PSA: USPS Rate Change

[DaFace]

Just a friendly note to remind you that USPS rates will change on Monday. Among many other changes, the rate for a standard 1 oz. letter will go up to $.41 from $.39. In addition, "flats" are now charged separately, so the price for a 1 oz. flat has gone up to $.80 from $.39.

Full rate listings can be found here:
http://pe.usps.com/RateCase2007/DMM300_HTML/ratesandfees2.htm


And now back to your regularly scheduled programming...

[Simplex3]

LMAO

Anybody think we should have taken UPS up on their bid to deliver all mail, tracked, for half of what the USPS was charging?

Nah. That would just be crazy talk.

[keg in kc]

Jesus Christ.

[penguinz]

No way in hell it can cost $0.41 to mail a letter. USPS has to be making a killing off it.

[Nzoner]

LMAO

Anybody think we should have taken UPS up on their bid to deliver all mail, tracked, for half of what the USPS was charging?

Nah. That would just be crazy talk.

I know one thng as a small direct mail business owner who mails 81,000 pieces a month this shit is getting out of hand.In the last 3 years my postage has increased over $1000 a month. :mad:

[Simplex3]

I know one thng as a small direct mail business owner who mails 81,000 pieces a month this shit is getting out of hand.In the last 3 years my postage has increased over $1000 a month. :mad:
The "funny" part is that rather than reduce expenses and maintain costs, they keep raising prices. Raising prices encourages more people to move toward electronic payments and communications, which lowers their income further, making them raise their prices more, etc. It's a vicious (and retarded) cycle.

If they'd just cut operation way back they could get back in the black. Just like every govt entity, though, the f**ker never shrinks, much less dies.

[DaFace]

No way in hell it can cost $0.41 to mail a letter. USPS has to be making a killing off it.

I actually went to a direct mailing seminar a month ago, and the issue is not the cost to mail a normal letter - it's the cost to return one that has a bad address. It costs them 11 times more to return an undeliverable envelope than to mail one normally.

In other words, the rate would probably be closer to $.30 if we could all learn to double-check our addresses.

[4th and Long]

No way in hell it can cost $0.41 to mail a letter. USPS has to be making a killing off it.
luv will be along later today to tell you how hard her father works as a postal employee and how the USPS deserves all these rate increases.

[4th and Long]

the issue is not the cost to mail a normal letter - it's the cost to return one that has a bad address. It costs them 11 times more to return an undeliverable envelope than to mail one normally.
Becasue, ... the USPS puts the return envelope in a gold plated, jewel encrusted envelope for return?

[DaFace]

I know one thng as a small direct mail business owner who mails 81,000 pieces a month this shit is getting out of hand.In the last 3 years my postage has increased over $1000 a month. :mad:

Yeah, that's rough. You should invest in a hundred thousand "forever" stamps or something and pull them out in a couple years when it costs $1.00 to mail a letter.

[Nzoner]

The "funny" part is that rather than reduce expenses and maintain costs, they keep raising prices. Raising prices encourages more people to move toward electronic payments and communications, which lowers their income further, making them raise their prices more, etc. It's a vicious (and retarded) cycle.

If they'd just cut operation way back they could get back in the black. Just like every govt entity, though, the f**ker never shrinks, much less dies.

Exactly and the other thing that pisses me off is our company spent over $100,000 in postage last year and these fockers can't even send out a postal rep to discuss the new changes to the bulk mail system and they know they got me by the balls,so much for customer service.

[DaFace]

Becasue, ... the USPS puts the return envelope in a gold plated, jewel encrusted envelope for return?

Since you ask...

For a normal letter, no one touches it after it leaves your outgoing mailbox except a machine until it gets put into the recipient's mailbox. Everything is sorted, routed, resorted, and even put into the order the carrier will walk down your street by a machine. Hell, their computers even read 90% of handwritten addresses. Basically, the incremental cost to mail a letter through the system is VERY low, since the carrier would have been walking that route anyway.

