Postal News

2010 Postal Pricing Announced

Zero increase for market dominant products.
The US Postal Service announced that there will be no price increase in 2010 for market dominant products including First-Class Mail^®, Standard Mail^®, periodicals and single-piece Parcel Post^®.  Postal officials also confirmed that there will be no exigent price increase for these products.

For mailers, this news offers advance notice—providing time for organizations to plan their 2010 budgets and future mail investments with greater confidence.

According to postal officials, “this is the right decision at the right time for the right reason.  Promoting the value of mail and encouraging its continued use is essential for jobs, the economy, and the future of both the Postal Service and the mailing industry.”

New prices for shipping services take effect January.
On USPS competitive products, including Express Mail^®, Priority Mail^®, Parcel Return Service, new prices have been announced.  These rates take effect January 4, 2010.

Not all prices have increased. The retail price for Priority Mail Flat Rate Envelopes, for example, will be reduced from $4.95 to $4.90. Complete prices are available at pe.usps.com

The USPS also continues to offer commercial volume incentives and has added three new products to its Commercial Plus category:

• Commercial Plus Cubic Volume-Based Pricing
• Priority Mail Half-Pound Price
• Priority Mail Padded Envelopes (9.5” x 12.5”)

Postal expert Elizabeth Lombard provides more details on Commercial Base Pricing, including ways you can use Pitney Bowes solutions to save time and money.

In comparing prices, shippers should ask whether carriers charge ancillary fees, such as fuel surcharges. Some shippers add extra fees for fuel, rural delivery, Saturday delivery and other items to a customer’s final bill. The Postal Service has no comparable surcharges.

USPS announces 2010 shipping prices

New prices take effect January 4, 2010 for USPS Shipping Services, including Express Mail^®, Priority Mail^®, Parcel Return Service and others.

Prices will increase by 3.3% on average.  Complete prices are available at pe.usps.com.

As previously noted, there will be no price increase for market-dominant products including First-Class Mail^®, Standard Mail^® and Parcel Post in 2010.

New Wallet-Style Booklets

The USPS has announced new standards that accommodate designs for “wallet-style” booklets mailed at automation and machinable letter prices. Mailers who design these smaller booklets may mail them with two tabs.

This new format was developed by the USPS in collaboration with mailers to find a booklet design that met the needs of customers and also could be processed on postal operations equipment.  The DMM Manual has been updated to reflect these new Wallet-Style specs.

First-Class Mail® Incentive Approved

Through the latest USPS incentive program, companies can earn a 20% postage rebate on presorted letter, flat and card volumes that exceed a predetermined threshold.  This incentive runs October 1 through December 31 2009. 

To be eligible, a company must have mailed 500,000 or more non-parcel First-Class Mail presort pieces between October 1 and December 31 in both 2007 and 2008.  The rebate will be calculated s 20% of the average price per piece multiplied by the number of pieces mailed above the threshold.

Other restrictions and parameters apply.  To learn more, or to register for this program, visit www.usps.com/firstclassmailincentive.  The deadline for registration is November 1, 2009. 

New ‘Move Update’ Penalties

A new approach to Move Update compliance and assessments is slated to take effect January 4, 2010.

Under the current rules, all commercial (discounted) First-ClassTM and Standard Mail® mailings must  be processed through an approved Move Update method at least 95 days prior to a mail date in order to take advantage of presort discounts.

Today, samplings of mailings are verified by the MERLIN™ system, which verifies compliance to the Move Update regulation.  Mailers can receive reports generated by MERLIN that will enable them to improve their Move Update processes and overall address quality.  In January, those reports will be used to assess mailers that do not meet the required threshold.  The MERLIN system will compare names and addresses in the mailing to known change-of-addresses (COA) and will calculate the compliance score as a tolerance percentage.  A mailing with a score below 70% and a minimum of 5 missed COA updates will fail the verification. Failure will result in a seven-cent per piece penalty applied to the portion of the mailing that reflects the failure amount over 30%. For example, a 100,000 piece mailing with a failure rate of 40% will have a $.07 cent per-piece penalty applied for 10% of the pieces in the mailing. The 10% is the difference between the not-updated percentage (40%) and the tolerance (30%). For this mailing of 100,000 pieces, 10,000 of the pieces would be charged $0.07 per piece, adding $700 to the mailing cost.

Designing Machinable Mail
The most recent USPS MailPro publication states that all First-Class Mail® and Standard Mail® machinable letters must meet the same physical characteristic requirements as automation letters, except that they do not need a qualifying barcode. Mail that does not comply will be assessed at higher postage prices. Pitney Bowes postal expert Elizabeth Lombard provides the details, plus ways you can save. Learn more >>

Lower Prices for High Density Flats
The USPS filed a notice with the Postal Regulatory Commission to reduce prices for high density Standard Mail flats. This change is effective July 19 and decreases the per-piece prices by 0.1¢ for both commercial and nonprofit mailings. The USPS is also changing the high-density pound prices to match the saturation pound prices. These changes do not affect drop-ship incentives.

New Booklet Standards
If you mail letter—size booklets, you should be aware that new standards take effect in September. Pitney Bowes postal expert Elizabeth Lombard provides the details. Learn More >>

Pay less postage — here's how
Pitney Bowes postal expert Elizabeth Lombard details the USPS® prices changes that took effect May 11 and provides strategies you can apply to save money now. Learn More >>