New legislation could wipe out the planned return to previous rates.
Saying that the Postal Service needs an extension on the exigency rate hike, Sen. Tom Carper (D-Del) has sponsored legislation that could make those rates permanent for at least the next four years.
“USPS could see a temporary 4.3 percent postal rate increase become permanent. That’s if Sen. Tom Carper (D-Del.) gets his way,” wrote Heather Fletcher in Target Marketing last week.
“He came a bit closer to making the exigent rate increase permanent on Wednesday, when three bipartisan senators joined his cause, sponsoring the bill named ‘Improving Postal Operations, Service, and Transparency Act of 2015 (iPOST),’ Fletcher continues.
Marketers and catalog mailers were not impressed.
“A further extension of postal exigency rates only serves to harm the very businesses — marketers and their solution providers — who are stimulating the economy and who use mail as a key component of their omnichannel marketing plan,” DMA VP of Advocacy Christopher Oswald said in a statement emailed to Target Marketing on Wednesday.
While Carper says that stabilizing and modernizing the postal service is critical, many in our industry disagree with his methods, believing that the post office must learn to adapt to the modern world the same way businesses have.
“The postal service, marketers and the U.S. economy are stronger with a postal service that has fully adapted to the Information Age in its services and business model,” continued Oswald. “We applaud positive steps the postal service has taken to innovate and encourage them to continue.”
We agree. The USPS has made strides in advancing the way they operate in a changed world. Continuing to act like this is an emergency and they need a bailout is the worst kind of incentive.
March 27, 2017, 9:17 pm