The Direct Marketing Association praised the U.S. Postal Service’s willingness “to fully discuss the possibility of a phased rate case with its customers” in a letter to Dan Foucheaux, associate general counsel of the USPS.
The letter was signed by Jerry Cerasale, the DMA’s senior vice president of government affairs.
The letter outlined the phased-rate strategy Ashley Lyons, manager of pricing for the Postal Service, made at a meeting between DMA and postal officials on Jan. 24. Under that scenario, an initial increase would be implemented six months before new rates would have been changed under a traditional rate case. A second increase would be put into effect no sooner than one year later.
Cerasale’s letter reiterated an understanding that there would be no increase before April 2004. Cerasale was not available for comment by deadline.
The letter requested that the Postal Service give a 90-day notice before any increase. It also requested that the final rates would not be higher than what the new rates would have been under a traditional rate case. And, it asked that the phased cost increases would be as equal as possible.
Cerasale wrote that the DMA’s support was conditional, and that continued support assumed that adverse financial conditions would not shorten the time between the first and second increases, which would remain one year apart. The DMA requested that the Board of Governors include language addressing these concerns in its filings.
Foucheaux was not available to confirm whether he had received the letter.
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