If the carrier gets to a letter that's addressed wrong, however, the automated system breaks down. It has to be taken back to the post office, alternate address checked, and re-bar coded manually. Eventually, it gets put back in the system going the other direction. All that takes time that would otherwise not have been needed. It may not seem like much, but compared to the amount of time it takes to take a letter out of a mailbox and put it in another, it's significant.

I'm not saying that their rate increases are justified, but it's just an interesting fact I learned about how they come up with the rates.

[Fire Me Boy!]

I wonder what it would do to prices if they cut service on Saturdays. Just one day, nationwide. Close offices, no deliver on weekends.

[4th and Long]

I'm not saying that their rate increases are justified
Yet, you continue to keep right on typing. :p

[DaFace]

Yet, you continue to keep right on typing. :p

Eh, I still hate using them and use UPS or FedEx whenever possible, but the seminar opened my eyes a bit to the stuff they have to deal with. So :moon:

[Eleazar]

Sucks for guys like Nzoner, I feel bad for you.

But there are a lot of people like me... I don't even use 1 stamp a month.

[Fire Me Boy!]

Perhaps they could start to severely restrict junkmail... that would cut down on the bulk 10-fold.

[DaFace]

Perhaps they could start to severely restrict junkmail... that would cut down on the bulk 10-fold.

That's where they make most of their money, actually.

[Fire Me Boy!]

That's where they make most of their money, actually.
I thought that right after I posted it. How much more would I have to pay if I put a trashcan under my mailbox and asked them just to deliver it there?

[Nzoner]

I thought that right after I posted it. How much more would I have to pay if I put a trashcan under my mailbox and asked them just to deliver it there?

Seeing that I'm in the direct mail business I was curious as to exactly what you consider junk mail,is it any and all advertising or just specific ones?

[Fire Me Boy!]

Seeing that I'm in the direct mail business I was curious as to exactly what you consider junk mail,is it any and all advertising or just specific ones?
Most. If it's not a bill or a statement or a magazine that I asked for, I'd say 95 percent of my mail goes in the shredder.

[Nzoner]

Most. If it's not a bill or a statement or a magazine that I asked for, I'd say 95 percent of my mail goes in the shredder.

Thanks,I'm sure we get a fair amount of ours trashed as well but when HY-Vee tells me they've gotten up to 4,000 coupons back on a mailing I know someone likes what we're doing.

[DaFace]

Thanks,I'm sure we get a fair amount of ours trashed as well but when HY-Vee tells me they've gotten up to 4,000 coupons back on a mailing I know someone likes what we're doing.

I think it's pretty hit or miss. I never open credit card offers, and when I get a giant bundle of ads thrown together I typically send it straight to the trash. However, we get little ads for restaurants and other small businesses around us all the time. As someone who's new to the area, those are pretty helpful.

Just depends on what the person it looking for. There are a ton of old ladies out there who love couponing, so I'm sure there will always be someone out there for those types of mailings.

[Fire Me Boy!]

I think it's pretty hit or miss. I never open credit card offers, and when I get a giant bundle of ads thrown together I typically sent it straight to the trash. However, we get little ads for restaurants and other small businesses around us all the time. As someone who's new to the area, those are pretty helpful.

Just depends on what the person it looking for. There are a ton of old ladies out there who love couponing, so I'm sure there will always be someone out there for those types of mailings.
I would tend to agree with this. If I get a big bunch of ads (like I do every Thursday) it goes to the garbage, but if I get one ad or one flier I'm MUCH more likely to look at it.

[Nzoner]

I think it's pretty hit or miss. I never open credit card offers, and when I get a giant bundle of ads thrown together I typically sent it straight to the trash. However, we get little ads for restaurants and other small businesses around us all the time. As someone who's new to the area, those are pretty helpful.

Just depends on what the person it looking for. There are a ton of old ladies out there who love couponing, so I'm sure there will always be someone out there for those types of mailings.

