Representatives of the U.S. Postal Service, mailer groups and other interested parties will meet with the Postal Rate Commission Oct. 25 to set the hearing schedule for the next 10 months on the cash-strapped postal service’s proposed 8.7% rate increase for next year.
The PRC, which anticipates filing is recommendations with the postal Board of Governors by late July, is proposing a schedule that would require participants in the proceedings to file their initial legal papers by Thanksgiving so that actual hearings could begin on Dec. 10.
And that’s when the postal debate should get interesting. Since the filing, nearly 30 different organizations, companies and individuals have indicated that they plan to participate in the proceedings.
Less than two weeks ago, the USPS asked the PRC to endorse a $4.2 billion new revenue generating plan that would raise Standard (advertising) Mail rates by 7.3% while hiking periodicals rates by 10%; Priority Mail rates by 13.5%; Express Mail rates by 8.2% and the price of a first class stamp to 37 cents from 34 cents.
The proposed increases would boost the postal service’s gross revenues to nearly $76 billion from this year’s $70.5 billion.
As part of its rate case the USPS is proposing to raise the basic per-piece rate for letter-size Standard (advertising) Mail would go up 1.5 cents to 26.9 cents from 25.3 cents and the basic per-piece rate for Standard Mail flats would increase 2.2 cents to 34.4 cents from 32.2 cents.
At the same time the piece and pound rates for Standard Mail flats would increase 1.5 cents to 19.8 cents from 18.4 cents while the pound rate would go up 4 cents to 70.8 cents per pound from 66.8 cents.
While the USPS is not proposing to raise the basic per-piece rate of 13.3 cents for letter size mail, it is proposing a 1-cent hike in the basic nonprofit flats rate to 18.9 cents from 17.9 cents.
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