[Federal Register Volume 74, Number 138 (Tuesday, July 21, 2009)]
[Proposed Rules]
[Pages 35837-35838]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: E9-17285]


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POSTAL REGULATORY COMMISSION

39 CFR Part 3050

[Docket No. RM2009-7; Order No. 245]


Periodic Reporting Rules

AGENCY: Postal Regulatory Commission.

ACTION: Proposed rule; availability of rulemaking petition.

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SUMMARY: Under a new law, the Postal Service must file an annual 
compliance report with the Postal Regulatory Commission on costs, 
revenues, rates and quality of service associated with its products. 
This document notes that the Postal Service has filed a petition for 
consideration of a proposed change in analytical methods approved for 
use in periodic reporting. The focus of this petition (involving an 
issue referred to as Proposal Two) is on the Postal Service's 
development of revenue, piece and weight estimates for bulk mail 
categories. The Commission has established a docket for consideration 
of Proposal Two and has addressed preliminary procedural matters, 
including an opportunity for public comment. Proposal One is under 
consideration in a pending docket.

DATES: Deadline for initial comments: July 29, 2009.

ADDRESSES: File comments electronically via the Commission's Filing 
Online system.

FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: Stephen L. Sharfman, General Counsel, 
202-789-6829 or [email protected].

SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION:
    Regulatory History, 74 FR 31386 (July 1, 2009).
    On July 7, 2009, the Postal Service filed a petition to initiate an 
informal rulemaking proceeding to consider a change in the analytical 
methods approved for use in periodic reporting.\1\ The Petition 
explains that the Postal Service's current practice is to combine data 
from two sources to fashion Revenue, Pieces, and Weight (RPW) estimates 
for the various categories of bulk mail. It combines census data 
recorded by its PostalOne! system (which reflects automated office 
activity) with data found on postage statements that are taken from a 
probability sample of non-automated offices. It notes that the sample 
data taken from non-automated offices are becoming less reliable as the 
pool of non-automated offices shrinks and the sample frames for that 
pool become increasingly dated. It also notes that the sampling process 
is more expensive than the modeling process that it proposes.
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    \1\ Petition of the United States Postal Service Requesting 
Initiation of a Proceeding to Consider Proposed Change in Analytic 
Principles (Proposal Two), July 7, 2009 (Petition).
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    The Postal Service proposes to discontinue sampling non-automated 
offices when preparing its RPW estimates. In place of the current non-
automated office sample, it proposes to take the universe of offices, 
and stratify it according to size. It will then impute the incidence of 
mail characteristics for a given product found in automated offices in 
a particular size stratum, as reflected in PostalOne! data, to the 
characteristics of products found in non-automated offices in the same 
size stratum. The Postal Service calls this its ``modeling'' approach. 
Petition at 1-2.
    The Petition, which is available on the Commission's Web site, 
http://www.prc.gov, includes appendices purporting to show the results 
of testing the accuracy of its modeling approach in estimating revenue, 
pieces, and weight with respect to all market dominant bulk mail 
categories. The Postal Service concludes that the results are accurate 
for all categories except for Within County Periodicals. Even with 
respect to Within County Periodicals, it asserts that the modeled 
results are more accurate than the current approach which employs data 
gathered from a sample of non-automated offices. Id. at 2 and 
Attachment at 2.
    The attachment and the appendices to the Postal Service's Petition 
explain its proposal in more detail, including its background, 
objective, rationale, and estimated impact.
    It is ordered:
    1. Petition of the United States Postal Service Requesting 
Initiation of a Proceeding to Consider Proposed Change in Analytic 
Principles (Proposal Two), filed July 7, 2009, is granted.
    2. The Commission establishes Docket No. RM2009-7 to consider the 
matters raised by the Postal Service's Petition.

[[Page 35838]]

    3. Interested persons may submit initial comments on or before July 
29, 2009.
    4. The Commission will determine the need for reply comments after 
review of the initial comments.
    5. Diane Monaco is designated to serve as the Public Representative 
representing the interests of the general public in this proceeding.
    6. The Secretary shall arrange for publication of this notice in 
the Federal Register.

    Authority:  39 U.S.C. 3652.

    Issued: July 10, 2009.

    By the Commission.
Judith M. Grady,
Acting Secretary.
[FR Doc. E9-17285 Filed 7-20-09; 8:45 am]
BILLING CODE 7710-FW-P