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Tuesday, 03 August 2010 09:07 |
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By Joel Allis, TPA Periodicals Consultant
The U.S. Postal Service filed a price change proposal with the Postal Regulatory Commission on July 6 to raise postage rates an average of about 5.6 percent, starting Jan. 2, 2011. If approved, the first ounce of a first-class letter would increase by 2 cents—to 46 cents.
Postage rates for periodicals would increase 8-9 percent.
Under the Postal Accountability and Enhancement Act of 2006, which limits postage increases to cost of living increases, the Postal Service would be limited to an increase of 1 percent or less, but the Postal Service is claiming extraordinary circumstances exist that justify an increase exceeding the cost of living.
The Postal Service said the reason for the disparity between the requested increases in first class and periodicals rates, is the agency believes periodicals, as a class of mail, are underpriced by 20-30 percent.
This is the first time the Postal Service has requested an exigent rate increase. The agency considers this rate increase to be part of its solution to becoming financially sound. For obvious reasons, this request has been extremely unpopular with the mailing industry and has generated considerable political response as well.
The commission can approve, reject or modify this request. It will hold public hearings and has solicited comments. The commission’s decision is due Oct. 4. Comments can be submitted at www.prc.gov by selecting “Contact PRC” at the top of the page.
Proposed postage rates are available at http://pe.usps.com/default.asp under “*NEW* Jan. 2, 2011, Proposed Pricing Information.” |