As a result of reforms in the Postal Accountability and Enhancement Act, passed in 2006, the U.S. Postal Service finds itself in a position that those of us in private industry know all too well. Printers have to provide quality service at the lowest price (or at least at a reasonable price)-and when costs go up or volumes go down, we can't react by raising prices. But that kind of knee-jerk reaction was the way the USPS operated under the old law. Postal reform changes that model, and included in the law is a provision that allows the USPS to change rates on an annual basis without going through the lengthy and costly 10-month process at the Postal Regulatory Commission. The USPS has published its new rates that went into effect last month with subsequent changes to follow every May. The catch is that prices for each class of mail can only increase at or below the rate of the average for Consumer Price Index in the previous 12 months. There can be variance within each class, but the total increase must not average more than the rate of CPI.
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