Postal Service Proposes New Postage Rates for 2011
Current Postage Rates Link
(Repeated from usps here)
WASHINGTON — A new Forever Stamp image will be available as part of a pricing package that would add less than 13 cents a month to the average American household’s budget.
The U.S. Postal Service Governors recommended increasing the price of a First-Class stamp 2 cents to 46 cents and authorized the production of a pane of four evergreen tree branches as the newest image for Forever Stamps. The price of a postcard would increase 2 cents to 30 cents.
The Postal Regulatory Commission must approve the recommended price changes. The increases would not go into effect until January 2, 2011. It would be the first stamp price increase in almost two years.
Holiday Evergreen Forever Stamps will be available to the public in October at the current rate of 44 cents. Once purchased, the stamps are valid literally forever – despite any future price changes. No additional postage will ever be needed.
Faced with plummeting mail volume traced to the recession and increased use of the Internet, the Postal Service is projecting a deficit of nearly $7 billion for the next fiscal year. Despite eliminating millions of work hours and reducing expenses by more than $1 billion every year since 2001, a budget gap remains.
The proposed price changes, if approved, will raise about $2.3 billion for the first nine months of 2011. Postmaster General John E. Potter said he does not want customers to bear the burden of dramatic price increases. Instead, Potter announced in March that pricing would be one in a series of solutions the Postal Service is pursuing to become financially sound.
“There is no one single solution to the dire financial situation that the Postal Service faces,” Potter said. “These proposed rate adjustments are moderate and part of a fair and balanced approach to insuring mail service for all Americans well into the future.”
Other actions outlined in March included changes to delivery frequency, restructuring prepayments of retiree health benefits, creating a more flexible workforce and expanding access to products and services to places more convenient to customers.
The Postal Service receives no tax dollars for operating expenses, and relies on the sale of postage, products and services to fund its operations.
Complete details of today’s filing can be found on
usps.com . No prices will change before 2011
Well the much-awaited September 8, 2009 direct mail changes are finally here. This set of changes has been very convoluted and harder to follow than many changes in the past. We made every effort to stay ahead of the curve but the final rulings happened in the final days. The document explains this unique process further.
Here is the full document
THE FINAL RULE:
Basically, when it all comes down to it; there are changes in the
requirements on booklets.
Don't yawn yet; this is bigger
than you might think.
1st) The maximum size is now 6"x10.5" long (smaller now)
2nd) The minimum thickness is .009 (not changed)
3rd) The maximum thickness is .25 inch (not changed)
4th) Cannot use perforated tabs ( changed )
5th) Now requires 3 1-1/2" tabs (changed - damn)
on heavier booklets they 'recommend' 1-inch paper tabs.
The upcharge for not meeting these standards can be considerable. Mailpieces would be upcharded to nonmachinable rates. The most common would be for Standard mail which would go up at least .20 cents per piece (almost double).
It is this kind of details that makes our services and expertise more valuable. Avoid spending more than you need by working with USPS certified reps like all of us at CSG Direct, Inc
We are here to keep your postage low and guide your mail to its destination quickly and inexpensively. You don't get that kind of guidance from a quick-printer.
Of course with our new US Mail Tracking systems, you can also track every single piece.
Mathematically speaking, National Change of Address (NCOA) is one of the most valuable services any Direct Mail Services company can offer you. With over 17% of the population moving per year many of today's businesses are using mailing lists that are from 17-34% useless to begin with.
Most people send direct mail using Presorted Standard postage in order to save large sums of money in postage. The backside of this is that any pieces mailed to someone that has moved are thrown away by the US Postal Service. This is because "Presorted Standard" (old 3rd class) doesn't include address forwarding the same way 1st-Class does.
So, if you don't get back the return-mail pieces with yellow stickers like you do with 1st-Class Postage, your mailing list begins to expire over time. But 1st-Class costs 50% more to send.
So if your boss says they want a better response from their direct mail, tell them NCOA can help you find where all your people have moved. That is what NCOA is afterall. It is the national Postal registry of every change of address database of every form submitted by moving people. Your database is compared to this database and your movers are identified, flagged and updated.
On average, even a "clean" mailing list has 3-10% moves. That is 3-10% of your print costs, your mailing costs and your postage costs being thrown away. At CSG Direct we let you know where your people have moved BEFORE your mailing goes out.
We are a USPS NCOA Link Limited Service Licensee and have been doing NCOA for about 5 years now.
