Exigent Rate Increase

Yesterday the Postal Service filed a brief with the U.S. Court of Appeals, District of Columbia, arguing that the Postal Regulatory Commission was wrong in its most recent ruling on the exigent rate increase. The Postal Service wants the case remanded to the Commission for further review so that it can renew its arguments for an extension of the 4.3 … Read More

UPDATE: A few hours after this post was published, the Postal Regulatory Commission released its order on the exigent increase.   As predicted in the post, the Commission determined that the Postal Service was entitled to another $1.191 billion in additional contribution as an exigent rate adjustment, which translates to $1.396 billion in revenue.   That means the surcharge will … Read More

Today was the deadline for submitting initial comments to the Postal Regulatory Commission concerning the exigent rate increase after the case was remanded by the US Court of Appeals in its June 5th ruling.  Judging by the comments, this case is far from being settled.  The Postal Service is looking to extend the surcharge for almost five years, while the mailers want … Read More

On Thursday the Postal Service filed a notice with the Postal Regulatory Commission saying it intends to raise postal rates on April 26, 2015, under its price cap authority. The USPS press release says that the price hike will generate $400 million in contribution during FY 2015 (there will be only five months left in the fiscal year) and $900 … Read More

Yesterday the Postal Regulatory Commission issued an order regarding the removal of the exigent rate increase, which will take place sometime late this summer.  The order addresses several issues, like providing advance notice to the mailers, what to do about Forever stamps purchased before and during the surcharge period, and so on.  The discussion in the order also makes it … Read More

Earlier this week, the Postal Service released its preliminary financial report for fiscal year 2014.  Now may be a good time to evaluate the impacts of the exigent rate increase that went into effect on January 26, 2014. Back in September 2013, when the Postal Service presented testimony to the Postal Regulatory Commission about the proposed increase, one of the main … Read More

The Postal Regulatory Commission has approved the Postal Service’s request for an exigent rate increase of 4.3 percent, but only for about 18 months to two years, however long it takes to recoup $2.8 billion in lost profits.  In the short term, the increase will help deal with the low liquidity problem, but it will not fully address the long-term … Read More

On Monday or Tuesday of this week, the Postal Regulatory Commission will issue an order on the Postal Service’s renewed request for an exigent rate increase.  If it’s granted in full, postal rates will go up about 4.3 percent.  That’s on top of the 1.7 percent increase already granted under the CPI cap, so the total increase would be about … Read More

The news media are busy this weekend reporting on the Postal Service’s financial report for fiscal year 2013, which shows a $5 billion loss.  If Congress weren’t requiring the Postal Service to pay $5.5 billion into the retiree health benefits fund, the Postal Service would have made a profit of over a half billion dollars.  Not that this could stop … Read More

The Postal Service’s request to the Postal Regulatory Commission for an exigent rate increase is on hold right now due to the government shutdown.  The Request, along with testimony from three Postal Service witnesses and a slew of tables, was submitted on September 26.  Before the shutdown happened, the Chairman had filed a couple of requests for additional information, but … Read More

BY MARK JAMISON It may be September, but it feels like “Groundhog Day,” the movie in which newsman Bill Murray wakes up to the same day over and over again.  A few weeks ago, rumors started swirling again that the Postal Service was going to request an exigent rate increase.  News reports said that at its meeting on September 5, … Read More

The USPS Board of Governors announced today that it has decided not to go forward with the plan to end Saturday delivery on August 5, 2013. The press release is here. The Board acknowledged that the Continuing Resolution passed recently by Congress means that the Postal Service must continue delivering the mail six days a week.  Apparently a recent analysis from … Read More