Special Report: The Shape of Things to Come
June 2007
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What we’ve expressed to the Postal Service is that this is the worst thing they can do to ensure that people stay in the mailing industry. … You saw what happened this week where there have been changes to some of the rates that already came out in the most recent case. So we’re dealing with a rate case that doesn’t want to end. One of my members has already put the cost of what happened [recently] at $2.6 million, because this is staff time, printing costs, distribution costs, computer programming costs … for the meter manufacturers, they’ve been making computer chips to go in their larger machines; all of those have to be replaced again.
TM: Are there any aspects of reform that might catch mailers flat-footed in the future?
BM: It’s most important for mailers to recognize that postal reform didn’t end with the passage of the bill. It’s just beginning. And these studies I mentioned are going to have a profound influence on the future of the mailing industry. Some of the influences will be related to cost. Others will be issues having to do with how easy or difficult it is to do business with the Postal Service. So, it’s a situation that bears watching [with the] recognition that Congress left a lot of these details to be finished by other parties. … One of the more long-term studies requires the GAO to look at the monopoly [and] universal service. Universal service is something we all take for granted, but should not. Because if the GAO should come back and say, “You know, the Postal Service really can’t afford to do this anymore, we think they ought to change delivery the following ways,” those recommendations could become policy. … Mailers need to be very cognizant of the fact that many of these decisions coming up could make it possible to stay in the mailing industry or make it very discouraging.
—Hallie Mummert
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