Mailers Try to Block FSS Expansion, While U.S. Postal Service Sees an Opportunity to Expand

Postal officials recently told mailing-industry representatives that declining volumes and some equipment upgrades are creating excess capacity for the FSS. At a meeting of the Mailers Technical Advisory Committee (MTAC), they proposed having the football-field-sized machines process the mail for additional ZIP codes.

Irate mailers and printers responded by threatening to shift more business to alternate delivery — private services that bypass the USPS. And they pointed out that the change would in essence be a rate increase for catalogs, publications, and other flat mail. In other words, a legal challenge is possible.