Crucial Webinar on Damaging 10-Year Review of Postal Rate-making, Changes In USPS Ranks, Forthcoming Rate Hike & More

For the US Postal Service, 2020 has hardly ever been a dull moment. As if the stormy tenure of new Postmaster General Louis DeJoy, the controversial service changes and their impact on mail-in voting, the barrage of Covid-fueled package volume, and the plunge in letter and flat mail volume weren’t all enough, on Nov. 30th, the Postal Regulatory Commission issued its final review in its 10-year review of postal rate-making. As we’ve been warning, it’s potentially catastrophic news for catalog mailers, as future postage rates for flats could skyrocket.

That potentially game-changing news came less than two weeks after the USPS announced a significant shake-up in its executive ranks. And all of this comes on the eve of another postal rate hike taking effect in late January. In a 60-minute web meeting on Tuesday, December 15th at 1:00 pm EST, the ACMA will host a panel of experts to not only dig into what’s taking place but also what you as a merchant can do going forward.

Register at: https://us02web.zoom.us/meeting/register/tZUtd-2uqDIqH90u-NsYNBS7_KqUq6SOL7OX

Moderated by ACMA President & Executive Director Hamilton Davison (below left), the panel will also include Matthew Field (center). A partner with Venable LLP, Mr. Field is a knowledgeable regulatory counselor and skilled litigator who represents clients in highly regulated industries with extensive experience in postal and energy regulation. He’ll be joined by ACMA’s Postal Economist Robert Mitchell (right). Mr. Mitchell’s career in postal affairs dates back more than 45 years. He had a lengthy tenure as principal economist with the USPS, then become special assistant to the Commission at the then-Postal Rate Commission. Over the past 18 years, he has served as a postal consultant, the last 12 advising the ACMA. Members of ACMA’s Postal Committee will also be on hand.

There are a limited number of spots available for this webinar (via Zoom meeting) so register soon. All ACMA members are welcome. Non-members are eligible, but pending demand levels, some registrations may be declined in favor of members and will be taken in order received so register now.

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MIDLAND Postal Update by Matt Jensen

Did you know MIDLAND has been a proud supporter of the American Catalog Mailers Association (ACMA) for well over a decade, as both a member and an active sponsor? With how much of our customers’ catalog budget goes towards paper and postage, we firmly believe it’s the right thing to do. We wanted to provide an update on what the ACMA is currently focusing on and a call to action of how you can choose to help. For those not already familiar with the ACMA, they are a non-profit organization founded in 2007. The ACMA is the only industry association advocating specifically for catalog, online, direct mail, and other remote-selling merchants, as well as their suppliers. In recent years, the ACMA has had successes for the entire industry in postal enhancements, consumer privacy, and remote sales tax. Let’s look at some of the numbers. Our industry has seen five postage rate increases in the past 2.5 years. This is an average compounded increase of 39.6% for catalogs.
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