Mailing a letter is about to get a little more expensive.
Postal regulators on Tuesday approved a price hike of 3 cents for a first-class stamp, bringing the charge to 49 cents a letter.
The independent Postal Regulatory Commission said the change was justified by severe mail volume decreases since 2008.
The new price is effective Jan. 26 and will last no more than two years, allowing the Postal Service to recoup $2.8 billion in losses.
Regulators rejected a request to make the price hike permanent.
Bulk mail, periodicals and package service rates rise 6 percent.
The mail industry opposes the price increases. It says charities using mass mailings and bookstores competing with Amazon will suffer.
The Postal Service says it lost $5 billion in the last fiscal year.
(AP)
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5 Responses
The Postal Service says it lost $5 billion in the last fiscal year. If their services would be more predictable & reliable & timely, they wouldn’t have incurred this loss.
Dr. 147,
Its very simplistic, naive and mostly innaccurate to say if they’d be more reliable then they wouldn’t have lost $5 billion. The real reason they lost so much is the same reason they will continue to lose: people only use snail mail as a last resort. Email is much more efficient. Throw in a bloated usps workforce and its a recipe for fiscal disaster. If usps were a private enterprise they would downsize, come up with new innovations to compete in the market. OR ELSE THEY WOULD CLOSE! But because this is a government agency and our govt is run by a bunch of criminals in suits they allow this to occur on our dime.
if you are losing money you lower your prices, lower your costs, or find a way to generate more business. Just raising prices almost guarantees less business and more losses.
If anyone thinks this is only a temporary 2 year hike I have a bridge for sale. They will no doubt come up with another excuse to keep the rates that high if not to raise it again.
Like GM, the Airlines, NY Public School System, etc…, the corrupt Unions are killing it! Just keep those pensions going & going & going!
I agree with “pray4all”. You hit it on the head.