Recent Posts

The new Household Diary Study is out. From the Executive Summary: “The Household Diary Study survey, fielded continuously since 1987, aims to collect information on household use of the mail and how that use changes over time. The survey collects household information on demographics, lifestyle, attitudes toward mail and advertising, ... Read More

The Summer 2021 newsletter from Communities and Postal Workers United (CPWU) focuses on the Postal Service’s plans to close 18 mail processing plants in November and the fight to stop these consolidations. Read the newsletter ... Read More

By Steve Hutkins The Postal Service’s plan to reduce service standards is now being reviewed by the Postal Regulatory Commission for an Advisory Opinion. On Friday, June 25, the Postal Service and several of the intervenors in the case submitted their Reply Briefs. (You can find the briefs and replies ... Read More

By Steve Hutkins The Postal Service’s plan to reduce service standards is now being reviewed by the Postal Regulatory Commission for an Advisory Opinion. On Monday, June 21, the Postal Service and several of the intervenors in the case submitted their briefs and statements of position. You can find the ... Read More

By Douglas Carlson Editor’s note: The Postal Service’s plan to reduce service standards is now being reviewed by the Postal Regulatory Commission for an Advisory Opinion. The Postal Service presented five witnesses to make its case. Last week, four witnesses submitted rebuttal testimony. Below is the rebuttal testimony of long-time ... Read More

Steve Hutkins The Postal Service ended Airmail as a separate class of U.S. mail on May 1, 1977, almost sixty years after it had been established. By 1974 the Postal Service was using airplanes to transport nearly 30 percent of First Class mail— over 15 billion pieces — and there ... Read More

Steve Hutkins In August 1970, Title 39, aka the Postal Reorganization Act, created the Postal Service. The first section, 39 U.S. Code § 101, is entitled “Postal Policy.” It’s just over 400 words long, but it is probably the most frequently quoted passage in the history of postal legislation. It’s ... Read More

The administrator and founder of the “Save the Post Office” website, Steve Hutkins, joins Bob Levi on NAPS Chat to discuss the website’s purpose and impact. Bob and Steve also talk about the Postal Service’s on-time performance problems and the plan to downgrade service standards, now being reviewed by the ... Read More

By Steve Hutkins The Postal Service has requested an Advisory Opinion from the Postal Regulatory Commission concerning its plan to relax service standards on First Class mail and Periodicals. Much of the mail that is now expected to be delivered in 2 days would shift to a 3-day standard, and ... Read More

The Postal Service has requested an Advisory Opinion from the Postal Regulatory Commission concerning its plan to relax service standards on First Class mail and Periodicals. We started a new website page that provides easy access to the PRC’s docket (N2021-1), as well as some charts, tables, and blog posts ... Read More

The Spring 2021 Newsletter from Communities and Postal Workers United (CPWU) has articles about Postmaster General Louis DeJoy’s ten-year plan, ironically named “Delivering for America”; the “People’s Postal Agenda” discussed at the online conference put on by the Grand Alliance to Save the Public Postal Service; Charlotte postal workers protesting ... Read More

The mailers were probably disappointed that the Postal Service’s new 10-year plan released yesterday, “Delivering for America,” did not reveal how big of a rate increase the Postal Service intends to make using the new authority it was granted by the Postal Regulatory Commission. While they wait in suspense, here’s ... Read More

March 18th marks the day fifty-one years ago when postal workers walked off the job in New York City in what soon became the largest wildcat strike in U.S. labor history. Last March we posted this article by postal historian Phil Rubio, author of Undelivered: From the Great Postal Strike of 1970 ... Read More

With all the attention to delivery delays over the past several months and the Postmaster General’s plans to relax delivery standards — as well as calls for more transparency about postal operations — this seems like a good time to launch a Service Performance Dashboard. The Postal Service itself publishes ... Read More

By Steve Hutkins The House Committee on Oversight and Reform has just posted a discussion draft of postal reform legislation in advance of Wednesday’s hearing with Postmaster General DeJoy and the Chairman of the Board of Governors, Ron Bloom. The draft has three main sections — one about creating a ... Read More

By Steve Hutkins Earlier this week a group of mailers’ associations continued their effort to convince the DC Circuit Court to stop the Postal Service from increasing rates under the new authority it was recently granted by the Postal Regulatory Commission. The Postmaster General has told the mailers that another ... Read More

The CPWU Winter 2021 Newsletter has articles about why Postmaster General DeJoy should be dumped, the possible implications of the Senate going Democrat, and the contrast between DeJoy’s vision and what a public vision of the Postal Service looks like. Read the newsletter here ... Read More

On November 30, 2020, the Postal Regulatory Commission issued a 484-page order revising the rate system for Market Dominant products. Under the new system, the Postal Service will be able to raise rates beyond the Consumer Price Index, which it was prevented from doing (aside from the provision for an ... Read More

By Steve Hutkins Fairhope Courier, November 15, 1961: “Pulitzer Prize Winning Author Visits Spanish Fort Post Office: Harper Lee, author of the Pulitzer Prize winning novel, To Kill A Mocking Bird, chats with Har­mon Hanson (photo above) while admiring his newly opened post office at Span­ish Fort. Miss Lee is ... Read More