Postal Rate Case Settled

Postal Rate Case to Settle, New Rates Expected in June

The United States Postal Service has agreed to the National Newspaper Association’s (NNA) proposal to preserve discounts for qualifying newspapers delivered within the Sectional Center Facility (SCF) zone, but not entered at the SCF.

The agreement removed NNA’s final barrier to accepting the settlement offer of the Postal Service. NNA and the majority of parties in the rate case have agreed to settle the case rather than force a 10-month litigation to prove the need of new revenues.

Under the settlement offer, new postal rates will go into effect June 30, 2002, rather than September 2002.

"If we did not bring this case to a rapid close, we were facing the certainty of another 4-5% increase on top of the existing proposed rate before the end of 2002," said Tonda Rush, NNA’s rate case counsel.

The January discount agreement came in the midst of an ongoing litigation before the Postal Rate Commission (PRC) to raise all postal rates in 2002.

The Postal Service had proposed ending discounts for periodicals drop shipped within an SCF zone unless the publisher transported all copies to the SCF for redistribution.

Once approved, in-county rates will decline 1-2% for high-density mail entered at delivery offices, and stay flat to decline slightly for basic carrier route mail entered at delivery offices, giving community newspapers the best scenario in this rate case. Regualr rate (out-of-county) mail will go up 10-12%, depending on sortation and volune.