Thursday, September 3, 2015

No Postal Rate Hike May Stall Other Mail Savings

Direct mailers will cheer if the Postal Service's current 4.3% exigent surcharge disappears and no rate hike occurs in the spring of 2016, and it is a possibility given that the Consumer Price Index (CPI) used to set the annual postal rate increase is now close to zero. But even good news has its down side when it comes to the U.S. Postal Service, warns Al Urbanski, senior editor of Direct Marketing News magazine, in a recent article. Joe Schick, director of postal affairs for major mailer Quad/Graphics, points out to Urbanski that a number of operational improvements translating into money savings for mailers might be stymied by because they require rate changes for separate classes of mail, which are dependent on a blanket CPI rate boost. Schick cites planned savings from changes in handling of Intelligent Mail barcode service and Flats Sequencing System (FSS) mail as improvements disrupted by a rate rollback. According to Schick, the USPS leadership is aware of the problem and "sincere in wanting to do the right thing," so there is hope that mailers may get rate relief without sacrificing other efficiency savings. But hold the applause for now. For more detail, read http://www.dmnews.com/postal/when-no-postal-rate-increase-is-a-bad-thing/article/432772/

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