Brent Lecompte Blog: USPS Proposes Increases in Mailing and Shipping Rates for 2017

As 2016 draws to a close, the US Postal Service is proposing a new 2017 postage rate increase. Here's the details you need to know.

The United States Postal Service (USPS) has proposed to increase rates for it’s mailing and shipping services for 2017. This comes on the heels of FedEx and UPS also recently announcing shipping rate increases.

USPS made its new price proposal to the Postal Regulatory Commission (PRC) late last month. If approved, the proposed new pricing for its mailing and shipping services will take effect on Sunday, January 22, 2017, following the end of the holiday mailing season.

Revised Postal Service Shipping Prices for 2017

According to the Postal Service, the proposed new shipping prices, if approved, represent a modest price increase in Priority Mail by 3.9 percent and an average increase of 3.3 percent in Priority Mail Retail prices.

“The average Shipping Services price change is 3.9 percent, which results in an average shipping price of less than $5 per shipment across all shipping products,” wrote USPS in a press release announcing the proposal for new pricing for Shipping Services products.

It’s worth noting that just last year USPS revised prices for its Shipping Services for 2016, which resulted in shipping rates for Priority Mail shooting up by over 8 percent.

The new price update for 2017, however, does not include any Shipping Services price increases for First-Class Package International Service, Priority Mail Express International and Priority Mail International.

Postal Service Mailing Rate Increases

The new Mailing Services postage rate for the Priority Mail Flat Rate Box and Priority Mail Flat Rate Envelope will have small increases for the following products:

	Current	New
Small flat-rate box	$6.80	$7.15
Medium flat-rate box	13.45	13.60
Large flat-rate box	18.75	18.85
Large APO/FPO flat-rate box	16.75	17.35
Regular flat-rate envelope	6.45	6.65
Legal flat-rate envelope	6.45	6.95
Padded flat-rate envelope	6.80	7.20

You can find the complete USPS price filing with the new prices for all Shipping Services products on the Postal Regulatory Commission website under the Daily Listings section once the PRC reviews the prices.

Mailbox Photo via Shutterstock

This article, "USPS Proposes Increases in Mailing and Shipping Rates for 2017" was first published on Small Business Trends