[Federal Register Volume 74, Number 65 (Tuesday, April 7, 2009)]
[Notices]
[Pages 15784-15785]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: E9-7770]
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POSTAL REGULATORY COMMISSION
[Docket No. MC2009-19; Order No. 198]
New Postal Products
AGENCY: Postal Regulatory Commission.
ACTION: Notice.
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SUMMARY: The Commission is noticing a recently-filed Postal Service
request to add postal products to the Mail Classification Schedule.
This notice addresses procedural steps associated with this filing.
DATES: Comments are due April 30, 2009.
ADDRESSES: Submit comments electronically via the Commission's Filing
Online system at http://www.prc.gov.
FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: Stephen L. Sharfman, General Counsel,
202-789-6820 and [email protected].
SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: On March 10, 2009, the Postal Service filed
a request to add several products to the Mail Classification Schedule
(MCS) product lists.\1\ The Request is in response to the Commission's
ruling in Order No. 154 that six products were properly classified as
postal services, but could not be authorized for inclusion in the MCS
product lists until formal requirements of the Commission's regulations
are met.\2\
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\1\ Request of the United States Postal Service to Add Postal
Products to the Mail Classification Schedule in Response to Order
No. 154, March 10, 2009 (Request).
\2\ Docket No. MC2008-1, Review of Nonpostal Services, December
19, 2008, at 27-38 (Order No. 154). The six services discussed in
Order No. 154 were Address Management Services; Customized Postage;
Stamp Fulfillment Services; Greeting Cards, Stationery, and Related
Items; Shipping and Mailing Supplies; and International Money
Transfer Service (IMTS). One of the services, Stamp Fulfillment
Services, has been modified and, in the view of the Postal Service,
is no longer a postal service. Request at 10. Accordingly, the
Request does not include Stamp Fulfillment Services among the
services to be added to the MCS. Commenters may wish to address this
change. Of the remaining five services discussed in Order No. 154,
the market dominant address management services product has retained
the name ``Address Management Services'' and has been included on
the Market Dominant Product List. The competitive address management
services product has been named ``Address Enhancement Service'' and
has been included on the Competitive Product List. Finally, IMTS has
been separated into an inbound product (IMTS-Inbound) and an
outbound product (IMTS-Outbound). As a result, the Postal Service
has proposed the addition to the MCS of seven products in place of
the six discussed by Order No. 154.
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The Request is filed pursuant to 39 U.S.C. 3642 and 39 CFR 3020.30
et. seq. and includes proposed MCS language,\3\ statements of
supporting justification, and attachments containing cost and revenue
data.\4\ Section 3020.30 allows the Postal Service to request the
modification of the product lists to add new postal services to either
the Market Dominant Product List or the Competitive Product List. The
Postal Service must provide detailed support and justification for the
request. 39 CFR 3020.31 and 3020.32. The Commission will review the
Request and the comments of interested parties and may approve the
request, institute further proceedings, permit the Postal Service to
modify the request, or take other appropriate action under section
3020.34.
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\3\ Attachment A to the Request illustrates the proposed changes
to the Mail Classification Schedule.
\4\ Attachment B is the Statement of Supporting Justification
for Address Management Services; Attachment C is the Statement of
Supporting Justification for Address Enhancement Service; Attachment
D is the Statement of Supporting Justification for Customized
Postage; Attachment E is the Statement of Supporting Justification
for Greeting Cards, Stationery, and Related Items; Attachment F is
the Statement of Supporting Justification for Shipping and Mailing
Supplies; Attachment G is the Statement of Supporting Justification
for Inbound and Outbound International Money Transfer Services; and
Attachment H is the Statement of Supporting Justification for
Inbound and Outbound International Money Transfer Service. Cost and
revenue data are included for Shipping and Mailing Supplies in
Attachment F and for Address Enhancement Service in Attachment C.
These attachments, as well as sensitive commercial information
contained in the supporting statements, have been filed under seal
subject to claims of confidentiality.
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The products requested to be added to the Market Dominant Product
List are Address Management Services and Customized Postage. The Postal
Service proposes to add these products as Special Services. Request at
2. The products requested to be added to the Competitive Product List
are Address Enhancement Service; Greeting Cards,
[[Page 15785]]
Stationery, and Related Items; Shipping and Mailing Supplies;
International Money Transfer Service-Outbound (IMTS-Outbound); and
International Money Transfer Service-Inbound (IMTS-Inbound). Id.
