency’s preparations for the election season. In…
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In an order issued July 2, the Postal Regulatory Commission opened a rulemaking to evaluate the Postal Service’s service performance measurement system. As is reported regularly in Mailers Hub News, the current system does not measure service on a significant portion of the mailstream. In PQII/FY2024 (January-March), for example, only 63.81% of First-Class Mail (all commercial rate), 72.37% of Marketing…
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If Postmaster General Louis DeJoy is displeased by observations about his 10-Year Plan that are not complimentary, he surely will be piqued by an audit report released June 21 by the Postal Service’s Office of Inspector General. In the report, State of the US Postal Service Financial Condition, the OIG sought “to evaluate the financial performance of the Postal Service…
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