Mailers, Postage Rate Increases and You

The United States Postal Service raised their base postage rates on May 11th of this year. For the average person, this means using your 1 cent stamps, unless you had the foresight to purchase the Forever Stamp, which is good, well, forever.

For companies that do extensive mailing with the USPS, the added cost can quickly add up.

In addition to the increased rates, several other changes were made. The most noticeable is the raised minimum to achieve the bulk mailing status which I will explain shortly.

There are many ways to send a parcel, and there are different rates for these various types.

First-class mail is more expensive than standard mail which is more expensive than periodicals (magazines, which is more expensive than packing services.

Packing services is a classification used by the USPS for commercial and retail needs. Many believe this to be the future of the post office since while domestic mail has been declining (thanks to the invention of the telephone, the Internet and email) business use has been increasing (to the detriment of the conventional retail store.)

The USPS has steadily been losing market share to UPS, FedEx and until recently, DHL, since these companies have been very proactive in providing shipping solutions for businesses.

The biggest change in the postage rate increase has to do with the minimum weight needed to achieve special pricing under the bulk mailing category. The new minimum weight is 200 pounds per shipment. This means that companies will have to change the way they send their mail in order to optimize their mailing.

One way to reduce costs is to consider a postal consolidator. These are 3rd party providers that know the ins and outs of postal delivery and allow small companies to take advantage of bulk shipping prices.

Here are some other tips on how companies can save on mailing:

Size of the envelope: The USPS offers lower costs for processing smaller envelopes and using standard #10 envelopes instead of flat 9x12 envelopes can save a few pennies. Folding and inserting machines may also be able to save your business money by streamlining the mailing process and guaranteeing the consistency of your parcels.

Presort: The USPS also offers significant discounts for mail that is presorted before it enters the post office. The USPS offers these discounts because presorting mail saves the USPS time and money. Presorting can be done in-house through the use of sorting software, or companies can partner with a postal consolidator to presort their mail for them.

The USPS has a decision tree to help customers decide how best to send mail to save them some cash.