David Shepardson
WASHINGTON (Reuters) – The U.S. Postal Service on Friday said it is seeking price increases of an average of 25% for large shippers to ship packages for regional delivery through its Parcel Select service.
The price increase, which will go into effect July 14 and must be approved by the Postal Regulatory Commission, comes as USPS no longer intends to incentivize parties to consolidate volumes of mail from multiple senders and deliver that volume directly to the delivery point.
USPS is not offering price increases for USPS Ground Advantage package shipping.
Last month, the USPS said it planned to raise the price of first-class postage stamps from 68 cents effective July 14 to 73 cents. The increase, which must be approved by the Postal Commission, would increase postal service product prices by 7.8%.
Stamp prices have increased by 36% since the beginning of 2019.
In November, the USPS reported a net loss of $6.5 billion for the 12 months ended Sept. 30 as first-class mail volume fell to its lowest level since 1968. The USPS on Thursday reported a second-quarter net loss of $1.5 billion.
On Wednesday, a bipartisan group of 26 U.S. senators called on the USPS to pause planned further consolidation of its processing and delivery network, warning it could slow mail delivery.
The USPS is aggressively raising stamp prices and is in the middle of a 10-year restructuring plan designed to cut a projected $160 billion in red ink.
On Thursday, U.S. Postmaster Louis DeJoy said “this sweeping and complex evolution involves correcting decades of haphazard decision-making and neglect of our physical infrastructure network.”
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He added that USPS knows it needs to make improvements “within the time frame we have to survive.”
USPS raises stamp prices twice a year and says it expects its “new pricing policy to generate $44 billion in additional revenue” by 2031.
In April 2022, President Joe Biden signed legislation providing the USPS with approximately $50 billion in financial assistance over a decade.