Ours is an 8 X 10 full color newsprint booklet with the glossy inserts added as well.We have large companies like Hy-Vee,Pizza Hut,Godfather's Pizza,Little Caesars,Worlds Of Fun,Dairy Queen as well as smaller local business like car washes,tanning salons,hair and auto care who use us on a monthly basis.

[Fire Me Boy!]

Ours is an 8 X 10 full color newsprint booklet with the glossy inserts added as well.We have large companies like Hy-Vee,Pizza Hut,Godfather's Pizza,Little Caesars,Worlds Of Fun,Dairy Queen as well as smaller local business like car washes,tanning salons,hair and auto care who use us on a monthly basis.
A booklet I'd be more likely to look at than that bunch of loose ads I get on Thursdays. But mostly they go to the garbage with the rest of the junk mail.

[DaFace]

Ours is an 8 X 10 full color newsprint booklet with the glossy inserts added as well.We have large companies like Hy-Vee,Pizza Hut,Godfather's Pizza,Little Caesars,Worlds Of Fun,Dairy Queen as well as smaller local business like car washes,tanning salons,hair and auto care who use us on a monthly basis.

Yup. Those go straight to File 13 around my place. I just don't have the patience to look through the whole thing. Sounds like you're getting pretty good results, though, so I may not be typical.

[Donger]

Ours is an 8 X 10 full color newsprint booklet with the glossy inserts added as well.We have large companies like Hy-Vee,Pizza Hut,Godfather's Pizza,Little Caesars,Worlds Of Fun,Dairy Queen as well as smaller local business like car washes,tanning salons,hair and auto care who use us on a monthly basis.

My memory is fuzzy, but I remember talking with a print guy a long time ago. He said that they are called "slicks," and that they are coated with something that makes the slippery so that they'll fall out and you then naturally pick them up.

Is that true?

[Nzoner]

My memory is fuzzy, but I remember talking with a print guy a long time ago. He said that they are called "slicks," and that they are coated with something that makes the slippery so that they'll fall out and you then naturally pick them up.

Is that true?

It's true with a company like AD-VO who uses glossy or slick exclusively and puts everything in loose like what the guys are talking about.In my professional opinion it's also what pisses off people and the USPS the most.

We use a newsprint booklet to insert our slicks in,this way the mail all stays together in a nice neat package and it doesn't end up here there and everywhere.

[4th and Long]

If this thread continues much longer, Joe is going to suffer a stroke. :D

[Bugeater]

LMAO

Anybody think we should have taken UPS up on their bid to deliver all mail, tracked, for half of what the USPS was charging?

Nah. That would just be crazy talk.
What's even worse is that the USPS doesn't even have to pay taxes on or license any of their vehicles but yet UPS does.

[Nzoner]

If this thread continues much longer, Joe is going to suffer a stroke. :D

Nah,I've recently hired a new guy who was in radio for 15 years,it took me over a year to land him but now that he's here and after only 2 short months he's kicking ass in sales,it's making the postal hikes a little easier to swallow although that money would still look much better in my account.

[Bugeater]

I actually went to a direct mailing seminar a month ago, and the issue is not the cost to mail a normal letter - it's the cost to return one that has a bad address. It costs them 11 times more to return an undeliverable envelope than to mail one normally.

In other words, the rate would probably be closer to $.30 if we could all learn to double-check our addresses.
They should just start shredding that shit. If you can't properly address your mail you don't deserve the privilege of using the postal service. I've never once in my life got a letter returned because I screwed up the address.

[Nzoner]

I've never once in my life got a letter returned because I screwed up the address.

It must be nice to be perfect. :)

[Bugeater]

It must be nice to be perfect. :)
Let's not get carried away, that's about the only area of my life that I have achieved perfection in. Just ask the Mrs. sometime.

[Nzoner]

Let's not get carried away, that's about the only area of my life that I have achieved perfection in. Just ask the Mrs. sometime.

No doubt,mine could tell me how I screwed up on a specific date back in 1989

[wutamess]

I don't think everyone is considering the costs of gas with the rise in postage. Around here, our mail deliverers drive to the mailboxes. Gas going up exponentially over the last 3 years makes it just about right to increase postage yearly.

