The Postal Regulatory Commission must approve the recommended price changes. The increases would not go into effect until January 2, 2011. It will have been two years since the last First-Class price increase.
The price of a postcard would increase to 30 cents. Periodicals would receive an 8 percent increase. Recommended increase for catalogs is 5.1 percent. Standard Mail parcels would increase about 23 percent.
The reason for the request is a projected deficit of nearly $7 billion next year.
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| 2010 Holiday Forever Stamps |
We have been hit with reduced volume and increased costs. Although we have been reducing expenses by more than $1 billion every year since 2001, we haven't been able to keep pace with the loss in revenue.
What do you think about this proposal? Will it hurt volume? Will it make a difference? Take the poll in the upper-right corner of the blog.
You can also comment here.
And take a listen to a special edition of Your Postal Podcast, where you will hear an interview with Maura Robinson, Vice President of Pricing and Classification.
22 comments:
Price increase and another forever stamp. Thanks a lot. You've just added more work and complainers to my job.
I'm afraid you're right, Anonymous. But what choice is left? They've cut jobs and reverted positions every time someone leaves until the workload on each inidividual is unsustainable. The only relief we get is the shrinking mail volume.
I like the new stamps, but without some snow on them, they don't look very much like the holiday for my "neck of the woods".
The new stamps are lovely and will be greatly appreciated by my penpals (I send about 3,000 pieces of personal mail a year). The Liberty Bell, while very nice on my Independence Hall postcards, is a bit dull.
As for the price increase. I do think we have it much better in the US than most places for postal fees. I wish I could come up with a way to make the USPS more attractive to more people, and I'm doing my damnedest, but you just can't change some people. Some just like to complain and whine about "back in my day."
"Every time I turn around, you guys are raising the price of stamps!" Don't we hear it every time postage rates are increased? This time will be no different, but I share your frustration. Our customers don't realize that the US has one of the lowest postage rates in the world...all they see is that extra 2 cents coming out of their pocket!
I worry that this will drive away business, especially the increases in periodical & standard rates. When the surveys HQ likes to point to said customers are in favor of dropping Saturday delivery that was because the question included an option of raising rates - so customers think going to 5 day delivery means no rate increase. They will not be please if stamps go up and service goes down! I understand we need to increase revenue and cut costs but we need to implement changes gradually, not everything at once. We can only hope Congress & OPM will act quickly on the overpayment to the pension fund and reimburse us for that money. That may at least delay some of the changes HQ wants to implement.
Why shouldn't postage go up? Everything else is going up. The problem is when prices go up the demand (or use) goes down. Will we really get that much more revenue? We will undoubtedly get more complaints especially if 5 day service comes right after the increase. I believe the answer is to close any office that isn't showing a profit or at the very least meeting expenses. Any private sector business that continually showed a loss would be closed.
New forever stamsp are great- now can we get them in rolls. As for price increase, we need the money to stay viable. Yes, going to 5 days will help, and yes the 50 billion that we do not have to pay OPM for CRSR retirees is great (By the way we still owe 150 billion after the 50 is taken off)It is just a drop in the bucket. The 2¢ per stamp will be needed.
From the very beginning -- March 2, 2010 -- an exigent postage increase was part of the plan. This last increase in First-Class postage was 2 years ago. There are very few widely-available products or services that have not increased in price within the past 2 years, so this increase is appropriate. The new Forever stamp is great, too, although I didn't catch that it will be available in coils.
Most of the frustration I hear from custoomers about price increases to first class rates concerns the fact that its always an odd number ("just raise it ten cents and be done with it!"), and comes up unexpectedly. I think first class mailers would be happier with a predictable schedule of rate increases; like -every May, for example- and a round number. Bulk mailers do care about the pennies saved here and there, but instead of always trying to squeeze that extra penny out by reducing services, we should be pointing out to them the intangibles they get through the mail, which they aren't being charged for. How much is it worth to them to get an advertisement into the hands of a customer on Saturday morning before that customer hits the mall? How much is it worth to deliver their messages to their customers through the most trusted governmental entity in America? The message conveyed by a Letter Carrier has more cachet than one delivered by email. Lets collect on that and quit quibbling about increases that only keep pace with inflation.
