Average Mail Delivery Time Across Nation: 2.7 Days

The Postal Regulatory Commission issued its 2020 Annual Compliance Determination assessing the pricing and service performance of the Postal Service in fiscal year 2020 (39 U.S.C. Section 3653). The Commission is required to issue its ACD 90 days after the filing of the Postal Service’s Annual Compliance Report (ACR). Key issues identified in the ACD include: *Ten Market Dominant products did not cover their costs in FY 2020, and two of the five Market Dominant classes (Periodicals and Package Services) were also non-compensatory. *Operational and financial problems with flat-shaped products persisted, as these products had a negative contribution of more than $1 billion, and despite previous Commission directives, the Postal Service does not have a satisfactory plan to correct this. *Due to a number of internal and external factors, 17 of 22 Market Dominant products failed to meet their service standards, the worst service performance results since the Postal Accountability and Enhancement Act of 2006 mandated the establishment of service standards and tracking of performance against those standards. more detail at: https://www.prc.gov/sites/default/files/pr/ACD%202020_FINAL.pdf

The Commission released its Fiscal Year 2024 Budget Justification submitted earlier to the Postal Service Board of Governors in accordance with Title 39, United States Code, Section 205. Last week, the Commission submitted a revised budget request of $22.613 million for FY 2024 to the Postal Service Governors. The Commission submitted this revised request in response to correspondence and discussions with the Governors regarding the initial budget request of $23.399 million. The initial request sought to fund increases to fixed costs, including inflationary adjustments to wages and benefits, lease payments, and the addition of 5 full-time equivalent employees. The revised request only covers increases to the Commission’s fixed costs for FY 2024 and does not fund increased capacity in FY 2024.

Sears Holdings Corp.'s second-quarter earnings beat the Street as it benefitted from cost-saving initiatives. But it continued to struggle with weak traffic and declining sales, and added 28 more locations to its long list of store closings. Sears reported that its second-quarter loss narrowed to $251 million, or $2.34 per share, in the quarter ended July 29, helped by cost savings resulting from the streamlining of operations and store closings. Losses, adjusted for one-time gains and costs, came to $1.16 per share. Analysts had expected a loss of $2.48 per share. Revenue fell 23% to a better-than-expected $4.37 billion in the period. Same-store sales were down 11.5%, worse than the expected 7.1% decline. Click Read More below for more of the story.