USPS Announces 5% Increase In Shipping Rates
November 16, 2008

What's Inside the New USPS Package Rates
From Doug Caldwell, EVP, ParcelPool

The Postal Service has just announced their 2009 shipping rates, which will be effective January 18th. An announcement on rates for other mailing classes will be made in February, with those rates going into effect sometime in May. Why the two dates? According to Jim Cochrane, VP of Ground Shipping at USPS, "We're taking a number of steps to align with our competitors in the marketplace. We've already rolled out commercial discounts and contract pricing; we also believe it's important to change our prices in January, just as our competitors do."

Here are the average increases:

Priority Mail, up 3.9%
Express Mail, up 5.7%
Parcel Select, up 5.9%
Parcel Return Service, up 5.3%
International Shipping, up 8.5%

Click here for a downloadable PDF of the new rate schedule.