On May 7, 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 prices 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 on May 17. The mailing date you enter effects what version of eDocs you can use, so you should only use older versions for mail being entered before May 31.

While this is just a quick overview, we encourage you to look at the final postage statement and prices published on Postal Explorer or to view this quick reference guide published by the USPS. If you can't quite make sense of how the postage changes affect you or have a question about your specific scenario, your software vendor should be able to help.

BCC Software customers are invited to call our team of USPS Certified Mailpiece Design Professionals at 800.624.5234 or drop them an email using the form on our site. Our customers can expect software that complies with the final rate case as an update prior to the May 31 deadline.