Every year in its annual report, the Postal Regulatory Commission provides its estimate of the value of the Postal Service’s monopolies over the delivery of some hard-copy mail and access to the mailbox. At the same time, the PRC estimates the cost to the USPS for its Universal Service Obligation. Both figures are for the prior full fiscal year. On…
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Usually, when the Postal Regulatory Commission allows the Postal Service to conduct a test of a potential new product or service, there’s a finite arc of related events, such as a proposal by the USPS, review by the PRC, and establishment of a test with reporting requirements and specific start and end dates. Over the test period, results are reported…
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As the saying goes, “Success has many parents while failure is an orphan.” To a degree, this may apply to the stillborn negotiated service agreement with Publishers Clearing House that the Postal Service had filed last August 11. That filing was different from other NSAs in that it was for market-dominant mail, not competitive products. As the USPS stated in…
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It’s understandable that there should be a natural tension between a regulator and the regulated, and that’s always been the case between the Postal Regulatory Commission and the Postal Service. Even so, there would be periodic briefings and discussions, and the relationship was civil. However, under Postmaster General Louis DeJoy, that relationship, at least from the Postal Service’s side, has…
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On September 27, the American Catalog Mailers Association filed a motion with the Postal Regulatory Commission asking it to waive a rule regarding cost coverage. The commission’s rule (39 CFR 3030.221) requires that “Whenever the Postal Service files a rate adjustment filing affecting a class of mail which includes a product where the attributable cost for that product exceeded the…
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This article and more can be found in the August 28, 2023 issue of Mailers Hub News Late on Friday, August 11, the Postal Service submitted a request to the Postal Regulatory Commission seeking approval for a negotiated service agreement with Publishers Clearing House. Though the USPS files NSA requests many times a week, the August 11 filing was different…
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On June 12, the Postal Regulatory Commission reopened a docket initiated in 2021 but later suspended while a related matter was being reviewed in federal court. Docket RM2021-2, opened January 15, 2021, was to consider a “PerformanceIncentive Mechanism” to motivate improved Postal Service performance. As stated in the original Advance Notice Of Proposed Rulemaking, the PRC sought “… input from…
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