Postal Issues — Rate Case Pushes Forward

Schick cautioned that his views are based on the initial overview of the legislation. Indeed, the fate of the coming rate increase is not etched in stone.

In the short term, the euphoria over reform passage—which includes the retooling of the ridiculously litigious rate case filing process—should somewhat mitigate the sting of the coming increase, which is 8.5 percent for standard mail and 11.4 percent for periodicals. But mailers also have to reconcile the boost, and what it means from the production, distribution and volume standpoints.