The Mailers Coalition, which over the last several years supported failed Congressional attempts to reform the U.S. Postal Service, is being revived and expanded by a number of industry groups and mailers.
The goal of the Coalition for the Preservation of Universal Mail Service (CPUMS) is to have President Bush appoint a special commission to review the postal service’s operations and provide Congress with a list of possible reform options.
Over the last several years the coalition, then known as the Mailers Council, supported the efforts by former House postal subcommittee chairman Rep. John McHugh (R-NY) to get Congress to pass a postal reform bill. The bill eventually died in committee with the expiration of the 106th Congress.
“Our aim is to focus not only on long term [postal] reform, but to dissuade the postal service’s Board of Governors from authorizing the filing for a monster rate increase this June,” said Gene A. Del Polito, Association for Postal Commerce president, one of the organizers.
Last month, just weeks after the USPS implemented a rate increase averaging 4.6%, postal governors ended months of speculation about the possibility of postal officials seeking another rate increase later this year when the Board of Governors formally authorized them to prepare a new rate request to be filed with the Postal Rate Commission.
Postal officials began preparing for their second rate hike in as many years well before the PRC’s November recommendation for a 4.6% increase instead of a proposed 6% increase. So far, they have not indicated how much of a rate hike will be sought or when they will file a rate case with the PRC.
Postal governors will be holding a private brain-storming session on a series of issues confronting the postal service later this week. Issues under discussion include the need to raise rates to shore up its sagging finances in view of two back-to-back deficits totaling more than $500 million.
Industry officials, anticipating a June file with the PRC, are predicting that the USPS will seek a postage increase of at least 25% across the board.
An increase that size would “literally cripple so many sectors of the industry, causing irreparable harm,” according to Del Polito.
R.R. Donnelley’s CEO Bill Davis and vice president Kevin Richardson, key organizers of the group, were not immediately available for comment.
Working with them to expand develop and expand the coalition are the top officials of the Direct Marketing Association; Alliance of Nonprofit Mailers; Magazine Publishers Association and Parcel Shippers Association.
Other organizers include senior officials of Quad Graphics; Quebecor Worldwide, Time Warner, and America On Line, which according to Del Polito “have a major stake in the viability of the postal system.”
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