Press Release No. 00-1

For Immediate Release

Contact: Robert E. McLean

Release No. 00-1

703-418-0390

January 11, 2000

bmclean@mailers.org

Mailers Council Responds to Postage
Rate Increase Filing

WASHINGTON, January 11—The Mailers Council, a coalition of the nation's largest mailers, today released the following statement from Executive Director Robert E. McLean:

“Higher postage costs are always a concern among America’s businesses. The increase the Postal Service proposed today will result in millions of dollars in added expenses for Mailers Council members.

“We recognize that increasing costs beyond the Postal Service’s control were major factors in the decision to file for a rate increase. But whatever the reason, the result is that the cost of using the nation’s mail system is becoming more expensive at a time when every competing technology is becoming less expensive. If the Postal Service is to survive this situation, the Mailers Council believes postal management must focus its considerable skills and resources on those factors it can control, and thereby generate needed productivity gains.

“The Mailers Council believes it is important to sustain the Postal Service as an integral part of the nation’s communications and logistics network. Improving productivity is necessary to achieve this goal. That is why we are conducting a productivity study, the results of which we will present to Postmaster General Henderson next month. The study will encourage the USPS to place new emphasis on improving its productivity to help contain costs, and to prepare for the inevitable mail volume losses expected as bill payment and other paper-based transactions move to the Internet.”

The Postal Service must announce plans for a rate increase almost a year before implementing the new rates because they must be approved through a 10-month regulatory process before the presidentially-appointed Postal Rate Commission. The PRC holds hearings and receives testimony from interested parties before rendering a decision. The PRC forwards a decision to the USPS Board of Governors, recommending that the USPS' proposed rates be accepted or changed. The governors can accept, accept and remand to the PRC for reconsideration, reject, or appeal the decision in court.

The Council represents over 50 corporations, nonprofit organizations and major mailing associations. Council members use the United States Postal Service to deliver correspondence, publications, parcels, greeting cards and payments. Collectively the Council accounts for as much as 70 percent of the nation's mail volume. The Mailers Council believes that the USPS can be operated more efficiently, supports efforts aimed at containing postal costs, and has the ultimate objective of lower postal rates without compromising service.

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