March 30, 2015

Late Friday, the Postal service announced that it will delay the implementation of all rate changes beyond the planned April 26. Of course, the law requires them to delay the Periodicals, Standard Mail, and Package Services rates that were remanded by the PRC because they are now inside of the required 45 days’ notice before April 26. USPS did the right thing by delaying all rates, including those that have been approved by the PRC, such as First Class Mail and Priority Mail, so they we don’t have staggered start dates to contend with. They said they will announce a new date when they file their response to the PRC remand.

In their statement below, note the customer-friendly language about the delay of all rates. We hope that this important approach extends to the much more critical issue of keeping iconic nonprofit publications in the mail.

“Postal Service Delays April 2015 Price Change

 The Postal Service Governors decided today to delay the implementation of new market-dominant and competitive rates and classification changes until all of our proposed market-dominant changes are approved by the Postal Regulatory Commission (“PRC”).  This decision was primarily motivated by a desire to eliminate potential adverse impacts on postal customers that might result from a staggered implementation of our new prices.  After considering the complexity of the required programming changes in view of the remand of some of our proposed changes by the Postal Regulatory Committee, the specific complications that our customers might face; the potential cost to the supply chain as a whole of a staggered implementation, the Postal Service has decided to delay implementation until all of our proposed rates and classification changes can be implemented at one time.   

 While proposed prices for First Class Mail, Special Services and Competitive Products have all been approved by the PRC, prices for the Standard Mail, Periodicals and Package Services classes have twice been remanded back to the Postal Service by the PRC for a wide array of technical and other concerns that are primarily related to the complexities of the price cap and the manner in which it is calculated.  Rather than subject our customers to a piecemeal implementation of our new prices, the Postal Service has decided that the best course of action would be to wait until our complete price proposal is approved by our regulator.  We have no desire to saddle our valued customers with the additional costs and burdens of a staggered implementation while we work with the PRC to obtain final approval of our remaining prices.  We will set a new implementation date when we propose new prices for Standard Mail, Periodicals, and Package Services in response to the PRC’s March 18th remand order.”