If the fuggin dumbass on the far east of the states pull his head outta his ass and address this and other domestic situations instead of trying to make the world a global marketplace, we wouldn't have as many gripes.

Sorry to turn this political but it's not the USPS fault considering everything around them is going up because of the rise in fuel prices.

[Bwana]

I heard about the package rates going up, but I didn't know about the stamps. May I be the first to say that Cliff ****en Claven can kiss my ass!

[DaFace]

I don't think everyone is considering the costs of gas with the rise in postage. Around here, our mail deliverers drive to the mailboxes. Gas going up exponentially over the last 3 years makes it just about right to increase postage yearly.

Good point. When you mentioned the gas thing, I wondered how much UPS and FedEx have raised their rates recently. For what it's worth, they've both implemented 3-5% annual rate hikes over the past few years. The USPS just catches more flack for it since we're all so familiar with the price of a stamp.

[luv]

The "funny" part is that rather than reduce expenses and maintain costs, they keep raising prices. Raising prices encourages more people to move toward electronic payments and communications, which lowers their income further, making them raise their prices more, etc. It's a vicious (and retarded) cycle.

If they'd just cut operation way back they could get back in the black. Just like every govt entity, though, the f**ker never shrinks, much less dies.
With all the people already going to electronic payments, emailing, and such, I wonder why they'd need to raise the price? Hmmm... [/sarcasm]

[Valiant]

I try and avoid the Post Office as much as possible because some of the twunts they have working there.. Last week they would not take my credit card because I had CID signed on the back... I am one of the few people that want you to look at my Drivers License for verification...

[Stewie]

All my bills are auto-pay except for water and trash. Water is billed every other month, trash every quarter. I rarely mail anything and hardly write a check any more. I have a book of stamps that I've had for months. Now, I guess I need to go buy stamps to add the additional postage required.

[dtebbe]

They should just start shredding that shit. If you can't properly address your mail you don't deserve the privilege of using the postal service. I've never once in my life got a letter returned because I screwed up the address.

I own a mail order business, and you would be amazed about how many retards don't know thier correct address. Then they call us all pissed off when we pass the UPS $5-$10 address correction charge along to them. ...

DT

[Calcountry]

Ours is an 8 X 10 full color newsprint booklet with the glossy inserts added as well.We have large companies like Hy-Vee,Pizza Hut,Godfather's Pizza,Little Caesars,Worlds Of Fun,Dairy Queen as well as smaller local business like car washes,tanning salons,hair and auto care who use us on a monthly basis.That's a good gig, how did you get started in that?

[Saulbadguy]

I'd cancel my mail if I knew how. All I get is junk mail.

[BucEyedPea]

PO is the only joint that raises their rates as they lose more business.
Ain't it great being the govt?

My dad worked for them for 30 years too. Great HC benefits.

[luv]

PO is the only joint that raises their rates as they lose more business.
Ain't it great being the govt?

My dad worked for them for 30 years too. Great HC benefits.
My dad's been there for over 20 years now.

[Saulbadguy]

PO is the only joint that raises their rates as they lose more business.
Ain't it great being the govt?

My dad worked for them for 30 years too. Great HC benefits.
It's still one of the most desired jobs. You get paid quite a bit to stuff letters in mailboxes.

[PastorMikH]

We haven't even finished putting 2 cent stamps on the box of 37 cent stamped envelopes at the church yet and they are going up again?

Pathetic. And they wonder why we do so much bill paying online.

[PastorMikH]

Seeing that I'm in the direct mail business I was curious as to exactly what you consider junk mail,is it any and all advertising or just specific ones?


Basically, anything that doesn't have money in it for me, something I ordered, or a bill I owe.

:)



Actually, I do look at and even hang on to cataloges and such. Sales flyers are of interest. One that I am getting real tired of is credit card companies sending those blank checks in the mail that all someone has to do is steal it out of my mailbox, fill out an amount, and sign my name for their cash and sign me up for payments for the next 10 years.

