The USPS will raise shipping rates during the holiday shopping season. It will raise all commercial domestic competitive package volume on October 18.
The temporary rate hike will be in effect through December 27, 2020.
Priority Mail Express, Priority Mail, First-Class Package Service, Parcel Select, and Parcel Return Service will all see rate increases.
The Postal Service announcement stated: "The planned temporary price adjustments are in response to increased expenses and heightened demand for online shopping package volume due to the coronavirus pandemic and expected holiday ecommerce."
To get an idea of the impact, a current Priority Mail commercial rate of $7.02 would rise by 40 cents to $7.42 - an increase of 5.7%. However, that was just one of the few examples provided in the announcement - and it did not include the average rate hike for Priority Mail or for other services.
The planned prices were approved by the Governors of the Postal Service on August 6, and the USPS filed notice with the Postal Regulatory Commission (PRC) today. The Postal Service is restricted by how much it can raise dominant rates, but has much more leeway with rates for services classified as competitive.
Today's announcement is bad news for the small sellers who, unable to negotiate volume rates with UPS and FedEx, rely on the USPS to deliver their orders.
If you visit
this page on USPS and click on "October 2020 Notice 123 - PDF" you'll find the rates.
The following is a snippet of the new Priority Mail rates (Commercial Base pricing) set to go into effect this fall, pending PRC review.
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USPS to Hike Shipping Rates during Holiday Shopping Season