We got into NCOA because it helped our clients achieve greater marketing results. The US Postal Service has seen great results and is making the service mandatory within 95 days of mailing. They spend too much time and money trying to find people for your .44 cents so they are making cleaner lists a requirement.
From me to you, behind the scenes a technology revolution is happening at the US Postal Service. Make sure you are working with a vendor that knows what's going on. There is lots to be gained when working with a Direct Mail Company ~vs~ a printer "that does mail too".
If you haven’t already heard, the US Postal service will be implementing new postal rates and standards for folded self-mailers and letter sized booklets – also known as “slim-jims”.
These new standards were scheduled to go into effect with the postal rate increase on May 11, but then delayed after review until Sept. 8th of this year. These new standards pose a “double-whammy” on the industry, as new size templates will need to be implemented for designs and creative for mail-pieces. The new standards will also incur much deeper penalties for mailers who are not compliant.
Instead of getting non-automation rates for non-automation compliant pieces, mailers will likely be getting hit with non-machineable rates for virtually all mailpieces that do not comply with automation standards.
The only exception to this, as I am told, will be non-barcoded mailpieces that otherwise would be automation compliant in regards to size, tabs, folds, paper stock, etc.
The new maximum size for letter sized booklets and folded self- mailers is 6” x 10.5” x .25” thick. The post office will also be enforcing new tab and paper weight standards. Please review the information to avoid problems.
It’s important to stay ahead of the changes that the US Postal Service is continually making. This is why working with mail professionals helps to ensure that your direct marketing projects are prepared and presented without costly or problematic delays.
Your projects deserve the attention that only a true direct mail marketer can provide. Putting addresses on mail pieces as a side business, as many print shops do to enhance revenue, does not qualify them as professional direct marketers.
Give us call to discuss your next mail project – In these times of extreme budget monitoring and cuts…it is crucial that you get the absolute best value for your company’s marketing dollar. We invite you to compare us to your current mail shop, you will find that we are "The Greatest Value in Direct Mail”.
The US Postal Service is having it's first 'Sale' that I have seen in my lifetime of 20 postal years. They are going to give you 30% off of your postage rates for every dollar you spent 'above your average'.
The details are best to come directly from the US Postal Service so here is the quote from the Post Office customer Relations:
"The Postal Service will offer qualifying Standard Mail customers a
30 percent discount on eligible mailings this summer. This will provide
those mailers with an incentive to prospect for new customers and
reconnect with existing customers.
We think Direct Mail has tremendous value in growing your business.
With Direct Mail accounting for 22 percent of the $250 billion spent
nationwide on advertising each year, it’s big business. Direct mail is
targeted and measurable to an extent other advertising media can’t
match.
The summer sale is currently under review by the Postal Regulatory
Commission. We plan to begin the discounted pricing July 1. The sale
will run until September 30.
Obviously, this is a new initiative for us and we’re anxious to see
how well it will work. Are any of you going to take advantage of the
summer sale?"
– Steve Kearney, senior vice president, Customer Relations
The catch is, to be eligable you must mail over 1 million pieces of mail from October 1st 2007 through March 31st 2008. From those dates a 'threshold' is being established to compare your current summer mailings to.
You will pay your full postage rates through this season and then after October 31st the US Postal Service will determine your rebate and put that back on your permit by December 31st.
So there is a Sale, but only a handful of our direct mail customers will even apply for it as the discount is 30% of the postage spent above your average amount. Of course you still have to mail at least a million pieces in the 4 months as well.
I estimate that this will affect the 'publishers clearinghouses' and 'Capital Ones' of the world the most. I just wouldn't be doing my duty if I didn't tell you about it. If you would like us to help you calculate, monitor and apply for your savings with you we will.
All things being what they are, I am normally one of the first people to bash large bureaucratic entities such as the US Postal Service. The monopoly that they hold over the industry, the civil service mentality and attitude as well as the constant increases in the cost of doing business leave them as a wide-open target.
In thinking about the new Postage Rates, however, I also feel compelled to compliment the postal service for the latest developments that they have introduced. It has been quite an undertaking! Don’t get me wrong, there is a lot of room for improvement and a many areas that they can improve on. Today let’s look at some of the positives, because they deserve to be recognized.
One of the most amazing new developments with the US Postal Service is the implementation of the intelligent mail barcode systems. It is mind-boggling to think of the amount of data retrieval, data collection and data distribution that this system is capable of. This helps the post office to track delivery times and pinpoint problematic areas within their system.
It has also been a great tool for mail service providers such as CSG Direct to build systems around for individual US Mail tracking. This is a dream come true for Direct Marketing professionals to be able to track their mailings online. It allows them to gauge delivery times, track individual pieces and better plan their projects.
