The new rates are here to stay!
On May 7th, 2015 the PRC finally accepted the last round of changes from the USPS. Between the first filing on February, 26 2015, and the final version published in the Federal Register, a hybrid of the filings has been codified into the new rate schedule.
Here are a couple of highlights:
- The FSS Price has returned (you might remember it was removed in one of the filings) and will change the way FSS pieces are rated. They will receive their own price, rather than one of the previous possible price levels (HDP, HD, CRRT, 5B, 5D, 3B, 3D).
- The new “FSS Other” price reflects the removal of the palletization requirement for FSS destination entry, meaning sacks and trays can be sent to an FSS destination.
- Automation Letters and Flats (Over 3.3 but less than 3.5 ounces) now pay no pound prices, represented by zeros in the “Per pound” section of the postage statement.
- Non-Automation and Non-Machineable mail (Letters and flats) have varying price requirements for the heavy pieces (Between 3.3 and 3.5 oz.). Some are rated as flats, and some pay a piece-pound price as before.
- Mail.dat 15.1 and Mail.xml 17 will start being accepted by PostalOne! When Release 41.0 is implemented the mailing date you enter effects what version of eDocs you can use.
- While this is just a quick overview, I encourage you to look at the final postage statement and prices published on http://pe.usps.com/ to see how the postage changes affect you.
What we are hearing:
In the “Chronicle of Philanthropy”, they claim that periodical flats mailers under non-profit rate schedules will be extremely hard hit by the rate change, sometimes paying up to an 8% increase in postage for a particular publication.
In an email published through NEMOA from Hamilton Davison, president of the American Catalog Mailers Association, there are references to the changes with FSS Prices, and that the true impact is not yet known – but “Needless to say, it is not pleasant”
