The Postal Rate Commission has endorsed a U.S. Postal Service request to extend its two-year old experimental catalog ride-along program until June.
The program now expires Feb. 26.
In the experimental program a catalog weighing up to 3.3 ounces normally sent by Standard Mail can ride-along with a poly-bagged magazine for a flat fee of 10 cents. The magazine's publisher would have to pay the regular Periodicals postage rate for the host publication under the program.
Organizations representing both the magazine and mailing industries, including the Direct Marketing Association, supported extension of the program.
Former PRC Chairman Ed Gleiman, now a consultant for the DMA, said the organization is pleased that the PRC agreed to extend program. He called it a positive development for the industry.
The PRC recommended the postal service's Board of Governors authorize continuation of the program until June 30 when the USPS, under a yet-to-be approved negotiated settlement with mailers, raises its rates by an average of 8.7%.
According to that settlement, the catalog ride-along price would go up 2.4 cents to 12.4 cents a piece while the rates for periodicals would go up 10%; Standard Mail rates would increase 7.3%; Priority Mail rates would jump 13.5%; Express Mail rates would increase by 8.2% and the price of mailing a letter by first class would go up to 37 cents from 34 cents.
Since its inception, the program has generated $9.9 million in new revenue for the USPS on a total volume of 99.3 million pieces, the USPS said in a report to the PRC. The report noted that 62% of the ride-along materials were CD-ROM's; 13% were sample products; 9% were brochures; 7% were actual catalogs; 2% were letters; 1% were "other magazines," and 6% were unidentified items.
