Understanding Postal: Caught in the Postal Downstream

Catalogers also can’t lose sight of the fact that the Standard Flats mail product is reportedly considered underwater — i.e., the postage collected isn’t great enough to cover the USPS’s cost to deliver catalogs. In fact, in its fiscal 2011 Annual Compliance Determination filed in December 2010, the PRC ordered the USPS to figure out ways to get Standard Flats out of its underwater status, including the possible need to raise catalog postage by 22 percent over some undetermined time frame. The ACMA has raised some serious questions on the validity of the reported costs and why Flats handling costs rose 75 percent from fiscal year 2004 to fiscal year 2010 while inflation was about 16 percent in that same time. We believe there’s something seriously wrong with the reported numbers.