During a teleconference with customers last week, a Postal Service employee revealed that the postal staff was working on a CPI rate case for possible implementation on April 26, 2015. This came during a discussion of pricing promotions for next year and when they likely would commence. It makes sense that, with the prospect of losing a quorum when Mickey Barnett’s term ends this week, postal management would want to have a Board of Governor-approved CPI rate case in its back pocket to implement when it sees fit. The April date is possible, but it could easily change as the results come back from the Appeals Court on the exigent rate case. Recall that the USPS cited uncertainty about the exigent appeal when it delayed filing of the normal case for late January implementation.

Getting BoG pre-approval for a CPI rate increase makes sense, but it raises another question. If the BoG does not have a quorum when the Appeals Court and/or the PRC rules on the exigent case, will the Postal Service be able to implement whatever the order is? Normally, the BoG approves every price change the USPS makes, although they don’t have much experience with broad price roll-backs ordered by the court or the regulator. Let’s hope that the BoG achieves a quorum soon so that rational, timely decisions can be made and implemented. The 2006 Postal Accountability and Enhancement Act was supposed to bring much more  predictability to postal pricing, but lately uncertainty has ruled.

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