PUBLISHERS ESCROW POSTAGE TRUST (PEPT)

Payment to the Post Office, UPS, FedEx and others who deliver Publisher’s products shipped from P.S.S.C to bookstores, businesses or individuals is drawn from a trust fund (Publishers Escrow Postage Trust) consisting of cash advances from each participating Publisher.
Each Publisher maintains a cash balance in the Trust. P.S.S.C. recommends that this balance should be sufficient to cover expected postage and freight expenses for two months order fulfillment. Since the Trust reports postage expenditure at the end of each month, funds must be available to continue shipping activity during the second month while the Publisher is rebuilding its balance. The more rapidly a Publisher responds to a postage usage report, the smaller the workable net advance deposit needs to be.

The trust is administered for the benefit of the Publishers by P.S.S.C. officers who are Trustees of P.E.P.T. Pertinent excerpts from the Declaration of Trust:

The Trustees shall make payments from a Publisher’s advances to pay all shipping expenses including, but not limited to, postage, messenger, courier, freight, and other delivery costs, incurred to effect delivery of all books in accordance with the Publisher’s orders. No less than monthly and more frequently if necessary, the Trustees will report to each Publisher a summary of its advance account, showing receipts and disbursements during the period covered by the report, and the balance of said account as of the end of such period. Upon receipt of such report, the Publisher will promptly forward to the Trust, funds in an amount that will restore the Publisher’s advances to the amount most recently agreed upon by the Publisher and the Trustees. The Trustees acknowledge that the Publishers intend that a contribution to the Trust shall not loose its status as the property of the Publisher making the contribution, and all rights of such Publisher with respect to tracing, reimbursement and accounting are reserved. The Trustees shall keep a separate ledger account showing all receipts and disbursements with respect to each Publisher, but the Trustees are not required to keep each Publisher’s funds segregated from other Publisher’s funds and may commingle all Publisher’s funds. Under no circumstances, however, may the Trustees pay expenses incurred on behalf of a Publisher, unless there are adequate funds available from such Publisher’s advances to cover such expenses.