The U.S. Postal Service could begin offering an experimental electronic mail service to small-to-medium direct marketers, nonprofit mailers and others on a national basis by late summer.
Last year, the USPS tested the service, Mailing Online, on a limited basis in five East Coast metropolitan areas. Mailers who used the service sent letter-size Standard A (advertising) mail pieces--generally sent by first class mail--electronically to a dedicated USPS World Wide Web site. Then the mail was sent to a printer under contract to the postal service to print and mail the pieces within hours of receipt.
Wednesday, the postal service won the support of the Postal Rate Commission, which recommended that its Board of Governors authorize a three-year test of the service, but with a higher rate than the one postal officials proposed.
Although the USPS had proposed to charge users one cent per page, plus postage, the PRC majority recommended the fee be upped to 5 cents per page, driving the per-piece cost up to 40.9 cents.
The postal service's Board of Governors, expected to act on the majority's recommendation next month, were urged by Commissioner Ruth Goldway, to "adopt the majority's recommendation under protest and refer it back to the PRC for reconsideration."
