The new U.S. Postal Service rates and fees that take effect Monday will include new fees based on the shape of letters, large envelopes and packages.
The fees are an incentive to produce envelopes and packages compatible with USPS processing systems. “Shape matters,” the USPS says in a statement on its Web site. “It’s important to us because the cost of handling each mail shape … varies widely. Shape is also important to you because it affects how you position your message or your product.”
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The postal service also is introducing incentives for customers to deposit packages closer to where they will be delivered. And, in a move aimed at reducing costs associated with undeliverable mail, the USPS said it is making it easier and less costly for customers to obtain updated addresses.
The new basic prices are as follows:
• First-class letters will cost 41 cents for the first ounce and 17 cents for each additional ounce. To qualify, envelopes must be 5 to 11.5 inches long, 3.5 to 6.125 inches high and 0.007 to 0.25 inches thick and must weigh no more than 3.5 ounces.
• First-class large envelopes will cost 80 cents for the first ounce and 17 cents for each additional ounce. To qualify, envelopes must be no more than 15 inches by 12 inches by 0.75 inches and weigh no more than 13 ounces.
• First-class packages will cost $1.13 for the first ounce and 17 cents for each additional ounce. To qualify, they must be 11.5 to 15 inches wide, 6.125 to 12 inches high and 0.25 to 0.75 inches thick and weigh no more than 13 ounces.
• Postage for Priority Mail flat-rate boxes will cost $8.95.
• Postage for Priority Mail flat-rate envelopes will cost $4.60.
• The first-class postcard rate will increase to 26 cents for cards 5 to 6 inches long and 3.5 to 4.25 inches wide.
A new “Forever Stamp” goes on sale Monday at a price of 41 cents. The stamp, which the postal service began advertising last month, is intended to “reduce the inconvenience” of “having to acquire new-rate postage or ‘make-up’ stamps,” the USPS said. The Forever Stamp’s value will always equal the single-piece, 1-ounce, first class letter rate current at the time of the stamp’s use.
The price of the breast-cancer research and similar semipostal stamps, which like the Forever Stamp rise in value when postal rates go up, will increase to 55 cents. (The additional money, above the 41-cent value of the stamp, goes to the charity or research depicted on the stamp.)
New rates for periodicals also are planned, but those changes were delayed by the USPS Board of Governors. They will take effect July 15, according to www.usps.com.
The new fee structure “reflects changes in our operations and the marketplace, offers you more choices and creates a more efficient mail system that keeps overall costs as low as possible,” the postal service says.
“The costs of doing business – for things like fuel, transportation, utilities, and health care benefits – have continued to increase,” the USPS notes. “Without an increase to keep up with rising costs, we face significant losses.
“Many people do not know that postal operations are not subsidized by tax dollars,” the service says. For years, it has been a self-supporting quasi-public agency. “We rely on the sale of postal products and services to cover our operating costs.”
Details of the new rates can be found at pe.usps.com/RateCase2007/Notice123_PDF/Notice123.pdf .
Additional information is available at www.usps.com. The site includes a rate calculator that enables customers to calculate postage and fees based on an item’s size, shape, weight and destination ZIP code.
