News
4 Pointers on
Postal Pricing
By Brittany Bouse, Target
Marketing Magazine
By now, it’s common knowledge that the USPS® is
going to adjust
postal rates again come this May.
But before you go into a tailspin about another
draconian increase, here are some facts behind the
new rates—to help you understand and apply the new
postal pricing to your business model.
The law has changed. This rate adjustment is
the first one to be carried out under the new Postal
Accountability and Enhancement Act, passed in
December 2006. Last year, when the USPS hiked rates
considerably and created shaped-based pricing, it
was operating under the old rate-setting system.
Now, the PAEA puts a cap on the amount the USPS can
elevate rates and gives the Postal Regulatory
Commission more authority to determine whether
adjustments are not only legal, but fair.
Predictability is key. The new law is
intended to create more predictable annual pricing,
announced every February and implemented every May,
in tune with general market practices. “Many of our
business customers have told us of the problems they
experienced with how we operated under the old law,
where we would go several years without any price
changes and then all of the sudden they’d be hit
with a large increase, which made it difficult for
them to plan their mailing budgets. So, it’s a
benefit to our business customers that they know
every year that prices will be adjusted, and they
can keep track of what that will be by keeping track
of what the Consumer Price Index is,” says Dave
Partenheimer, a spokesperson for the USPS.
A cap to safeguard marketing budgets. The
PAEA introduces the CPI as the limit for average
increases. “Increases are capped by the rate of
inflation as measured by the CPI, and right now the
CPI is 2.9 percent,” Partenheimer says. “Average
increases are kept at the class level. So, for
instance, in the First-Class Mail® category, you
could have an average increase that’s lower than the
CPI, and within First-Class mail, you could have a
lower increase for a First-Class letter rate and a
higher increase for postcards,” he explains.
Every application is unique. “Not all prices
go up—there’s some that stay the same and some that
go down,” Partenheimer says. Notably, flats and
nonprofit categories in general, remained at a less
than 1 percent increase and nonprofit flats rates
were actually reduced. “Every mailer is different
with respect to size, frequency and weight … and
each mailer has to look at the specifics of this
rate increase and determine whether or not they want
to do more automation, more drop-shipping or whether
they want to go to the next level in prospecting,”
concludes Ed Gleiman, postal consultant and former
chairman of the PRC
|
Download
a free copy of the new USPS postal
rate chart
here.
|
|
---Source: Reprinted with permission
from Target Marketing Tipline Mar. 5, 2008 issue.
www.targetmarketingmag.com
|
|
|
Melissa Data
|
 |
| Enhance your
website, software or database with
easy-to-integrate data quality programming tools
and web services. |
|
|
|
|
 |
|
Save money on postage using leading
mail preparation software and other
direct marketing products. |
|
|
|
|
 |
Update & standardize addresses and
find out more about contacts in your
database.
|
|
|
|
|
 |
Find new customers perfect for your
business with our online and
specialty mailing lists.
|
|
|
|
|
 |
Locate the business information you
need such as ZIP Codes, address
verification, maps.
|
|
|
|
|
