USPS allowed additional postage rate increase in 2014

The Postal Regulatory Commission (PRC) dropped a lump of coal in publishers’ stockings on Christmas Eve by authorizing the USPS to temporarily raise postage by 4.3% on top of the 1.7% they previously authorized as a permanent rate increase.

Both increases are permitted to take effect as on January 26, 2014. The USPS has not announced whether it will be ready to collect the ‘surcharge’, as it was termed, on that date.

The surcharge is not authorized for a defined period of time. It is a temporary rate hike authorized until USPS collects an estimated additional $2.776 billion to offset losses due to what the PRC terms the “Great Recession” of 2008 and 2009.

The PRC is ordering the USPS by May 1, 2014, to provide “a proposed plan for removing the surcharge from postage rates with a complete explanation of how the plan will operate.”

The official PRC announcement can be found here:
http://www.prc.gov/prc-docs/home/whatsnew/Exigent%20Rate%20Increase%202%2024%2013%20(2)_3428.pdf

Interlink will automate any required postage rate changes for our clients as the USPS implements new rates in 2014.