The U.S. Postal Service Tuesday unveiled a series of international mail service reforms. The reforms would expand some services, eliminate others, raise rates and turn the existing speed-based service into one based on content.
The proposed changes, legally exempt from Postal Rate Commission review, are slated to go into effect sometime in January when the USPS plans to raise its domestic rates by an average 6.4%.
Postal officials said the proposed changes would simplify international service and bring the USPS into compliance with Universal Postal Union (UPU) regulations. The changes were published in Tuesday’s Federal Register. The USPS is seeking mailer comments by October 28.
The proposed rate increases range from 10% to 20% and “better reflect” the USPS’s costs of providing the service, officials said.
Special non-priority rate schedules for such items as books, catalogs sheet music, domestically approved publisher’s mail, and literature, which rose between 10% and 20% in May, would not be affected by the change.
Besides the switch to a content-based service, the USPS, is proposing to blend some existing services into five new categories. They are: Priority Global Mail Guaranteed; Express Mail International Service, Global Priority Mail, Airmail, and Economy. Letter post and parcel post service would be included in both airmail and economy mail.
At the same time, it would eliminate a number of services which it says are either duplicative or little used by mailers. They include ValuePost Canada; the New Market Opportunities Program; Global Package Link, recall/ change of address, and special delivery, along with special handling and storage fees.
Under the rate schedule, it would cost a mailer $16.25 to send a one-pound package to Canada, $24.75 to the United Kingdom and $21 to Japan. A 10-pound package to Canada would cost $31.75, while the same package sent to the Untied Kingdom would cost $53.75.
The cost of sending a single one-pound piece airmail parcel post to Canada would be $13.25; $16 to the United Kingdom. A 10-pound single piece would cost $22.25 to Canada and $47 to the United Kingdom.
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