New mailing standards to support most of the pricing changes recommended by the Postal Regulatory Commission (PRC) and approved by the Governors of the United States Postal Service® will be implemented on Monday, May 14, 2007. New prices and mailing standards for Periodicals mail will be implemented on Sunday, July 15, 2007.
Implementation of prices for all Periodicals mail is being delayed to provide adequate time to adjust Postal Service™ systems, to enable an effective and orderly transition in postal operations, and to give postal acceptance employees and mailers more time to prepare for the complex structure recommended by the PRC. The Commission recommended Outside-County piece, bundle, and container rates that vary based on machinability, presort level, and entry point. A Federal Register proposal explaining the changes and requesting mailer comments is on our Web page www.usps.com/ratecase. All Periodicals mailers are encouraged to review the Federal Register. As explained in our previous Federal Register proposals, Periodicals mailers will have new incentives to use efficient containers, and the revised co–palletization standards will encourage publishers to combine mailings. Also added are new prices for the nonadvertising portion of a mailing to give mailers of high-editorial-content publications access to lower, destination entry rates.
Periodicals mailers will continue paying current rates until Saturday, July 14. For additional information, including links to the above information, go to www.usps.com/ratecase.
While all of the Commission’s recommended rates are being implemented, the Governors have asked the Commission to reconsider three issues:
The Governors are concerned about the short-term effect that some prices for Standard Mail Regular flats might have on catalog mailers, and that the Commission failed to provide appropriate cost-based incentives in the First-Class Mail rate design. Also, the price for the flat-rate box seems unnecessarily high. The Governors have asked the Commission to reconsider their recommendations and respond as quickly as possible.
There is no set timetable for the reconsideration, nor is there any assurance that different prices will be recommended. As discussed above, the Board of Governors set Monday, May 14, 2007, as the effective date of all the changes in prices and fees for all classes except for Periodicals, which is delayed until July 15, 2007.
