To foster growth, they seek discounts for high-volume customers. The bill would permit USPS to negotiate contracts with mailers, allowing large mailers to obtain rate reductions not available to other mailers or to the general public, even though USPS officials have yet to prove that volume discounts to big mailers result in cost savings, critics charge. Direct mailers support giving the Postal Service the ability to respond to so-called competitive pressures. As high-volume mailers, they say they do not receive favorable treatment. Runyon views other media as competitors.
Growth is the key to continued improvement in service quality and price control.
Now if they wanted to fight fair, they would open up the mailboxes and let all of us use them. McHugh's bill includes an 18-month mailbox demonstration project to determine the feasibility of that idea. He wants to sound as if he is more fiscally prudent. That is not the solution. He says the Morning News remains competitive with direct mailers because the rates it pays to mail TMC products are competitive with direct mailers.