USPS Postmaster Potter says next rate hike will be "well into" 2004

With the United States Postal Service predicting a $600M profit for FY2003 and Postmaster General John Potter saying that the next postal increase will not be implemented until “well into”

With the United States Postal Service predicting a $600M profit for FY2003 and Postmaster General John Potter saying that the next postal increase

will not be implemented until “well into” 2004, while speaking at a Postal Forum in Boston recently–B2B publishers may finally be able to breath a sigh of rate relief. With the USPS suffering from mounting debt (thanks to a bloated labor

force), less mail volume (thanks to e-mail) and last year’s anthrax attacks, B2B publishers have shouldered back-to-back double-digit postage rate hikes to make up for the loss. Therefore, a reprieve from another rate hike couldn’t have come at a better time for B2B publishers hurting from recession and post-9/11 ad cut backs. However, American Business Media counsel David Straus warns that the optimistic tone of the USPS may turn sour as FY2003 progresses, causing the next rate hike talks to come sooner rather than later. “When the USPS says the next

increase will be well into 2004, I interpret that to probably mean April,” he tells us.