The United States Postal Service (USPS) is invaluable for several reasons.

For one, it is the core of America’s $1.6 trillion mailing industry. Their mailing services brought in $77 billion in 2021, the most out of any other in the mailing industry.

The USPS also provides the cheapest postage rates for letters in the industrialized world. Their other prices are also quite competitive.

But, they can’t do that without changing postage prices to meet inflation and increasing operation expenses. This is why they petition the Postal Regulatory Commission (PRC) when they need to change costs.

Here is what the United States Postal Service asked to happen in July 2022.

In April of 2022, the USPS filed a notice with the PRC about the postage price changes they wish to make. These changes took effect July 10, 2022, and include increasing the First-Class Mail Forever stamp from $0.58 to $0.60. They also want to adjust prices for Special Services products.

These Special Services products include Certified Mail, rental fees for Post Office Boxes, fees for Money Orders, and the price to buy mailing insurance when shipping something.

Here are the postage price changes the United States Postal Service took into effect on July 10, 2022:

Overall, these changes will cause the cost of First Class Mail to increase by 6.5%. This is lower than the annual inflation rate of 7.9% (calculated at the end of February by the Bureau of Labor Statistics).

For additional information on the latest USPS mailing and shipping rates, you can also visit the website of our software and hardware solutions partner, Quadient.

In November of 2021, the USPS also asked to increase the prices of their products and services.

They wanted to raise prices for Shipping Service products by around 3.1% for both Priority Mail and for Priority Mail Express services. The actual adjustments would change from product to product.

The PRC approved it to go into effect on January 9, 2022.

So, while it is a large postage price change, it’s all to help save America from a $160 billion dollar loss. It is also to ensure that we can mail and receive letter packages easily and on-time.

Believe it or not, the United States Postal Service doesn’t get any of our tax dollars to help with operating expenses. They mainly rely on the sale of postage, products, and services. Without that, they wouldn’t be able to keep helping Americans send and receive mail or packages.

They also want to avoid a $160 billion operating loss that is projected to occur over the next 10 years. To prevent this, the USPS developed a plan they call Delivering For America.

Delivering For America is a 10 year plan that will bring the USPS out of financial and operating crisis-mode for good. They want to use $40 billion to keep this $160 billion loss from happening.

The main goal of the USPS is to continue providing high-class mailing services to Americans as they have since 1775.

Americans sent around 7.7 billion packages through USPS in 2021.

In 2020, Priority Mail and Priority Mail Express made up 16.7% of the total revenue for America’s 2020 fiscal year. That’s $12.2 billion of the $73.2 billion total.

These changes in prices are more than just trying to keep the United States Postal Service afloat. It’s a way to make the USPS self-sustaining and high performing. Their Delivering For America plan will enable them to deliver 95% of all mail and packages on-time.

They are also working to implement new products and services. These will deliver more and higher value to businesses who deliver mail and packages through USPS.

When the USPS did a similar postage price change in 2021, they also did something else.

They asked to begin USPS Connect in 2022. It would be a suite of affordable package delivery solutions for business. The PRC looked favorably upon it and USPS Connect started in February 2022.

Building on this, the USPS also wants to get approval to start testing for a USPS Connect Local Mail product. This service would help businesses send documents in their local community the same day or the next day.

In addition to these two, the USPS also wants to establish a permanent Plus One product. This product will provide businesses with additional marketing options when it comes to reaching local customers through the mail.

Lineage offers four postage accounting softwares you can use to finally get your mailing expenses under control.

Many businesses struggle with additional mailing and shipping costs from incorrect addresses, expensive carrier rates, and more. They also find it difficult to gather postage user data. You can rely on Lineage’s postage accounting software to turn this around!

Fill out our contact form today to get more detailed information for your business.