New stamp prices go into effect Monday

U.S. Postal Service customers will soon need more than just a 39-cent stamp to send a first-class letter. Effective Monday, the Postal Service is hiking stamp prices by 2 cents to 41 cents.

Postal service officials said this increase -- part of a new pricing system that include other price changes -- is to cover increasing operational costs, including rising fuel and employee healthcare costs.

The last time consumers saw stamp prices increase was in January 2006. To fund an escrow account required by a 2003 federal law, the stamp went from 37 cents to 39 cents.

Other postage prices also will increase on Monday, including those for certificates of mailing, delivery confirmation and other extra services and fees.

Not all postage prices are going up, however. Mailing a 2-ounce, first-class mail letter, for example, will cost 58 cents. That's 5 cents less than the previous rate of 63 cents.

The U.S. Postal Service will also move from a weight-based system to one that considers size and shape more. With differing rates for letters, large envelopes and packages, officials said this will be more in line with industry standards.

For example, UPS and FedEx use these standards, said David Partenheimer, a postal service spokesman.

"For us, it's a brand new way of pricing and something that, we think, is to encourage more efficient mailing," he said.

Partenheimer said mailers can save money if they find ways to configure the mail into shapes that reduce handling costs for carriers.

For instance, if mailers fold contents they would normally put into a first-class mail large envelope to fit into a letter-sized envelope, they can save as much as 39 cents per piece. First-class large envelopes will cost 80 cents.

Customers can also buy a new kind of stamp to save themselves from future stamp increases: Forever Stamps.

They can buy them at the new 41-cent first-class mail letter price and it is good forever on first-class, one-ounce letters, even if prices go up again.

Customers sending international mail will experience some changes as well. USPS has consolidated its eight main international products into four: Global Express Guaranteed, Express Mail International, Priority Mail International and First-Class Mail International.

With new packaging, mailers will also be able to use the same Priority Mail and Express Mail packaging for domestic and international shipping. But Skip Seda, president of A-1 Postage Meters & Shipping Systems in Columbus, said these changes may hurt some customers.

He said he thinks the 2-cent increase may not upset a lot of people -- it's the size-based system that might.

Seda said many of their clients are businesses that regularly mail items that exceed a quarter-inch -- the maximum thickness allowed for letters.

And for individual customers, Seda said this might cause confusion.

"How are they going to know if that piece of mail is less than a quarter-inch thick?" Seda said. "How are they going to know that at home?"

Locally, businesses that send out loads of mail each day will feel the pinch, he said.

TSYS, one of the largest U.S. Postal Service customers in the southeast, sends more than one million items through the mail daily from Columbus.

"Through our extensive pre-sort capabilities we are able to achieve cost-saving discounts for our clients on postage," said Rick St. John, TSYS Group Executive for Output Services. "However, even with these discounts there will be some impact to TSYS clients from the rate hike."

Seda said he hopes customers do not blame his company and other postage businesses for the price increases.

"I think they see us the most," Seda said. "In most cases, we're the messenger. I hope it's not a kill-the-messenger mentality."

Partenheimer said a rate case was filed about a year ago and the Postal Services' Board of Governors approved the hike in March with an effective date of May 14.

Seda said it has only been about two weeks since they found out and since then have been working diligently to adjust to these new rates. It means all of their more than 1,500 customers who have purchased one of their mailing machines will need to install a different chip to reflect new prices.

As for price decreases, Seda said "it is a great, great deal."

"But they only gave us 12 days to get that into our machines," he said. "Business activity has increased, but sales have decreased in the last month. And the reason is there is so much more for us to do."

"This is something that needed to be done, but it could have been done differently," he added. "They should have made this decision a year ago and implemented it now."

Partenheimer said if business mailers need help during the transition, they can contact their regional rate case coordinator. Businesses can find out who that is by contacting their local postmaster.
Source : http://www.ledger-enquirer.com