Am I wrong or haven't the last three FCM rate increases actually pushed our customers to use alternate communication and actually resulted in less revenue for the 'Market Dominant' products?
If this is the case, isn't this a self dooming business practice?
How long can we drag our feet on five day delivery or getting relief from the over funding of retirement accounts?
I can't seem to realize the significance of @ .02 increase to attack a $7 billion deficit especially when "they" constantlly remind us that mail volume is continuing to decline. People who presently use e.mail are not going to stop and people who do send ltrs/bills in the mail probably can't afford all the computerized equiptment that would allow them to get on the band wagon. Why then don't we just raise it to $.50/ltr. & $.35/post cards? ALSO, we should have (1) rate for ALL Domestic post cards like w/our Int'l mailings. On another note: I love the new Forever Stamps !!
I am frustrated that as an employee we are told selling points like, "the Forever stamp will always be a liberty bell" and "the only stamp increase will be in May so that it will be pridictable" and then I look like I'm lying! I personally think to save the Postal Service, Headquarters and upper management should be cut as well as re-negotiating with unions who continue to protect poor employees.
What's all this about another $.02 increase?? We're just going to nickle & dime ourselves into poverty! Why don't we just raise the cost of a FCM/ltr to $.60 & post cards to $.50 to cover ALL sizes of cards.. then we could get away from all those pennies!! AND we should stop paying ALL the minds @ the top of the ladder their exhorbatant wages to spend Hrs. & hrs. brainstorming, debating, and passing judgement year after year over a measly $.02 increase?? We should also increase our Int'l mailing to a cool $1.25 for ALL ltrs. & postcards. I live & work in a Nat'l Park where Int'l visitors are more that 75% of our business and they NEVER complain about our prices because there own respective countries charge a lot more than we do.
I think the rate increase is long overdue. It's been two years. As stated above, everything else has increased in price and by alot more than .02. As with everything else, the public will get over it. The Postal Service has to stop being the "pitty pool" and do what is necessary to survive, even if it means upsetting a few customers. When we pull up to the gas station and see that the gas prices have increased overnight, we complain, butstill go ahead and get that gas because we have to have it. I guess I could pull out my bicycle, but will I feel like pumping to and from work 20 miles in the heat and snow? Same with stamps. If it comes down to purchasing a $500.00 computer for those that don't already have one or paying that additional .02 cent for a stamp, I seriously believe that the stamp will win.
The last stamp increase was in May of 2009---so it hasn't been two years. I think a great strategy would be to increase stamps by 10 cents each, and then the following year decrease them by 5 cents. It's like gas prices when they lower them--people think they are getting a deal, when they are still paying more than they did the same time a few years ago.
Everybody is talking about the postage increase. How about the increase in PO box fees? Already, the USPS makes a big profit on these fees, so why increase the fees and drive customers away from the PO boxes? Back to street delivery, which costs the USPS more money, or cozying up to someone else who has a box and adding their names to it?
I say raise the price to .50 cents and leave it that way for awhile. Our costs are much lower than Foreign countries.
What a great idea - raise the price by 10 cents for a year or so and then lower it by 5 cents - after we go to 5-day delivery and resolve the pre-funding retirement issue, of course. The reduced price would still be more than our expenses/inflation, but the public would go bonkers over the "bargain". The initial exorbitant increase would also convince Congress (and their constituents) that we need financial relief. If we worked this right we could actually rack-up a hefty savings account as a hedge against future increases and then end up being the sweetheart of the communications industry and the publics' favorite place to ship at the same time. Unfortunately, I heard one time that for every penny increase in the stamp price, it costs our biggest customers millions. So that kind of an increase would probably just kill any business from them at all.
Why are we creating a new forever stamp??? If the stamp is forever, why not keep the same design. The cost of engraving, printing, recalling, and destroying must be huge!! I thought we were suppose to be cutting costs??
I believe the pine tree stamps were originally planned as 44c Holiday stamps. So they are extending their "life" by making them forever stamps since the rate increase will happen right after the holidays. Keeps customers from buying 2c stamps to use up what they have leftover so it's actually a pretty good idea. I assume the Liberty Bell forever will still be sold, too.
There are people out there saying that it is a tax increase on small business and point to the admminstration as the culprit. Maybe we need to remind the public once again about how we obtain our revenue when we announce rate increases.
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