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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Data Reveals Worsening Service

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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Key Senator Asks for Details of Network Changes

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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USPS Financial Projections Show a Need to be Recalculated

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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GCA, USPS, Differ Over Information Request

In an August 14 filing with the Postal Regulatory Commission, the Greeting Card Association moved for the issuance of an official information request as part of the Public Inquiry on Changes Associated with the Delivering For America Plan (Docket No. PI2023-4). Motion and opposition The GCA explained the reasons for its motion: “The DfA plan depends pervasively on certain projections.…

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Mixed Messages from the USPS About Cost Reductions

Anyone familiar with the Postmaster General’s 10-Year Plan knows that part of the strategy to balance the agency’s books includes not only price increases but cost reductions from improved efficiency in USPS operations.  Many readers, particularly noting the changes now underway in the Postal Service’s processing, transportation, and delivery networks, conclude that some of the forecasted efficiency and savings will…

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Industry Group Challenges Economics of the PMG’s Plan

(Correction: In the recent issue of Mailers Hub News, Issue #181, former Congressman Kevin Yoder was incorrectly identified as Dennis Yoder.) In a recently publicized May 17 letter to the chairman and ranking member of the House Subcommittee on Government Operations and the Federal Workforce, former Congressman Kevin Yoder, now Executive Director of Keep Us Posted, questioned the economic assumptions…

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Along for the Ride

Nearly three years into the reign of Louis DeJoy as Postmaster General, many in the commercial mail production business have conceded that their irrelevance to Postal Service leadership is now nearly total.  Accordingly, what they think or need matters virtually not at all at L’Enfant Plaza, and, as a result, we’re all just along for the ride. Where that ride…

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PMG Comments Foretell Continued Price Increases – Analysis

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…

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