posted on June 22, 2001 01:21:18 PM newThere are a number of subtle postal increases about to take effect on July 1st. Of special concern to most of us, I imagine, is the proposed increase for Priority Mail.
As I understand it, the 1-lb and 2-lb Priority rates will not change. However, anything over 2 lbs is going to cost more. The "Summary of Changes" below comes from the USPS website
The single-piece first-ounce letter rate will remain the same at 34 cents. The additional ounce will increase from 21 cents to 23 cents. The first ounce at the presorted rate, automation rate, and automation carrier route rate will increase by 0.2 cent each. The nonstandard surcharge remains the same 11 cents for single-piece rates and 5 cents for automation and presorted rates. All card rates will increase by 1 cent each. The fee for stamped cards will remain at 2 cents in addition to the postage.
Business Reply Mail
Only the underlying postage rates will change. Accounting fees and per-piece charges are not affected. For basic and high-volume business reply mail the card rate will increase to 21cents. For qualified business reply mail (QBRM) the card rate will increase from 17 to 18 cents. The additional ounce for all BRM will increase from 21 to 23 cents.
Priority Mail
The newly implemented Priority Mail rate for one pound or less will remain at $3.50. The two-pound and flat rate envelope for Priority Mail will remain at $3.95. Rates over two pounds will increase by varying amounts.
Express Mail
Express Mail rates will increase 1.5 percent across-the-board. The range of increases is 15 cents to $1.80 per piece. The Express Mail Post Office to Addressee service half-pound rate will increase by 20 cents to $12.45 and the two-pound flat rate will increase 25 cents to $16.25
Customers who use Post Office to Post Office or Custom Designed Services will see small increases to those two service options as well.
Periodicals
Overall, Periodical mail rates will increase by an average of 2.6 percent. The 5 percent differential for nonprofit and classroom rates will remain the same. There will be no change to application, additional entry and reentry fees. The experimental ride-along rate will remain at 10 cents.
Outside-County Periodicals
Zoned advertising pound rate increases will range from 0.5 cent to 1.5 cents per pound depending on how far the publication travels. The non-advertising pound portion of the Periodicals rate will increase by 0.6 cent from 17.3 to 17.9 cents. Piece rates will increase by 0.2 cent for carrier route saturation levels to 0.8 cent for non-automation basic rate addressed pieces. The discount for the non-advertising percentage applied to pieces will increase from .00065 to .00067 cent.
In-County Periodicals
Pound rates will increase by 0.2 cent. Rates for addressed pieces will increase by 0.1 cent with the exception of the basic and 3-digit automation rates which will remain the same.
Standard Mail
All non-carrier route rates will increase by 0.3 cent. Enhanced Carrier Route (ECR) pieces will increase by 0.2 cent. Nonprofit rates will have the same increases of 0.2 cent for ECR piece rates and 0.3 cent for all other nonprofit piece rates. There will be no changes to the pound rates or to drop ship discounts.
Package Services
Parcel Post retail rates will increase by between 0 and 88 cents depending on zone and weight. Parcel Select will increase by between 0 and 66 cents depending on destination and weight. (Note: some Parcel Post Intra-BMC and Parcel Select rates will be reduced by 5 cents).
Bound Printed Matter rates will increase by between 5 to 41 cents depending on zone and sort. Media Mail first pound rates will increase by 3 cents across the board. Library Mail single-piece and 5-digit rates will increase by 2 cents. BMC sorted Library Mail will increase by 3 cents.
Special Services
The fee for Certified Mail will increase from $1.90 to $2.10. Domestic Money Orders will increase from 75 to 90 cents. All other Special Services are not affected by this modification.
International Mail
The only change to International Mail is to the Recorded Delivery fee, which will increase to $2.10.
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You'll notice that the "Summary of Changes" is vague about the actual increase for Priority Mail over 2 lbs, but the actual rate case document provides further particulars. You can link to this document at the URL I provided above:
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Despite the additional rate increases for Priority Mail in general, we have decided not to modify either the one-pound, or the two-pound, unzoned Priority Mail rates. The one-pound rate ($3.50) and the two-pound rate ($3.95) recommended by the Commission represent 9.4 percent and 23.4 percent increases over the two-pound rate ($3.20) established in Docket No. R97-1. We believe that, particularly for Priority Mail pieces paying the two-pound rate, consideration of the impact of rate changes on mail users, subsection 3622(b)(4), requires us to mitigate any further increases in these rates. This is consistent with the concerns expressed by the Postal Service, Tr. 7/2828, and its customers, Tr. 25/11538, 11564, over possible detrimental impacts on Priority Mail volume of even the smaller increases (to $3.45 and $3.85, respectively) in these rates, as proposed by the Postal Service in its Request.
Consistent with Commission precedent and the rate design underlying the Commission’s Recommended Decision, First Recommended Decision, Vol. 1, at 325, our modified Priority Mail rates reflect an even rate increment between each of the two- to five-pound, unzoned, rates. However, due to our concerns expressed above about the sufficiency of the Commission’s overall recommendation to provide adequate revenue, we have increased this increment from $1.20 (as recommended by the Commission) to $1.25, which is the level initially proposed by the Postal Service. USPS-T-34 at 17.
Lastly, we have also increased the over-five-pound Priority Mail rates from the levels recommended by the Commission. In its Recommended Decision, the Commission "imposed an absolute rate increase constraint of 25 percent on all Priority Mail rates," while stating that, in order "to produce a more cost-based schedule," it did not impose a corresponding minimum rate change on Priority Mail rates. First Recommended Decision, Vol. 1, at 326. While subsection 3622(b)(3) requires that Postal Service rates reflect the costs of providing postal services, we do not believe that the Commission’s rate design necessarily accomplishes that goal for heavy-weight (over five pound) Priority Mail pieces.
