Tag: USPS

The US Postal Service will be forced to seek a double-digit rate increase if overhaul legislation is not passed soon, Postmaster General Jack Potter said Monday. Potter urged the thousands of mailing industry employees at the National Postal Forum to “get up to Capitol Hill” and tell their representatives today that “it’s important to bring a close to this legislative process.” The postal bill has passed the House Government Reform and Judiciary committees, as well as the the Senate Governmental Affairs Committee, but it has not been scheduled for a floor vote in either chamber. Potter reiterated his pledge to hold rates stable until 2006, but said swift passage of the bill is critical for the agency’s financial planning, since it takes about 16 months for a rate increase to go into effect.

Mailer groups blasted the timing of Postmaster General Jack Potter’s reiteration of the US Postal Service’s commitment to hold postage rates steady until 2006. They fear it could delay passage of reform legislation that’s now before Congress. Potter said the USPS could delay rate hikes because the USPS has already cut USD8.3 billion in costs over the past three years. At a Sept. 14 meeting of the postal Board of Governors in Boston, USPS CFO Richard Strasser said the postal service planned to trim another USD1.4 billion, which includes a reduction of 23 million work hours. “Potter made this statement just as Congress was coming back into session and the National Postal Forum was coming into town for their meeting,” said Neal Denton, executive director of the National Alliance of Nonprofit Mailers. “It might give some people the impression that postal reform isn’t needed so urgently.”

Postmaster General John E. Potter said today that aggressive cost cutting has resulted in USD11 billion in expense savings over the last three years, enabling him to reiterate his commitment to maintain current postage rates until 2006. “The Postal Service will continue to focus on the strategies identified in our Transformation Plan*, and we will continue to deliver the plan’s commitments ahead of schedule,” said Potter, at the monthly Board of Governors meeting. Three years ago the Postal Service committed to take USD5 billion in savings and cost avoidances out of the annual spending by 2006. In the first three years, Potter said USD4 billion has been saved. He added he expects to save more than USD1 billion in 2005.