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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Despite regular claims of “steady” service, the Postal Service’s own data shows that the only steadiness of service is in its worsening. Though the agency has granular service performance data, by weeks and months if not days; by geographic area if not by ZIP Code and processing facility; and by specific products within the classes of mail, what it chooses…
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As regular readers know, the Postal Service’s ongoing measures to implement elements of Postmaster General Louis DeJoy’s 10-Year Plan seldom are revealed directly to ratepayers or commercial mail producers. Rather, because of contractual obligations, information about facility changes and other matters having a potential impact on unionized employees is presented to the labor groups. In turn, that information is often…
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As was widely reported last month after the Postal Service released it financial results for Fiscal Year 2023 (October 2022 through September 2023), the third year of Postmaster General Louis DeJoy’s 10-Year Plan, the agency’s anticipated and actual financial performance numbers are far apart. Projections On page 46 of The Plan, the agency charted its projected net losses totaling $159.8…
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Everyone is familiar with “the dog ate my homework” as characterizing any proffered excuse that falls short of being an adequate explanation for the related circumstance. (Pity the poor kid whose dog really did eat his homework.) The latest example is in one of the Postal Service’s weekly news releases bragging about its “stable” service performance. In the December 11…
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Last February 7, a bill was introduced in the Illinois Senate by Senator Rachel Ventura (43rd). As synopsized at the time, SB 1440: “Amends the Consumer Fraud and Deceptive Business Practices Act. Provides that it is an unlawful practice under the Act to knowingly mail or send a postcard or letter to a recipient in the State if the postcard…
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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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In an order issued September 27, the Postal Regulatory Commission approved as filed the “growth incentives” proposed by the Postal Service on August 11. The incentives As the USPS stated in its filing: “… The two incentives are substantially identical. A mailer is eligible for the First-Class Mail Growth Incentive when its combined volume of qualifying pieces in the incentive…
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The article below was written by Dave Lewis for the SnailWorks September newsletter, and reprinted with permission. When you are looking at USPS service performance a week at a time it can be hard to detect trends. You really need to step back and look at larger time spans to get some definition. SnailWorks began measuring aggregate data in May…
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The following article was provided by Deborah Damore, Director, Postal Affairs, Enru Logistics & Postal Optimization. Enru is a Mailers Hub Cornerstone Sponsor. There are multiple facets to the Postmaster General’s 10-Year Plan, each having an impact on costs, revenue, employees, and USPS customers. The part of the plan causing some angst this month is resulting from Network Transformation. The…
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