I can be described as a mail geek because I get excited about dissecting postal rate changes to see how it is going to affect my customers. This time was no exception. There is nothing better than sipping a glass of eggnog, listening to holiday music and looking at spreadsheets on postal classes. The good news for everyone is this is about as mild a postal storm as we could hope to expect. In fact there are even some ways that customers can reduce costs!
In this article, I will attempt to make this rate change simple, highlight the differences and let you know how this is going to impact your bottom line. There are so many rate classes, weights and zones that it is impossible to show everything. The goal is to focus on the most common to give you the information you need in a simple format that you can use.
First-Class Mail® Retail (Single Piece)
The good news is that the core offering of letters and flats had a very low increase. Retail (Single piece) Letter and Flat rates only went up $.01-.02 (1-2%) per piece. Post Cards on the other hand, went up $.03 at a 10% increase. Also, Parcels increased up to 14%! My guess is that the USPS realizes that it is the least expensive game in town with light weight packages, which is a growth area with on-line commerce.
In this article, I will attempt to make this rate change simple, highlight the differences and let you know how this is going to impact your bottom line. There are so many rate classes, weights and zones that it is impossible to show everything. The goal is to focus on the most common to give you the information you need in a simple format that you can use.
First-Class Mail® Retail (Single Piece)
The good news is that the core offering of letters and flats had a very low increase. Retail (Single piece) Letter and Flat rates only went up $.01-.02 (1-2%) per piece. Post Cards on the other hand, went up $.03 at a 10% increase. Also, Parcels increased up to 14%! My guess is that the USPS realizes that it is the least expensive game in town with light weight packages, which is a growth area with on-line commerce.
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