Selling The Plan: The PMG at the National Postal Forum

Speaking June 3 at the opening general session of the 2024 National Postal Forum, Postmaster General Louis DeJoy took a different approach in his usual rant about what was wrong when he arrived to lead the Postal Service in June 2020. Rather than simply decrying his predecessors’ lack of a plan, he reviewed the operational and ratemaking fundamentals in place…

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Congressional Letter Comments on PRC Rulemaking

For someone who rejects outside involvement in how he conducts business, Postmaster General Louis DeJoy has, through his policies and attitudes, managed to attract the very kind of external oversight he dislikes. Another letter The latest example is a May 23 letter to the Postal Regulatory Commission from four members of the House Committee on Oversight and Accountability: Jamie Raskin…

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PRC Approves July Rate Increase on Market Dominant Products

To no-one’s surprise, the Postal Regulatory Commission approved the Postal Service’s April 9 request to raise prices on its market-dominant classes of mail. In its May 30 decision, the PRC stated The Commission concludes that the planned price adjustments are consistent with the regulations of 39 CFR part 3030 and applicable Commission directives and orders.  The planned price adjustments are…

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DeJoy Concedes to Slowing Network Changes

After years of compliant support for Postmaster General Louis DeJoy’s 10-Year Plan, the growing outcry over decreasing service performance seems to have inspired a member of the Postal Service’s Board of Governors to offer a different opinion.  Outsiders will never know whether that was a bold departure from the usual stilted consonance or a scripted preface to later events, but…

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USPS Files for Rate Increase

On Tuesday, April 9, 2024, the USPS filed its Notice of Market-Dominant Price Change with the PRC. As predicted in the March 25 issue of Mailers Hub News (login required), the Postal Service is seeking the maximum possible increase the rate authority will allow. As stated in the filing, “The Postal Service has available approximately 7.8 percentage points of pricing…

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OIG Audit Cites Extensive Problems at Richmond RPDC

As Postmaster General Louis DeJoy presses on with his Plan to transform the Postal Service’s collection, processing, transportation, and delivery networks, an audit of the first regional processing and distribution center opened under his Plan found a wide variety of problems. The OIG summarized the transition of operations into the new RPDC: “In July 2023, the Postal Service completed the…

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PRC Approves Zone 10, Faults Unresponsive USPS

On March 22, the Postal Regulatory Commission approved a Postal Service proposal, filed November 22, 2023, to add a new Zone 10 to the prices for Priority Mail Express, Priority Mail, and USPS Ground Advantage.  The USPS had stated in its filing that, if approved, the new Zone 10 prices would be effective at a future date, but no sooner…

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Missoula as Everywhere

As the Postal Service was accelerating its repurposing and consolidation of mail processing operations, it became known that one facility that would be affected was the Missoula (MT) P&DC. Under the network realignment plan, it would be downgraded to a Local Processing Center, handling only mail destinating in its service area.  Outgoing volume would be trucked nearly 200 miles over…

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