Another item that I believe bears consideration is the expense of fuel that has spiked and dropped several times in recent memory. As a transportation and delivery entity, the postal service is sharply affected by fuel costs. I know in my household fuel prices have strained the budget considerably. These costs cannot be absorbed for long periods of time – especially at the volumes that the USPS consumes.
I believe that the postal service is working diligently to improve service and delivery times. With some of the new requirements for NCOA standards, enhanced barcoding and ongoing customer relationship building. I am seeing great strides of improvement in a large entity that is slow to change.
If we can only get them to work in a more customer friendly atmosphere in regard to the incessant changes and rules for mailpiece design and construction. They change the rules – industry adjusts – then they change the rules because they do not like the industry adjustments. The recent flat changes are a good example of this.
In May of 2007, the flat rate increase was harsh, so the industry started changing to smaller booklets and slimjims that were subject to the letter rate category. Now the post office is implementing new rules on these types of mailers that will cost the preparers more money to process and slow down the production. This should have been taken into consideration in 2007 when the USPS raised the flat rates to get mailers to change their formats and remove some of the burden from the flat sorters.
OOPS… I am going off on a rant – not the intention here.
Let’s take a moment to appreciate some of the positive changes that the post office and the mailing industry are encountering. The new technologies are very cool, and very useful. If you are not taking advantage of these new technologies, then you are missing the boat! If you would like to learn more about US Mail Tracking, give one of the Direct Mail Specialists at CSG Direct a call. We are here to help!
What do you get when you take the heaviest piece of mail possible and force it to either jump through hoops or pay huge postage increases? You get the single largest opportunity for the US Postal Service to increase its income quickly.
As someone who has processed flats and catalogs, I can't say I blame them due to the backbreaking nature of these heavy cumbersome pieces. But we like to help you save postage at each turn. So I am here to guide you through this new information.
USPS Poster 182, January 2009 Specifically Reads:
New Address Standards for Commercial Flat-Size Mail
Effective March 29th 2009
Since you can download the document I won't copy it verbatim. But I do want to talk about what I see and how it relates to all of you.
The first and most obvious aspect of this entire change of mail processing category is the conversation about the "top" of the mailpiece and specifically if it is on the right or on the left of the publication. Let me repeat that because it sounds so odd (so postal). The TOP is on the RIGHT or LEFT. *chuckling to myself*
Anyway, once you get oriented about RIGHT, LEFT, TOP and "bound edge" this gets easier to understand.
Look at this example:
Notice the Magazine is upside down to us and the address is vertical and parallel to the bound edge. To us this makes the most sense because if you rotated this 90 degrees to the right it would be envelope shaped and the address would be in the correct area. Unfortunately, this is with an address block on the front cover. However, "front cover" is not required but the orientation is. This is not the same place all of you are addressing right now so this was the most important change to look at. Be aware of the address block to the bound edge.
Here is another example:
This is where it goes from obvious to bizarre. First, you now see the "top half" is the bottom half of the magazine. You also see that the address is no longer in the top half and the address block is also inverted. Interestingly enough this is considered with a "loose enclosure" which means it can slide around, however they want it in a specific location. I have to imagine this was built very specifically to a certain project or projects because it doesn't make much sense at first glance.
Here is another example:
This format seems like it makes sense to the Post Office but I imagine they just don't realize that this is one of the biggest money spots on a magazine. A back cover ad is real estate that we do not want to give up. It is very common to address on the lower half of the back cover, but rarely ever on the top.
I see this example as the most common money maker for the post office as they struggle to make you give up the largest money makers for you. You're just going to have to move your customers' ads to the bottom half and make them happy about it somehow. It is the same square footage ad space but it does feel submissive to the addressing itself. Remember, this heavy magazine mails at first-class rates without it. $1 or more each.
Perhaps it is time to start addressing on the cover to save this valuable ad space.
Put it where you would put the newsstand UPC for non-mailed versions.
Last Example:
I think the most important part to observe on the large envelopes is that in either example the return address is on the left. The "top half" appears to be whichever side the mail-to address is on. These two formats have the smallest change and the option at the right is already the standard in all the large envelopes we mail.
In summary, the biggest concern from our perspective is magazines. There are so many of them out there that are mailed in the first week of each month. I imagine that April 1st is going to be April Fools Day to so many of the Post Office's largest customers. But this time you won't be laughing.