[Mr. Laz]

LMAO

Anybody think we should have taken UPS up on their bid to deliver all mail, tracked, for half of what the USPS was charging?

Nah. That would just be crazy talk.
i don't see UPS doing it any cheaper

sure ... they might START out cheaper, but as soon as the postal service was gone they would have us over a barrel and would start raising prices.

[Nzoner]

That's a good gig, how did you get started in that?

Without going into full detail the mrs and I both had advertising backgrounds and we got the idea while living in San Diego.Eventually we moved back here and times got really tough so we decided to give the idea a go and my first issue was sold by me going out to see businesses with a KC Star TV Guide in hand telling people it was going to look like something like this with offers and the like and be mailed to each home.

We barely covered printing and mailing costs on the first issue but now 17 years later I'm very glad we stuck with it.

[Nzoner]

Basically, anything that doesn't have money in it for me, something I ordered, or a bill I owe.

:)



Actually, I do look at and even hang on to cataloges and such. Sales flyers are of interest. One that I am getting real tired of is credit card companies sending those blank checks in the mail that all someone has to do is steal it out of my mailbox, fill out an amount, and sign my name for their cash and sign me up for payments for the next 10 years.


Of course my opinion is going to differ because I don't see us as the ordinary junk mail as we have alot of great discounts to local businesses.Personally,I've never understood why someone wouldn't want to take advantage of a buy 1 get 1 free pizza if you're going to order pizza anyway.

[Mr. Laz]

Of course my opinion is going to differ because I don't see us as the ordinary junk mail as we have alot of great discounts to local businesses.Personally,I've never understood why someone wouldn't want to take advantage of a buy 1 get 1 free pizza if you're going to order pizza anyway.
i don't mind receiving coupons


it's all the advertisements that bug me ..... there is an endless stream of mail that is pimping one thing or another.

[DaFace]

i don't see UPS doing it any cheaper

sure ... they might START out cheaper, but as soon as the postal service was gone they would have us over a barrel and would start raising prices.

Here's as much data as I could find for recent rate increases by the big three. Rates for UPS and FedEx are based on "ground" rates:

USPS FedEx UPS
2001 $0.34 2003 3.9% 2003 3.9%
2002 $0.37 8.8% 2004 1.9% 2004 1.9%
2003 $0.37 0.0% 2005 2.9% 2005 2.9%
2004 $0.37 0.0% 2006 3.5% 2006 3.9%
2005 $0.37 0.0% 2007 4.9% 2007 3.9%
2006 $0.39 5.4%
2007 $0.41 5.1%


Average Annual Rate Increases:
USPS 3.2%
FedEx 3.4%
UPS 3.3%

[Mr. Laz]

Here's as much data as I could find for recent rate increases by the big three. Rates for UPS and FedEx are based on "ground" rates:
Average Annual Rate Increases:
USPS 3.2%
FedEx 3.4%
UPS 3.3%
interesting information ...... thanks


so with UPS in a competitive enviroment still has a higher yearly increase than USPS does with a monopoly.



so what do you think would happen to the UPS rate increases when it normal longer had as much competition?

[luv]

Here's as much data as I could find for recent rate increases by the big three. Rates for UPS and FedEx are based on "ground" rates:

USPS FedEx UPS
2001 $0.34 2003 3.9% 2003 3.9%
2002 $0.37 8.8% 2004 1.9% 2004 1.9%
2003 $0.37 0.0% 2005 2.9% 2005 2.9%
2004 $0.37 0.0% 2006 3.5% 2006 3.9%
2005 $0.37 0.0% 2007 4.9% 2007 3.9%
2006 $0.39 5.4%
2007 $0.41 5.1%


Average Annual Rate Increases:
USPS 3.2%
FedEx 3.4%
UPS 3.3%
I wonder how those percentages rate with the increasing cost of gas.

[teedubya]

what pisses me off is the Lees Summit Newspaper spam in the blue/red/orange plastic that they throw in my yard 2-3 times a week.