Merchant Rate Card Management

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Date Issued

Wednesday, July 2, 2025

Submitting OIG

U.S. Postal Service OIG

Agencies Reviewed/Investigated

U.S. Postal Service

Report Number

25-003-R25

Report Description

The U.S. Postal Service’s Delivering for America 10-year plan includes initiatives to support small and medium businesses and grow parcel revenue. The Merchant Rate Card program supports this initiative, offering discounted rates to businesses (merchants) through agreements between the Postal Service and third-party platforms used by the merchant. The Postal Service had agreements that accounted for over a billion in revenue through the Merchant Rate Card program in fiscal year 2024.

Report Type

Audit

Agency Wide

Yes

Number of Recommendations

Questioned Costs

Funds for Better Use

Report updated under NDAA 5274

Open Recommendations

This report has 7 open recommendations.

Recommendation Number	Significant Recommendation	Recommended Questioned Costs	Recommended Funds for Better Use
1	Yes	$0	$0
Update their methodology to evaluate merchant data compliance to include analyzing the volume of packages without unique data for each platform.
2	Yes	$0	$0
Reiterate existing compliance policies to supervisors to drive consistent and effective implementation by staff.
3	Yes	$0	$0
Some or all of the recommendation is not publicly available due to concerns with information protected under the Freedom of Information Act.
4	Yes	$0	$0
Identify and address Merchant Rate Card platforms' technical compliance issues to improve rate accuracy.
5	Yes	$0	$0
Require quarterly business reviews to include data analytics to validate the platforms charge accurate postage and fees and resolve platform issues.
6	Yes	$0	$0
Coordinate with platforms to collect previously undetected short-payments resulting from postage discrepancies identifiable based on package information transmitted to the Postal Service.
7	Yes	$0	$0
Coordinate with platforms to refund previously undetected over-payments resulting from postage discrepancies identifiable based on package information transmitted to the Postal Service.