Tag: USPS

The U.S. Postal Service is readying a test to let mailers of small-circulation periodicals achieve the work-sharing discounts enjoyed by large mailers. The experiment was supposed to start yesterday but was delayed. In the experiment, publishers, printers and consolidators can combine bundles/packages of different periodicals on the same pallet and drop ship them to an area distribution center or sectional center facility. The proposed discount is 0.7 cents per piece on combined bundles sent to area distribution centers and 1 cent per piece on bundles sent to sectional center facilities.

During the opening session of one of the premier gatherings of business mailers, mailing industry leaders and postal managers – the National Postal
Forum – Postmaster General John E. Potter told the thousands of attendees in the
audience, “Now is the time to revitalize the mailing industry. Now is the time for us to modernize the Postal Service. And now is the time for us to work together to make the most of a long period of postage rates stability.”

Americans will be spared another rise in the price of stamps for three years under legislation en route to President Bush for signature into law. The legislation takes advantage of a discovery that the money-losing post office was paying far too much into the Civil Service Retirement System, a program that covers employees who joined the force before 1984. The bill, which passed the House 424-0 on Tuesday, allows the Postal Service to correct its payment formula, but under the condition that the savings be used to pay off the agency’s debts and to stop any further rate increases until at least 2006. The bill passed the Senate last week.

The U.S. Postal Service might defer an increase in postage rates until 2006 in light of a House measure that would change how it contributes to a pension fund for employees hired before 1984. The House is expected to pass on Tuesday a proposal that would allow the agency to lower the payments it makes to a worker retirement fund. If passed, the measure will reduce the Postal Service’s debt, free up extra funds and hold rates steady.