A federal appeals court has reversed a key aspect of how the Postal Regulatory Commission (PRC) measures mail volume losses caused by the 2008-09 recession.
In 2013, the PRC said losses from each year in the recession should be considered one-time losses. In a June 5 ruling, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit vacated this aspect of the PRC’s decision.
The Postal Service is “gratified” by the court’s ruling, USPS said in a statement. The ruling will allow the Postal Service to earn an additional $1.4 billion in revenue through an exigent surcharge.
The court also ruled that the PRC can consider on remand whether it properly determined that the Postal Service cannot indefinitely continue the emergency price increase that began in January 2014.
The USPS statement said the continuation of this exigent pricing surcharge is “critical to the Postal Service’s financial health.” The PRC recognized this in a 2014 financial analysis that acknowledged the “significant importance” of the surcharge to USPS revenue, the statement noted.
USPS will explore other issues with the PRC in accordance with the court order, according to the statement.
For more information, read the Postal Service’s statement.