In consecutive filings with the Postal Regulatory Commission on February 10, the Postal Service revised two of its competitive product categories, continuing its ongoing restructuring of package services overall. First-Class Package Service In the first filing (docketed as CP2023-113), the USPS announced it will rename First-Class Package Service as “USPS Ground Advantage,” raise its weight limit to seventy pounds, and…
Read More
In an order issued January 25, the Postal Regulatory Commission gave each side of an ongoing argument a little of what it wanted. Accounting The issue at hand is simple: how the USPS should account for the $59.6 billion in “prefunding” obligations forgiven by the Postal Service Reform Act of 2022 enacted last April. The answer to that question would…
Read More
Postal Service accounting is, to say the least, complex. Not only does it have to measure “institutional” costs – like maintaining the USPS Headquarters building – and “attributable” costs – like the manual distribution of Periodicals flats – but it also has to divide those costs between the market dominant products and competitive products. A core statutory requirement is that…
Read More
As 2022 came to a close, Postmaster General Louis DeJoy was interviewed by Government Executive to get his opinions about progress in implementing his 10-year Plan. For DeJoy, 2023 is the “Year of Implementation” when many of the operational changes he’s been planning finally are put in place and, presumably, begin to deliver the efficiencies and cost savings that he…
Read More
When the comments of an organization’s top executive to its board of directors are published in a press release after they’ve met, it’s likely that such a statement is less intended to report on the meeting’s proceedings than to provide curated information for public and media consumption. Any candid discussions among the organization’s leadership are kept confidential. The Postal Service’s…
Read MoreFor the last seven months of 2021, the Postal Service’s public relations office has issued weekly releases touting service performance improvements. However, a closer look at those releases suggests that, while the authors’ purpose seems to be to create a perception of improvement, that scenario isn’t supported by their own data, and shows a trend that actually isn’t as impressive as they…
Read More