Time to say ‘When’

     It may be time to break into piggy banks and lay in a supply of Forever Stamps.      The U.S. Postal Service has recommended a 2-cent postal increase to take effect in January 2011.
     Since 2006, postal customers have become old hands at the annual bump. In fact, recent increases have come in May, so a January 2011 hike is about half a year late compared to the past few years.
     In fact, annual increases are now codified in federal legislation under the Postal Accountability and Enhancement Act of 2006.
     Where this year’s Postal Service request steps beyond the usual bounds is in requesting “exigent” rate increases, beyond the inflation-capped levels permitted by the federal law.
     The Consumer Price Index for all urban consumers increased only 1.1 percent over the year ending in June.
     That’s bad news for the cash-strapped postal service, but an increase averaging around 5.6 percent and as high as 10 percent for some newspaper mail, is bad news for business as a whole.
     The Postal Service is caught in the crosshairs of two current phenomenon: the worst recession since the Great Depression and the change in the marketplace as a result of technological transformation.
     It cited those reasons as justification in requesting a hike beyond inflation increases.
     Unfortunately, its customers face exactly the same pressures. And while the Postal Service is asking for more money to do its job, its commercial customers are faced with a marketplace that says “no more.”
     Instead of raising their prices, those businesses are tightening their belts, cutting salaries or hours or both, and hunkering down to wait out the difficult times.
     A national alliance of mailers is asking the Postal Regulatory Commission to take a hard look at the postage request. It demands the commission consider the “excess capacity” and “premium labor rates it believes have driven the Postal Service costs beyond inflation.
     Without question, boosting postage rates will have a significant effect on the already hard-hit community newspaper industry. And this industry won’t be alone in feeling the hurt of higher prices.
     While price increases are never welcome, this is a particularly bad time for any business — including the Postal Service — to consider onerous price increases.
     Such ill-advised moves might prompt commercial customers, who make up 85 percent of the Postal Service bottom line, to consider other options.
     This economic climate is a good time for the Postal Service to be leery of price increases, or risk becoming the instrument of its own demise.