It’s hard to call the Postal Service’s decision to keep many package shipping rates unchanged “good news” in July, since it’s only in recent years that sellers have had to deal with two rate hikes a year. The USPS had already raised the cost of shipping a package via USPS Priority Mail and Ground Advantage by over 5% (in some cases, by a lot more) in January.
On July 14, 2024, the price of a stamp will rise by 5 cents, from 68 cents to 73 cents – an increase of 7.4%, and Media Mail rates will increase by an average of nearly 10%. Those are “dominant” services.
Friday’s announcement covering “competitive” services did include some bad news along with the good news that there would be no price increases for USPS Ground Advantage, Priority Mail, or Priority Mail Express: As Reuters reported, the USPS is seeking an average 25% price hike for high-volume shippers to enter packages for regional delivery through its Parcel Select service.
Reuters also reported the news that bipartisan senators urged the Postal Service to suspend further consolidation of its processing and delivery network, warning it could slow mail deliveries, and the wire service wrote: “USPS has been aggressively hiking stamp prices and is in the middle of a 10-year restructuring plan designed to cut $160 billion in forecasted red ink.”
In Friday’s press release, the USPS said, “As a strategic part of the Delivering for America 10-year plan, these proposed changes will support the Postal Service in creating a revitalized organization capable of achieving our public service mission – providing a nationwide, integrated network for the delivery of mail and packages at least six days a week – in a cost-effective and financially sustainable manner over the long term, just as the U.S. Congress has intended.”
Now if they can stop losing packages, it’d be great
Why don’t they raise the junk mail rate? Nobody like getting that stuff, mine goes directly into the recycling bin.
I think USPS is raising the stamp price so they can afford to buy more of those yellow stickers they put on returned mail (even though it’s properly addressed). Just peel it off and post it again.