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posted on June 22, 2001 02:31:27 PM new
If you're using priority mail for high weight items, stop it now!
Fedex and UPS are cheaper, plus at no extra cost you get insurance and tracking number.
A six pound item I shipped this week using fedex cost $5.94, Priority Mail would have been $8.24. The difference, of course, will widen with the new July 1st increase.
posted on June 22, 2001 03:16:29 PM new
I'm been takin' a selling break, but will begin agin' soon (yeah, I know, why didn't I pick a WORSE time to restart- he..he..he.he.he.he) ANYWAY, looks like the Priority increases, on top of the last round, are really gonna hurt potential business.
I know I can take packages to the UPS customer drop off, but how does FedEx work?. The only places I know of in my area are Mailboxes etc. & another packin' store, both of which, I'm sure tack on a service charge, so how do you avoid that?...When you say the FedEx prices are cheaper, I'm assuming that you mean the new FedEx "home to home" ? delivery service??????
posted on June 22, 2001 03:23:33 PM new
Here is the URL where the USPS shows the new first class rates...including priority mail rates, which vary not only by weight but also by postal zone:
posted on June 22, 2001 03:33:56 PM new
the above link is for the CURRENT rates.....they are the same for all zones up to 5#.........the new rates will vary once you cross the 2# mark..........i bet they won't release that chart until they can figure it out which may be never
posted on June 22, 2001 03:34:50 PM new
ship first class instead of priority for heavy items,the difference sometimes can just be one day! unless you want to use the usps priority box.
paying for a large size box could be costly
posted on June 22, 2001 03:36:32 PM new
I personally avoid those postal services like Mail Box etc and the others. The service charge wipes out your savings.
I'm talking about Fedex ground which is 5 day delivery. They tack on about a dollar for home delivery but the savings are still good over priority. Even on light weight packages, if you always use insurance and tracking number, fedex will be of value to you.
My Office Depot takes UPS packages at no extra service fee, so check one out near you.
posted on June 22, 2001 03:47:32 PM new
Thanx, quickdraw...I never use the packing stores, but they are the only game in town that accepts the FedEx Ground pkgs(thanx, I forgot THAT name too!)...Do you have your FedEx's picked up?..Do you take them to a drop point?
posted on June 22, 2001 03:53:51 PM new
I live in a fairly big city and we only have one fedex center, and they just moved three miles further away. I have to time the visit to get several errands done in the same area to save on time and gas. Fedex just started expanding into the ground delivery so I hope for more centers in the future.
posted on June 22, 2001 05:25:34 PM new
FedEx was good for rates 5 lbs. and up, but the new increase, they may be competitive even with 3 lbs. packages.
You pay extra for "home delivery", but that means that Ground will deliver later in the evenings, up to 8p and even on Saturdays. But no deliveries on Sunday/Monday.
posted on June 22, 2001 07:10:54 PM new
I can walk to my rural Post Office, with a couple of plastic shopping bags full of lightweight packages, in 5 mins. The Postmistress looks at the clock automatically, and is surprised if it's before 4.05 p.m.
The daily dispatch time is 4.00, and she is "at the bag" at 4.07 , holding it open for my stuff, mostly First Class and Priority. I nearly died when she was on sick leave this past 2 months, and I had to be on time!
I've spotted a Fed-ex van occasionally, making deliveries. When I checked the yellow pages, we do not have an active branch in our county within 30 miles.
We have a UPS facility whose hours and terms and locations and conditions (TOS ),as an option , (plus the cost of travel: gas, at $1.85 per gallon, 18 miles round-trip) ...make it a posterial pain!
It occurs to me that much of the original online-auction "community' was embraced by many in similar rural /semi-rural locations; freeing its denizens from total reliance on service or government jobs, welfare, dope-raising, or one's spouse, for all finacial support.
Of course, with inevitable advancement and sophistication, as usual, those in more urban areas utilized available alternative facilities, hence "Power Sellers-R-Us" et al.
My point being...I guess..that whenever the P.O. pulls this opposite to "Marketing 101 " ,'101' being more sales (usage), cheaper merchandise (rates), it hits the Small-Town-Self-Employed-business person exceptionally hard.
Why does a profit-making enterprise charge more when business is booming?
Because it's paid attention to where the boom gets its bang.
Maybe a long shot, but it doesn't take much to research how many on-line, at-home, sellers use Priority Mail as a convenience, (with "free" supplies as the carrot) to ship items that classify as first class letter post or parcel, for $2.00+ less!!
So, in answer to rustybore's rhetorical "whatcha gonna do?", I'd ask those who choose convenience however cost-effective and albeit justifiably, to help make a small but noticeable dent in the Priority Mail vogue.
posted on June 22, 2001 07:18:16 PM new
Fedex isn't an option for me. Their nearest drop-off is 60 miles from here and a pick-up would cost me $10.50 (plus the cost of the shipping). Since only about one in ten of my items is over 5 lbs, I'm basically stuck with USPS and UPS.
One thing about UPS that I didn't realize until a couple of months ago, but probably a lot of people know is that it's substantially less expensive to ship to a commercial address. So, when I have the occasional heavy item to ship, I let my customers know that if they can have it shipped to their job/place of business, they can save money.
