AMMA HAS DONE ITS FAIR SHARE
The following is a perspective by postal commentator Gene A. Del Polito for Direct Magazine. The views expressed are the author's.
Not long ago, many within our industry were weeping and gnashing their teeth over postal rate increases that soared well beyond the rate of inflation. Thirty-to-forty percent increases, they said, not only are bone-crushing but also business-busting. Something, they pleaded, had to be done to end this sort of postal rate burden or direct mail marketing would suffer an untimely end.
The call for help did not go unheard. In fact, the Advertising Mail Marketing Association (known then as the Third Class Mail Association) began a vigorous public educational campaign to reverse the ill-fortune that was plaguing the direct mail industry. In 1988, the organization called for a suspension of the monopoly over third-class mail. In 1989, it issued the first call for comprehensive mail classification reform to rationalize a postal rate structure that no longer comported with how mail was handled or how it was used in the marketplace. In 1992, AMMA issued the first call for comprehensive postal legislative reform to change the legislative and regulatory framework that underlaid the nation's postal system since the reorganization of 1970.
These were not just idle calls. In 1985, the U.S. Postal Service requested and received reform of the mail classification structure. In 1994, Postmaster General Marvin Runyon echoed AMMA's call for legislative reform, and the nation began its first steps toward a redesign of the nation's postal legislative and regulatory underpinnings.
The imminence of classification reform enabled mailers to win a modest across- the-board rate increase in 1994, and to hold off a subsequent round of postal rate increases for another four years. Classification reform itself brought mailers a more rationalized rate structure and increased opportunities for worksharing discounts, and it provided the Postal Service with more efficiently prepared and less costly to handle mail. These efficiencies were reflected not only in the rates that came out of classification reform, but also in the rates that ultimately were requested in the 1997 postal rate case.
The prospect of postal legislative reform heightened postal management's and the postal Governors' appreciation of the value and utility of smaller, inflation-bounded rate increases rather than large business-busters. Reform's positioning on the legislative horizon heightened also a desire at the Postal Rate Commission and the Postal Service to work cooperatively to better serve the legitimate needs of postal customers. The result of this awareness was reflected in the "lowest-in-postal-history" rate increases implemented earlier this year, and the six-month delay in those rates approved by the Governors.
As we look down the road to future postal developments, it's important for everyone in our industry to keep in mind that good things don't "just happen." They are made to happen through a lot of hard work that needs their interest and their support. Oh yes, a "thank you" once in a while sure wouldn't hurt.