United States Postal Service

Just in the nick of time, the U.S. Postal Service filed price increases averaging nearly 2 percent late Thursday on most mail except Forever Stamps.

The Postal Regulatory Commission marked receipt of the filing as 4:07 p.m., less than an hour before closing. If USPS had waited until Friday morning, the December 2014 Consumer Price Index would have been factored into the calculation of the inflation-based cap on postage increases—perhaps lowering the cap because of plummeting gasoline prices that are leading to deflation.

The Postal Service told customers yesterday that the 1.966 percent rate increase, restricted by its annual price cap to the rate of inflation, would bring in about $900 million in additional revenue including $400 million in the 2015 financial year. The federal agency generated $67.8 billion total revenue in 2014.

The rate rise does include the surcharge USPS has been applying to counter the financial impacts of the 2008-09 recession on its services, as permitted by the Postal Regulatory Commission.

If the regulator approves the price increase, it is scheduled to take effect from April 26, 2015.

The Greeting Card Association is confident that options exist to stabilize Postal Service finances while maintaining service quality. Our customers rely on the Postal Service to deliver more than 60 percent of all cards purchased and require timely and predictable service.

In 2013, we released a report that detailed more than 100 savings options the vast majority of which would have no impact on service.

An 18 percent surge in holiday package delivery boosted U.S. Postal Service revenues, but not enough to cover money owed for retiree health benefits and other government requirements, Postmaster General Patrick Donahoe said Tuesday at the National Press Club.

Donahoe said if the Postal Service did not have to pay the congressional mandates it would have reported a $1.4 billion operating profit this year. Instead, it owed $5.7 billion to the retiree benefits fund.

"Can the Postal Service operate profitably far into the future? Absolutely," Donahoe said. "Can it do these things within its current business model? Not likely."

Will postal reform actually happen in 2015? Vice President of Government Affairs Lisbeth Lyons points out there are alternatives to Carper-Coburn that are "written and ready to go." Thus, don't let the multitude of new players on the landscape lead you to the conclusion that postal reform is restarting from square one. And no longer does Congress seem content on waiting until the U.S. Postal Service's situation reaches the critical level, when a crisis management solution is required.

With some parliamentary maneuvering, the U.S. Postal Service Board of Governors has apparently avoided the need to raise postage rates sooner than it wanted.

As the board drew close to losing its quorum last week there was talk the governors were preparing rate hikes that would be announced this week and implemented in the spring. That appeared to be the last chance for the governors to raise rates until Congress got around to approving new governors.

But a Federal Register filing published yesterday revealed that the governors came up with another plan.

The U.S. Postal Service removed all doubt Tuesday. "Letters are going away, as the 10-year trend below so clearly illustrates," writes a USPS spokeswoman.

Target Marketing had asked her for a response to a press release on Tuesday that took aim at the USPS for, in its words, not concentrating on delivering First Class mail. E-mail, rather than First Class mail, arrived at Target Marketing in the morning bearing the subject line, "Taxpayers Protection Alliance tells the U.S. Postal Service 'stick to delivering our letters' in new video.

The alliance seems to be mostly against USPS grocery delivery.

The U.S. Postal Service says it can overcome rain, sleet and heat, but that apparently doesn’t account for Senate gridlock.

The agency’s board of governors lost its quorum this week, with the Senate so far not taking action on six separate nominees to the body that oversees USPS’s budget and makes long-term plans for the service.

Lawmakers and aides say they hope that the Senate will confirm at least some of the nominees before Congress breaks for the year in the coming days.

Barely two months after deciding to skip the usual January price increases, the U.S. Postal Service appears close to announcing that prices will rise in the spring. As usual, the "do-nothing" Congress is to blame.

Rates could rise nearly 1.7 percent for the "market-dominant" mail classes, such as First-Class, Standard, and Periodicals. That could mean a one-cent increase in the price of Forever Stamps, to an even 50 cents.

The Board of Governors announced Oct. 1, that it would forgo the usual inflation-based January rate increase "in part because of the uncertainty regarding the exigent price increase."

A set of four Limited Edition Forever stamps depicting Rudolph, Hermey, Santa and Bumble were created to celebrate "Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer," which premiered 50 years ago.