3002.12—Office of Rates, Analysis, and Planning.
(a)
The Office of Rates, Analysis, and Planning is responsible for technical (as opposed to legal) analysis and the formulation of policy recommendations for the Commission.
(b)
This office provides the analytic support to the Commission for reviewing the record of rate and classification requests, post office closings and other issues which come before the Commission. The functional areas of expertise within this office are:
(1)
The economic analysis of the market for postal services including the alternative sources for such services and the users of the service;
(2)
The analysis of the operational characteristics of the postal system and its interface with various segments of the economy; and,
(3)
The analysis of the costs of operating the Postal Service and how such costs are influenced by the operational characteristics.
(c)
These functional activities are combined in the evaluation of the revenue requirements of the Postal Service under possible alternative operating circumstances for the purpose of developing rate structures. They are also used to evaluate the impact of various proposed changes to the Domestic Mail Classification Schedule and the consequences of these changes upon the mailers and upon the revenue requirements and rate structure of the Postal Service.
(d)
The office also collects, analyzes and periodically summarizes financial and various other statistical information for use in its ongoing activities and for the development of future methods, techniques and systems of analysis and reporting.