Over the past few years, we’ve kept you updated on relevant changes from the United States Postal Service that could impact your print and mail program and budget. Today we have another of those updates for you.

Effective immediately, the Postal Service has implemented new service standards for First-Class mail and periodicals. The charts below provide details on these new standards.

What you need to know:

The new standards will impact mail traveling outside immediate local areas the most. It could affect the timing we’ve become accustomed to for the delivery of your mailings.
Plan ahead - we recommend allotting up to five days for mail to reach your recipients. For important, time sensitive mailings, particularly those related to invoice and cancellation dates, you should review the timing of your processes to make sure mail is delivered on time.

The rationale behind this USPS change is for them to rely less on costly air transportation. That means utilizing their trucks and existing surface network better so that they can keep costs at reasonable levels.

For more information about the new service standards, visit the Delivering for America page for the First Class/Periodical Service Standard Fact Sheet.

New Schedule for USPS Price Adjustments

The Postal Service has announced that it will not raise prices on Market Dominant products in January 2022 as they typically do. The next price adjustment will happen in July 2022.

However, starting in January 2023, the Postal Service will introduce new price adjustments twice a year - every January and July.

You can read the Postal Service’s official statement here.

This is something to plan for now to make sure these adjustments are included in your future yearly budgets.

We’re here to help you navigate these changes, so let us know if you have any questions about the impact to your program.