The U.S. Postal Service has formally asked the Postal Rate Commission Tuesday to endorse a “minor classification change” on its bulk parcel return service, which mailers use for customer-returned merchandise.
If the proposal is endorsed by the PRC and adopted by postal governors, the USPS would replace its current fee schedule of postage plus a 30 cent handling fee for each returned automatable Standard A Mail parcel with a flat fee of $1.75 per item. The flat fee would stand whether or not the parcel was opened by the recipient.
The impact on postal finances and costs would be minimal, according to USPS economist Jennifer Eggleston.
The cosmetic, hosiery, book and record club continuity mailers, who are the primary users of the service, rely on it for products returned to them by customers or for undeliverable packages sent by either Standard A or Standard B Mail. Catalogers also use the service.
The classification change has been tested since April 1998 for regular and nonprofit parcels sent in bulk by Standard A (formerly third class) Mail only.
The USPS request is the result of an agreement the postal service reached with the Advertising Mail Marketing Association (AMMA) and the Direct Marketing Association (DMA) to ask the PRC to support the change.
Although the AMMA supports the proposal and intends to sign a proposed agreement expediting the PRC’s consideration of the change, its president, Gene A. Del Polito, says the proposed flat fee “is still too high.”
The AMMA, he said “has already informed the USPS that we intend to address that issue in the next rate case and the whole idea of applying a flat bulk merchandise rate to Standard B Mail where there are also a lot of returns.”
The PRC is expected to file its recommendation with postal governors by early fall.
In other postal news, the USPS has temporarily withdrawn a plan that would have prohibited prohibit mailers from using string or elastic bands to secure palletized and sacked bundles of catalogs and non-letter size Standard A Mail pieces. The plan, which was to go into affect after July 1, faced strong industry opposition.
The USPS proposed replacing the elastic bands and string with plastic strapping because “packages prepared with string or rubber bands are the most likely to break,” leading to higher costs as the individual pieces must be manually processed.
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