The Alliance of Nonprofit Mailers (ANM) has filed a request that the Postal Regulatory Commission (PRC) direct the U.S. Postal Service (USPS) to report delivery service performance for Nonprofit Marketing Mail separately from commercial mail. And, when it comes to Nonprofit Marketing Mail, it was requested that regular mail be reported separately from political and election ballot mail.
According to Stephen Kearney, executive director of the ANM, the request adds that Nonprofit Periodicals’ service performance be reported separately from commercial Periodicals and that that nonprofit use of First-Class Mail for both outbound and return mail, including both stamps and Business Reply Mail be reported as a distinct category from other uses of first class mail.
The PRC issued an Advance Notice of Proposed Rulemaking to revise the Periodic Reporting of Service Performance. The regulator invited input into the process, which is largely driven by the new requirements in the Postal Service Reform Act of 2022 that directs the USPS to develop and maintain a publicly-available online “dashboard” that provides weekly service performance data for Market Dominant products, according to Kearney. It also mandates that the PRC provide reporting requirements for the USPS dashboard, as well as “recommendations for any modifications to the Postal Service’s measurement systems necessary to measure and publish the performance information” located on the dashboard.
“We believe that more granular service data will prove helpful to the nonprofit sector in gauging the value and effectiveness of mail, and in planning future mail programs,” Kearney wrote to ANM members. “Our requests are consistent with and part of our ongoing effort to enable the postal agencies to recognize and embrace nonprofit mail as an important and distinct customer segment and to increase the value of mail to our industry.”
