37392

37392

Refer to Docket OST-96-1629 for Complete List of Pleadings and Orders

Transatlantic, Transpacific and Latin American Service Mail Rates Investigation

Order 98-11-18 OST-96-1629 37392	Issued November 18, 1998 Served November 23, 1998	Order to Show Cause Establishing Final Service Mail Rates
		Appendix A-1: International Service Mail Rates
		Appendix A-2: Transborder Rate Area
		Appendix B-1: Cost Adjustment Factors - Atlantic Rate Area
		Appendix B-2: Pacific Rate Area
		Appendix B-3: Latin America Rate Area
		Appendix B-4: Transborder Rate Area
		Appendix C-1: Summary of Carrier Operating Costs Assigned to Mail - Atlantic Rate Area
		Appendix C-2: Pacific Rate Area
		Appendix C-3: Latin America Rate Area
		Appendix C-4: Transborder Rate Area

By: Charles Hunnicutt

Transatlantic, Transpacific, and Latin American Service Mail Rates Investigation

Order 00-11-5 OST-96-1629 Docket 37392 Order 80-1-26	Issued November 7, 2000 Served November 9, 2000	Order To Show Cause Establishing International Service Rates	Transatlantic, Transpacific and Latin American Service Mail Rates Investigation
		Attachments: Operating Costs, Cost Comparison, Adjustment Factors

Order 2000-11-5 proposes to establish new International mail rates for the period from January 1, 2001, through December 31, 2001. The rates that are currently in effect were established by Orders 99-10-23 and 99-12-16, for the year ending December 31, 2000. Those rates will remain in effect as final rates through December 31, 2000, or until a final order is issued with respect to the rates proposed here, whichever is later

By: Francisco Sanchez

Transatlantic, Transpacific and Latin American Service Mail Rates Investigation

OST-96-1629 Docket 37392	December 17, 2001	Notice of Entry of Appearance	Transatlantic, Transpacific and Latin American Service Mail Rates Investigation
		Service List

By: USPS, William Jones, 202.268.3002

OST-96-1629 Docket 37392	December 17, 2001	Answer of The United States Postal Service Microsoft Word File	Transatlantic, Transpacific and Latin American Service Mail Rates Investigation
		Service List

The Postal Service is concerned with the significant rate increases over the last year. It appears that the increases are to a large extent due to a significant rise in unit fuel costs from the prior year. An increase in fuel costs was expected based on the economic conditions. However, the double-digit increases noted in many of the carriers' linehaul and terminal costs are acknowledged with little explanation. For example, the increases in Delta's unit terminal costs are simply attributed to a change in their accounting system, without further inquiry about the changes. Rate changes of this magnitude are unusual and may warrant further investigation and explanation.

By: USPS, William Jones, 202.268.3002

OST-96-1629 Docket 37392	December 18, 2001	Answer of The United States Postal Service (Errata)	Transatlantic, Transpacific and Latin American Service Mail Rates Investigation
		Service List

By: USPS, William Jones, 202.268.3002

Transatlantic, Transpacific and Latin American Service Mail Rates Investigation

OST-96-1629 Docket 37392	December 21, 2001	Motion for Leave to File an Otherwise Unauthorized Document and Reply of Northwest Airlines	Transatlantic, Transpacific and Latin American Service Mail Rates Investigation
		Service List

The U.S. Postal Service has failed to set forth any specific objections or any findings, conclusions, and rates that should be substituted for the corresponding items in the Show Cause Order. See 14 C.F.R. 302.704(b). The Answer acknowledges that the new mail rates are in large extent due to a rise in unit fuel costs, but baldly asserts that these rate changes are "unusual" and warrant further investigation and explanation. This is exactly the sort of "[v]ague and unsupported Answer,' unaccompanied by any proposed adjustments or any backup data, that the Department repeatedly has warned will not be accepted in the mail rate docket. See, e.g.. Order 2001-11-8, at 4.

In addition, the U.S. Postal Service has used its Answer as a vehicle to argue for changes in how the Department publishes container rates and in the criteria for carrier inclusion in the cost pool. To the extent that either of these proposals has merit. this is not the proper forum for their consideration, and the promulgation of the mail rates set forth in the Show Cause Order should not be delayed beyond January. 1, 2002 on account of these proposals. Ideally, the Department should initiate a new international mail rate investigation to evaluate the proposals. But at a bare minimum, the Answer does not provide a specific report on the progress of the consensus-based negotiations initiated by the Department in Order 2001-1-2. Nor does the Answer explain why such negotiations have been so inadequate that the Department now should unilaterally freeze mail rates in order to consider the U.S. Postal Service's various mail rate methodology proposals in the interim. As the Department previously acknowledged in Order 2001-1-2 (Jan. 5, 2001), "the Postal Service's desire to resolve nebulous but perhaps larger issues is not immediately possible. ... Unless we finalize the rates tentatively determined by Order [2001-11-8], the-carriers would forego significant mail revenues."

Counsel: Northwest, Megan Rae Rosia, 202.842.3193, megan.rosia@nwa.com