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MailPro
News for Mailing Professionals

New Postage statements can be found at usps.com/prices

Periodicals

Nearly all Periodicals will experience a modest price increase near the rate of inflation. There is one minor classification change: Beginning May 12, qualifying issues of Periodicals publications having a limited mailed circulation will receive a 5 percent discount off the total Outside-County postage (excluding postage for advertising pounds, Ride-Along pieces and Repositionable Notes (RPNs). The new standards apply to all publications other than those authorized as Classroom, Nonprofit, and Science of Agriculture. Issues will qualify if eligible copies are mailed at In-County rates and the total number of Outside-County copies mailed for that issue is fewer than 5,000. The discount is not available for commingled nonsubscriber or nonrequester copies in excess of the 10 percent allowance in DMM 707.7.

Standard Mail

The price changes for letters and flats reflect our decision to moderate the increases for catalogs and other flats. In addition, we have reduced the pound price for flats. In some instances, more highly presorted catalogs weighing more than 3.3 ounces will see modest price reductions. This reduction also encourages catalog mailers to add content to their catalogs.

Standard Mail parcels and Not Flat-Machinables (NFMs) experience larger price increases. This reflects the higher costs of processing parcels as compared to letters and flats. The new prices move toward providing parcels with better cost coverage and encourage efficient dropship behavior by increasing the incentive to take parcels to the destination delivery unit.

With the delivery point sequencing of letters, and with the expected implementation of the Flats Sequencing System (FSS), the relationships among the prices for flats will remain important. There are modest increases for walk-sequence saturation and high density Standard Mail.

Within Standard Mail, eligible nonprofit organizations continue to pay prices that by law must be 40 percent lower on average than the prices for regular Standard Mail. 

Package Services

Overall, there are modest price changes to Inter-BMC/ASF Parcel Post. We have reduced the nonmachinable surcharges for both Intra- and Inter-BMC/ASF parcels.

Bound Printed Matter (BPM) has two shape categories — flats and parcels. The percentage increase for BPM is lower for flats than parcels to encourage more flat-shaped catalogs.

Library Mail and Media Mail have prices reflecting the requirements of the law. We have increased the prices by 4.5 percent.

Extra Services and Other Fees

Extra services includes Post Office Boxes and caller service fees, Certified Mail, Return Receipts, Delivery Confirmation and Signature Confirmation services, Registered Mail and insurance. It also included ancillary services such as address correction notification fees. A complete list of prices and fees can be found starting on page 43.

Certified Mail prices increase by 5 cents, and the Electronic Return Receipt price increases 15 cents. There are no changes to any of the Delivery Confirmation service fees, and we continue to offer a no-fee electronic option included in the price for certain Priority Mail and Parcel Select destination entry items. To encourage better address hygiene, the first two notices for One Code ACS for First-Class Mail letters remain no-fee. One Code ACS “additional notices” for First-Class Mail letters and the first two notices for Standard Mail letters increase by 1 cent. There are no changes to the prices of any of the manual and electronic address correction notification fees. For Confirm, the new prices retain the existing unlimited scan option, though the platinum tier receives a larger increase to reflect the changing subscriber base. 

There are minimal increases to Post Office Box and Caller Service fees, and all Post Office Boxes and Caller Services maintain their current fee group. New fees apply only to new rentals and renewals. Current Post Office Box holders, and customers paying Caller Service fees, are not required to pay the new fees until their current rental period expires and it is time to renew. Post Office Box and Callers Service fees may be paid for up to two semi-annual periods at a time, for example up to one year in advance.

Annual mailing and permit fees increase to $180 and all annual account maintenance fees will be $565. The quarterly fee for high-volume qualified Business Reply Mail letters increases to $1,855. Remember, new fees apply only to first-time payments and renewals. Customers with current fees paid will pay the new fees at renewal. Annual fees may be renewed only for the next 12 months and only during the last 60 days of the current service period.

International extra services fees maintain their correlation to the fees for those services that are similar to domestic extra services.