MAKE BREAK-EVEN; NOT BROKEN

The following is a perspective by postal commentator Gene Del Polito for Direct magazine.

In my earlier professional years as an audiologist, I remember the many corny jokes applicable to the business of diagnosing and rehabilitating persons with hearing disorders. For the past 23 years, though, my professional focus is to represent those who use, who or support others in the use, of mail for business communication and commerce. In most recent months, our industry has been trying to explain to the Postal Service, for about the umpteenth time, why direct mailers need a minimum of 60-90 days to accommodate rate case-related changes. Postal officials have told us that they "hear" us. As one-time audiologist, though, I'm more concerned about whether they're listening in addition to hearing.

The implementation of a significant change in postal rates and classifications goes way beyond some simple adjustments made to off-the-shelf mail preparation software. Our industry is getting tired of the feeling that the Postal Service is only turning us a "deaf ear."

The Governors of the Postal Service could easily put mailers' anxiety to rest by simply declaring that no rate changes will be made until mailers have been given sufficient time to accommodate them. Absolutely nothing prohibits the Governors from announcing at their next public meeting that new rates will not be implemented before July 2007.

Oh sure, there will be a lot of postal executive weeping and gnashing of teeth, and the Governors will get an earful about the revenue "lost" from a delayed implementation. This weeping, of course, is nothing more than the shedding of crocodile tears.

The fact is that it's mailers, not postal management, that provides the revenue needed to keep the Postal Service in line with the law. Delaying a change of rates a month or two won't break the Postal Service's back. Any such change could easily be accommodated simply by filing the next rate case, if absolutely necessary, a month or two earlier. It's important to remember that while the law says the Postal Service must operate on a break even basis, it means break even over a period of time. It doesn't mean break even minute-to-minute.

The R2006 rate case is the most complicated change in rates and classifications I've seen in my 23 years within this industry. The case the Postal Service has put together is far from being a slam-dunk over at the Postal Rate Commission. There's anxiety enough over how any business can swallow a 40-90% increase in key postal rates and still remain afloat. The last thing anyone needs is the added anxiety caused by an unnecessary and potentially catastrophic precipitous implementation of new rates and rules.