The PRC (Postal Regulatory Commission) has been petitioned for approval to amend its method of calculating Standard and Nonprofit (NP) prices.
Since 2000, the 60% rule applies to NP rates. That means that the average NP revenue per piece should be 60% of the estimated average revenue per piece rate, class-wide. The USPS wants to revert to using a methodology that was used prior to the passage of postal reform legislation where regular and ECR (enhanced carrier route) rates are considered subclasses of mail. The Alliance of Nonprofit Mailers alerted members that by reverting to the prior methodology, prices could increase 3.3% to 6.9% over and above other increases that are proposed for implementation in January of 2018.
The PRC Public Representative recognized the potential “rate shock” facing nonprofit mailers, and urged the USPS to apply any corrective price adjustments (over the annual CPI cap increase) over more than two price-adjustment cycles.
There isn’t a time constraint applicable for the PRC to issue a decision on the matter, and the comment period on the USPS proposal ended on September 18th. Knowing the possibility of a legal challenge, the PRC may be more deliberate in issuing its ruling than usual. We’ll keep you posted as this issue unfolds.
*from The Bureau-October 2017 issue
