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Postal Rates to Increase in January '06The United States Postal Service Board of Governors has approved the Postal Rate Commission’s recommended 5.4 percent increase for most postal rates, effective Jan. 8, 2006. The Periodicals rate is among those that will increase, but the 5 percent Classroom publication discount will remain in place. That means that the Classroom Periodicals Rate will increase by roughly 5.4 percent. Media and Library rates will increase by an average of 12.7 percent, though Library Mail rates, as required by law, will be set at 5 percent below corresponding Media Mail rates. "While the Commission reluctantly recommends this increase, the Act forecloses not doing so," said the Commission's written opinion and recommendation. "Moreover, in light of the circumstances of this case, the Commission mitigates the increase by employing a minimally acceptable cost coverage . . . interested parties will have another opportunity to analyze the costs, revenues, and volumes for this mail in the near term." As required by law, the Media Mail rate increase is expected to cover Postal Service costs. However, it could have a significant affect on companies that use that subclass to ship a significant percentage of their products. Several groups protested to the USPS Board of Governors with respect to the Postal Rate Commission's Media Mail decision. Another rate case may begin as early as the first half of 2006. Because rate cases can take as long as ten months to be decided, any decision based on the next case would likely take effect in 2007. If your company is affected by the pending increase, contact AEP at sjones@AEPweb.org. | |||||
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© 2008 The Association of Educational Publishers | |||||
