USPS Postage Rate Increase Proposed for 2013

Price hikes to take effect in January, pending regulatory review.

By Olga Munoz · October 15, 2012 · 2 Comments
TAGGED IN: selling, shipping, tools

Mailing packages could cost you a little more at the end of January if the U.S. Postal Service has its way.

The agency proposed a postage rate increase to the Postal Regulatory Commission on Thursday. Under the proposed hikes, Priority Mail would increase an average of 6.3 percent, Priority Mail Commercial Base would go up an average of 3.7 percent, Commercial Plus—a service for big-volume shippers—would increase an average of 3.8 percent, First Class Mail stamps would go up 1 cent and mailing a post card would cost 33 cents.

The changes would also introduce a new “global” forever stamp that will allow people to ship letters and packages of less than 1 ounce to anywhere in the world for $1.10.

USPS adds that several new services will be available in January, and that tracking will be free for several shipping options, including Priority Mail and Parcel Post.

The Postal Regulatory Commission must review and approve the proposed postage rate increases for them to take effect on Jan. 27, as USPS would like them to.

According to The Washington Post, USPS has increased postage rates five times since 2006.

Olga Munoz is editor of TheOnlineSeller.com. In addition to writing news and feature articles about e-commerce, selling trends, online marketing and other topics of interest to online sellers, Olga manages the site's social media efforts. A journalism graduate of Chico State, Olga says her favorite part of being a journalist is learning interesting facts that help put stories into perspective, attending industry events and meeting interesting people "that leave you smiling, even in tough situations." Opinions expressed here may not be shared by The Online Seller and/or its principals.

AwarenessForex

For these prices, the USPS defiantly needs to improve their tracking systems. If they are still planing on charging 55-65 cents for delivery confirmation, then they should have more thorough scanning systems.
- bb3
  
  I don’t think it is so much the tracking system that is the issue. I believe it has more to do with getting their employees to properly scan the packages. I will say this though, they are definitely improving. About a year ago I had been to 3 different post offices in the area and everyone of the employees I dealt with had a different idea/view on how tracking works. I have run into a lot of employees that just don’t care about scanning the packages. It seems to be too much work for them. Get everyone on board and it should all work better.