In the waning days of the 119th Congress, as all members of the House of Representatives and a third of the Senate go home to assert that their legislative productivity warrants their re-election, it’s doubtful that much will be done to help the Postal Service resolve its business and financial woes. Members of Congress and their staffs (should) have been…
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The Postal Service’s quarterly financial and service performance numbers likely won’t be published until mid-December, but odds are they’ll be accompanied by carefully crafted pronouncements asserting that the 10-Year Plan is still working just fine. That there will be a significant financial loss – again – will be explained away as caused by uncontrollable factors that would be remedied if…
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Despite the Postal Service’s efforts to convince commercial mailers and the public otherwise, the agency’s declining service performance has again been verified. In a September report entitled Cost-Cutting Initiatives and Other Factors Have Contributed to Declining Service Performance, the US Government Accountability Office provided further evidence that the Postal Service’s misguided pursuit of “efficiency,” a key to former postmaster general…
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On August 6, the Postal Service filed a quarterly report with the Postal Regulatory Commission providing updated information about post offices that are suspended or discontinued (i.e., permanently closed). A post office (or station or branch) can be suspended for a variety of reasons, such as a lost lease or building deficiencies. and remedying those issues (or not) can determine…
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Say what you will about former postmaster general Louis DeJoy’s accomplishments, but one thing he did was ensure his policies lived on after he was out of office. Even though DeJoy has been gone for over a year, his 10-Year Plan survives. Members of Congress, as well as most of the mailing community, have noted its wholesale failure to restore…
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After the House Subcommittee on Government Operations heard from the Postal Regulatory Commission on June 4, and the Senate Homeland and Governmental Affairs reviewed two nominees to be governors of the Postal Service on June 17, the postal trifecta was completed when Postmaster General David Steiner appeared before the Senate committee on June 24. Statements Neither the PMG’s opening remarks…
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In recent years, the process for commercial mail acceptance, payment, and entry has become entirely automated by a complex web of interrelated Postal Service data systems. Generally, the mail producer uploads data describing the content, preparation, and postage payment for a mailing and the Postal Service processes this to confirm payment and authorize entry of the mail. Meanwhile, the mail…
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After last week’s Congressional hearing, anyone reading the statements and hearing the comments by the Postal Regulatory Commission’s four commissioners has a thorough summary of the PRC’s perspectives about the Postal Service. Collectively, their observations about USPS finances, operations, and service were not positive, and generally traced the source of their concerns to the 10-Year Plan initiated five years ago…
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On June 4, the four current members of the Postal Regulatory Commission testified before the House Subcommittee on Government Operations. Though the hearing was captioned simply as a hearing with the commissioners, its primary purpose was to learn their perspective on the state of the Postal Service and related issues. In both their written testimony and responses to questions from…
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As an organization established to serve commercial mail producers, we’re sometimes asked why we’re concerned about the Postal Service’s Regional Transportation Optimization program, which primarily impacts retail customers. Our answer is simple: RTO violates the fundamental principle of universal service. By arbitrarily differentiating between those customers within a certain distance from a regional processing and distribution center and those farther…
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