USPS changes

nita_rae

Effective 3 April (Sunday) USPS will begin surcharging for certain oversize packages. See Notice 123, and footnotes 4-6 on the Priority Mail pages.

Effective July 2022, USPS will be moving to a twice a year schedule of price changes. The new schedule is January and July, but whey skipped January 2022 for some reason. So this July will see the changes missed in January 2022. Diesel fuel is sharply higher, so I expect that to contribute to whatever happens in July.

Calibrick

Ugh TWICE per year now? :-(

And again, thank you SO MUCH for reminding us about this, Nita! You are a huge help to all us US sellers.

I recall you mentioning it a month or two back, and had already managed to forget about it, sigh... I definitely am making time tonight to download the information and checking the impacts on my Priority Mail zone (non-flat rate) shipping prices. Sounds like I'll have to make several new PM zone pricing band based on sizes for people ordering sets, et al. :-(

This can certainly affect set shipment costs with the added rate for 22-30", as an example.

BTW the link to this notice is https://pe.usps.com/text/dmm300/notice123.htm. The actual notes are:

****RETAIL
Parcels that exceed 22 inches but not greater than 30 inches in length, add $4.00. (Effective April 3, 2022)
Parcels that exceed 30 inches in length, add $15.00. (Effective April 3, 2022)
Parcels that exceed 2 cubic feet (3456 cubic inches), add $15.00. (Effective April 3, 2022)

****COMMERCIAL BASE

Parcels that exceed one cubic foot (1,728 cubic inches) are charged based on the actual weight or the dimensional weight, whichever is greater (see DMM 223.1.5).
IMpb Noncompliant Fee or eVS Unmanifested Fee, add $0.25 per piece.
Dimension Noncompliance Fee, add $1.50. (Effective April 3, 2022)
Parcels that exceed 22 inches but not greater than 30 inches in length, add $4.00. (Effective April 3, 2022)
Parcels that exceed 30 inches in length, add $15.00. (Effective April 3, 2022)
Parcels that exceed 2 cubic feet (3456 cubic inches), add $15.00. (Effective April 3, 2022)

Calibrick

US sellers, note, the new surcharges (shipments 22-inches and larger in length) also effect EXPRESS MAIL, not just Priority Mail. :-)

Calibrick

Deleting what I put here...

Calibrick

PARCEL SELECT is also affected, all - this will hit a lot of us for sets that ship via USPS:
COMMERCIAL PARCEL SELECT NOTE:
Parcels that exceed 22 inches but not greater than 30 inches in length, add $4.00. (Effective April 3,2022)
Parcels that exceed 30 inches in length, add $15.00. (Effective April 3,2022)
Parcels that exceed 2 cubic feet (3456 cubic inches), add $15.00. (Effective April 3,2022)

nita_rae

Basically, USPS is losing money on large boxes that are full of air or peanuts (I.e. not heavy). This was already a somewhat known thing, when they implemented dimensional (above one cubic foot). They want shipments to be paid by weight. Also, there seems to be some desire to not have packages which are excessively dimensioned in any direction. I suspect it messes with the package sorting machines. Think about what this will do to the cost of shipping skis or hockey sticks !

If this keeps up, we may have to go to a system where you get the bags of parts and instructions, but wanting the sealed original box containing them will require an up charge in shipping.

Fuel costs are a whole different subject. I don’t think anyone saw this coming back in January. Back then USPS was trying to get people to do Parcel Select (moves via ground) over Priority Mail ( moves via air freight) because of the bottleneck of moving stuff by air. The diesel fuel spike will likely affect the trucks more than the airplanes.