The Postal Service explains that no Governors' decision was
required in this case since this request is simply for the placement on
the MCS product lists of already-existing products, at already-existing
prices. Id.
In accordance with section 3020.31(d), the Postal Service states
that none of these products constitutes a special classification within
the meaning of 39 U.S.C. 3622(c)(10) for market dominant products, or
constitutes a nonpostal product. None of these products constitutes a
product not of general applicability within the meaning of 39 U.S.C.
3632(b)(3), with the exception of IMTS-Inbound. The terms governing
IMTS-Inbound are documented in 10 agreements with foreign postal
administrations. Id.
The Postal Service states that the 10 negotiated agreements under
consideration as the IMTS-Inbound product are functionally equivalent
and may be considered price categories within that product. The Postal
Service therefore requests the Commission to treat them as functionally
equivalent and to classify them collectively as IMTS-Inbound agreements
within the MCS. Id. at 9-10.\5\
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\5\ The Postal Service has filed by separate notice in this
docket material identified as USPS-MC2009-19/1, Public Supporting
Materials Relating to International Products. With redactions, the
material includes public portions of eight bilateral agreements for
International Money Order service. Five of the bilateral agreements
that make up the IMTS-Inbound product also have been filed under
seal as they include information of a commercial nature relating to
commissions and fees. See USPS-MC2009-19/NP1, Nonpublic Supporting
Materials Relating to Competitive and International Products. Id. at
4.
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The proposed MCS language in Attachment A of the Request is
identical to the MCS language that has previously been filed by the
Postal Service with respect to these services,\6\ with the four
following exceptions. Language for International Money Transfer Service
has been revised. The price range for Greeting Cards, Stationery, and
Related Items has been revised to take into account an existing
stationery set whose price falls outside of the price range as
originally proposed. The Customized Postage product has been changed to
read ``customer-selected images'' to recognize that customers can order
customized postage using library images provided by the vendor or a
third party. As the last exception, the name of the competitive address
management services has been changed to ``Address Enhancement Service''
to distinguish it from its market dominant counterpart. Id. at 3.
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\6\ See Docket No. CP2009-8, Notice of the United States Postal
Service of Changes in Rates of General Applicability for Competitive
Products Established in Governors' Decision No. 08-19, Attachment B
at 102-04, November 13, 2008 (referring to IMTS); Docket No. MC2008-
1, United States Postal Service Notice of Filing of Proposed Mail
Classification Schedule Language for Four Products It Requests
Should Be Added to the Product Lists as Postal Services, October 17,
2008 (referring to Address Management Services; Customized Postage;
Shipping and Mailing Supplies; and Greeting Cards, Stationery and
Related Items).
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The MCS language in Attachment A modifies the language previously
filed with the Commission in Docket No. CP2009-8 and creates separate
IMTS services to distinguish the inbound exchanges from the outbound
exchanges. Id. at 7. New language is added to reflect the expectation
of the Universal Postal Union (UPU) that member countries will, as of
January 1, 2010, designate operators, which may or may not be posts, to
fulfill on their behalf the obligations of the UPU's Postal Payment
Services Agreement. New language is also proposed for the IMTS-Inbound
product and price category. Id.
Pursuant to section 3020.33, the Commission provides interested
persons an opportunity to express views and offer comments on whether
the planned modifications are consistent with the policies of 39 U.S.C.
3633 and 3642 and to indicate whether a hearing is desired. Comments
are due no later than April 30, 2009.
Pursuant to 39 U.S.C. 505, Robert Sidman is appointed to serve as
officer of the Commission (Public Representative) to represent the
interests of the general public in the above-captioned docket.
It is Ordered:
1. Docket No. MC2009-19 is established to consider the Postal
Service Request referred to in the body of this order.
2. Comments are due no later than April 30, 2009.
3. The Commission appoints Robert Sidman as Public Representative
to represent the interests of the general public in this proceeding.
4. The Secretary shall arrange for publication of this Order in the
Federal Register.
By the Commission.
Steven W. Williams,
Secretary.
[FR Doc. E9-7770 Filed 4-6-09; 8:45 am]
BILLING CODE 7710-FW-P