The Postal Rate Commission set next Monday as the deadline to find out if the U.S. Postal Service is “actively pursuing” the possibility of eventually extending the benefits of a proposed change in its non-letter size business reply service to other mailers besides continuity club mailers and photo finishers. Doctors and medical researchers also use the service to send materials to laboratories for testing.
Specifically, the PRC wants to know if the USPS is considering the idea, and if so what they are in addition to any plans that might be underway for tests or “other cost-effective methods of counting, rating and billing letter or [post] card-size” mail.
Advertising Mail Marketing Association president Gene A. Del Polito endorsed the PRC’s request saying “obviously it’s something the USPS should explore because it would make business reply mail more efficient and attractive to business users.”
The PRC is considering a request from the USPS to recommend its Board of Governors adopt a flat fee of $1.75 for each piece of returned automatable Standard A (formerly third class) Mail weighing less than a pound, whether or not it has been opened by the recipient instead of the current charge of postage plus a 30 cent handling fee per-piece. The USPS has been testing the change with apparent success since April, according to the PRC.
