Following a meeting of the Postal Board of Governors today, the postal service announced it plans to file an exigent rate increase with the PRC (Postal Regulatory Commission) for approval. We have been told the amount of the proposed exigent rate increase is 4.3% and will apply to all classes of mail. If approved by the PRC it would take effect January 26, 2014. This increase would be in addition to the annual CPI increase of 1.6%, which will also take effect on January 26th. If the exigent filing is approved the total increase in January will be 5.9%.
SIIA/ABM is strongly opposed to the exigent rate increase and will be directly involved in efforts to defeat the exigent rate filing on behalf of our members. We will update you as more information is made available. Below is more detail about how the exigent filing process works.
An exigent rate filing is a special rate increase request beyond the annual CPI increase. It is allowed by law if the Postal Service has been affected by “extraordinary or exceptional circumstances.” After the Postal Board of Governors approve the exigent filing as they did today, it is submitted to the Postal Regulatory Commission (PRC) for a 90-day review after which they approve or disapprove the filing. During the 90 day review period the PRC will also question the Postal Service’s filing information to aid in their decision process. This is an open rulemaking process and as a result the mailing industry and other are permitted to file comments with the PRC during the 90 day process. As a member of the Affordable Mail Alliance (AMA), we will file comments.
AMA was instrumental in defeating the 2010 exigent filing, of which ABM was a participant. ABM/SIIA and two members recently met with the PRC to better acquaint them with the concerns of our membership and the importance of predictable increases as provided by the current CPI increase structure. In addition, we informed the PRC of the results of the member survey we conducted earlier this year and how detrimental additional rate increases would be to the B-to-B periodical industry.
While we know this is not the outcome that we had hoped for, please know that SIIA / ABM will be working hard on behalf of all of our members against this rate increase.
Michael Hettinger is VP for the Public Sector Innovation Group (PSIG) at SIIA. Follow his PSIG tweets at @SIIAPSIG. Sign up for the Public Sector Innovation Roundup email newsletter for weekly updates.