“The starting price for Ground Advantage, which provides delivery within two to five business days to all 50 states, would rise to $5, an increase of 5.4% from the current $4.75. The planned increases follow a previously announced plan to raise prices on first-class stamps, international letters, and both domestic and international postcards.”
A 5.4% increase can be handled by the slop in my current shipping charges, The bulk of my shipments are 4 oz or less nowadays. My shipping charge is $5.00
USPS rate changes affect all aspects of US-based shipping logistics–including Amazon and FBA. What many people don’t realize is how much last-mile service and other delivery/support functions USPS provides to all other carriers.
Even so, one might well wonder whether rate increases are being justified by performance increases (not just package services), given recent and ongoing changes that appear to daily users of a wide range of USPS services to have hindered both speed and accessibility.
Price increases are rarely tied to things being better.
Airlines suck ■■■ now and the rates are a lot higher than they were back when service was good. Food is more expensive and they contain a lot more harmful things back when it was cheap. Taxes have gone up on numerous things, government satisfaction has not. Rents have gone up while apartment sizes go down. The list goes on.
Shipping service is basically a monopoly since all the carriers increase their rates around the same amount every year.
U.S. Postal Service Announces New Competitive Prices for 2024
USPS Ground Advantage continues to offer a simple, reliable, and more affordable way to ship packages in just 2-5 business days across the continental United States, with $100 insurance and free pickup on the carrier’s route included in the price
Click-N-ShipUSPS shipping platform provides shippers access to competitive commercial rates for Ground Advantage, Priority Mail, Priority Mail Express and USPS Connect Local, and the ability to schedule free carrier pick-up and order Priority Mail packaging
USPS offers some of the lowest shipping rates in the industry and is a great value to reach more than 165 million delivery points six and sometimes seven-days a week in a consistent and economical way
W, DC — The U.S. Postal Service filed notice with the Postal Regulatory Commission (PRC) today of price changes for Shipping Services to take effect Jan. 21, 2024. These proposed prices were approved by the Postal Service governors earlier this week.
USPS Ground Advantage prices would increase by 5.4 percent, Priority Mail service prices would increase by 5.7 percent, and Priority Mail Express service prices would increase by 5.9 percent. The Postal Service is also seeking price adjustments for Special Services products including Post Office Box rental fees and some international mail services that includes Registered Mail and International Mail insurance. The PRC will review the prices before they are scheduled to take effect.
The Postal Service continues to offer a great value in shipping. Unlike some other shippers, the Postal Service has upfront pricing and does not add surcharges for residential and regular Saturday delivery, nor fuel. Also, the Postal Service offers convenient flat rate and cubic pricing options.
The Postal Service continues to offer USPS Ground Advantage – a new ground shipping solution that provides a simple, reliable, and affordable way to ship packages across the continental U.S. with 2-5 day certain delivery based on distance. USPS Ground Advantage offers $100 insurance included in the price, as well as free pickup on the carrier’s route.
The pricing for USPS Connect Local will remain unchanged. This service provides businesses with an affordable same-day and next-day delivery for their local customers.
Driven by the ongoing implementation of the Delivering for America plan, 98 percent of the nation’s population currently receives their mail and packages in less than three days.
The complete Postal Service price filings with prices for all products can be found on the PRC website under the edockets System. For the Shipping Services filing, see Docket No. CP2024-52. The Postal Service provides additional resources to assist customers regarding the price changes. These tools include price lists, downloadable price files and Federal Register Notices. This information will be available on the Postal Service’s Postal Explorer website at pe.usps.com/PriceChange/Index on Nov. 15, 2023.
I will not be increasing shipping charges this time.
Shipping is not a profit center for us, and we are currently making enough on shipping to absorb the increase. Our flat rate is only exceeded by shipments to the left coast. And we have more Oregon buyers than California buyers.
All while service is getting worse. Numerous major issues in the last 6 months. Here’s the latest and I don’t think you can entirely blame the weather on this. I have a GA from Seattle area to HI still wandering around since Dec 18 (36 scans and counting)
I just sent one to HI that arrived in 2 days from AZ. No rhyme or reason with USPS. For us they are consistent most of the time, except when they aren’t.
With Amazon shipping, in recent days, including today, I have paid $8.40 for domestic USPS Priority Flat Rate Envelopes. The price I’m quoted by eBay is $9.63. Earlier today, Pirate Ship quoted the same ($9.63) for a Flat Rate Envelope to Salmon, ID. I tried it again just now, same ZIP and weight, now it says $8.75.
BTW, Amazon has been charging me the same rate for a Priority Flat Rate Envelope to Hawaii as to anywhere in the Lower 48. EBay quoted $11 today, and Pirate Ship quoted $8.75. Pirate Ship heretofore has charged a higher rate for Alaska and Hawaii.
All this tells me it’s still good advice to shop around if you can.
This would be the correct price (is on the USPS Price List for Priority Mail - Commercial) with the USPS pricing that started 1/19/2025.
Unless Amazon has a special rate from USPS or USPS provides a special rate, Priority Mail Flat Rate envelopes will be the same for HI and AK as for the lower 48. Last year, USPS did a special rate and, with that one, both HI and AK were excluded (and Amazon programmed that one wrong and sellers got “other” charges from Amazon charging the wrong price - we know - we were one of them).
The $9.63 price that was given to you was not Priority Mail Flat Rate Envelope but was Priority Mail Envelope (less than 0.5lb) going to Zone 5 based on the 1/19/2025 USPS pricing.
As usual, @Lost_My_Marbles is correct. My mistake. I was looking at just regular Priority Mail and didn’t realize it. But I was consistently using 1 pound as the weight. I was comparing prices for lightweight books shipping to Hawaii and Idaho.
I guess we will see if that $8.40 from Amazon results in “other” charges.
I’m surprised to see eBay show FedEx Ground Economy, 1 pound from Northern California to Idaho, only $6.51. That seems cheap for FedEx. But then again I only use USPS. Rates like that look better and better as USPS goes up up up.