Our proprietary US Mail Tracking systems have successfully tracked over 15 million pieces of direct mail advertising through the US mailstream online, in real time. That's 15 million pieces followed across the country individually, like you do packages. Using our new proprietary system, coupled with the USPS's new Intelligent Mail Barcodes, a business can finally track the progress of its mail campaign using its own customer ID or account number.
Some of the system's more popular features are the interactive reports as each piece crosses the country. This has been the dream in direct mail for decades and it's finally a reality! Bulk mail can now be tracked just like more expensive alternatives such as UPS and FedEx.
This new system was originally built as an addon to our proprietary online project tracking system. We continue to redefine the mailing services industry! Now that our newest system has proven itself operational I feel we truly have proven ourselves to be "the greatest value in direct mail".
Additional tools and applications are being built around this new system to make this new technology accessible for every direct mail customer in America. This new product's uses seem endless. The technology allows database-marketing companies another level of strategy to reduce postage, find lost mail and help customers that may experience problems with the nation's mail stream. CSG Direct has already starting using these tools to track mail responses and customer interaction as well.
We just completed the update on our postage rates short sheet that we share with our clients and prospects alike. It's a quick glance sheet of the most common rates achieved with all of our mailing services clients. You can find the new postage rates on our homepage.
During my last 20 years in direct mail I have studied the interesting dynamics of the varying rate adjustments made by the US Postal Service each year. You can tell a lot about the troubles or changes needed at the Post Office by finding the nuances in the rate adjustments.
For years the US Postal Service had been spreading the rates out to create benefits for automation processing. It was a huge trend for about a decade. I am noticing that this is no longer the big push over the last few rate cases.
Looking at the First-Class Mail postage rates this year I see that the First-Class stamp went up 5% to 44 cents. The First-Class non-automation rate went up as well - from .394 to .414, which is also a 5% increase. Compared to the automation rates for First-Class Mail which only went up 3% it would look like the same automation rate spread was continuing.
In standard postage rates (formerly 3rd class), on the other hand, we see a different trend. Standard non-automation rates practically stayed the same while the automation postage rates went up 4-5%.
This area of the postage rates system is the US Postal Service's bread and butter. Standard postage is the most common rate paid on every piece of direct mail sent. We have spent years creating innovative ways to help clients elminate First-Class postage costs by moving them to standard postage rates with creative add-ons like NCOA and Track Direct Mail services.
To me, this says a lot about the US Postal Service trying to make money at the risk of scaring off automation investment. The biggest value of a mailing services provider is that they can get you automation rates. Many of us have invested millions of dollars in equipment to do so. The Post Office continues to put more of the burden of equipment and requirements on the direct mailers. They appear to be seeking ways to prosper under the huge burdens in labor and government intervention they contend with.
In nonprofit postage rates we see this same trend continue. In this case though, non-automation postage rates go down while automation goes up. That is complete irony to me. I can see though that they may be trying to keep the business of the local churches and nonprofit groups that handle their own mailings.
Recent new requirements by the US Postal Service has made it tougher on the little nonprofits and small realtor groups. It is completely backwards in my opinion to punish those that follow the program and provide automated mail and then reduce the rates for those that don't get with the program. Nonprofit postage rates went up 4-6% in the automation category as opposed to down 1-3% for non-automation. This sure has reversed the trend I have watched over the last few decades.
The biggest increases of all (18%) was in the surcharges the US Postal Service charges for non-machineable pieces. Keep this in mind and make sure you are working with a mailing services company like ourselves that is US Postal Service trained and certified.
We should talk about this more - feel free to comment.
A First-Class stamp will be 44 cents starting May 11, 2009. The US Postal Service has officially announced the postage rate increases for the 2009-2010 mailing season. First-Class Mail is going up 3.77% compared to 3.78% for standard mail (old 3rd-class). The Post Office has recently switched from doing large postage increases every 4 years to a smaller increase each year to keep up with costs and industry fluctuations.
For those mailers not using Intelligent Mail options, the price differential for First-Class Mail will be 0.3 cents. This means that those of us that have been using intelligent mail barcodes, as CSG Direct has, will be able to get lower postage rates for direct mail. This may be the first squeeze of many to get mail shops in or out of the game, so to speak.
It is public knowledge now that CSG Direct has been using intelligent mail barcodes and that we invented America's first public US Mail Tracking system. It is not the only thing needed to create the systems but it is a testament to how prepared we are for these new changes.
We will be publishing a shortlist of the new rates this week. For reference here are the 2008-2009 postage rates, current until May.
Added 02-20-09 here are the 2009-2010 postage rates.