USPS Gets PRC OK for a 2017 Price Rise

USPS prices are going up in 2017. First Class mail goes from 47 to 49 cents on Jan. 22, with other products seeing varying price increases.

On Tuesday, the PRC approved all postage raises USPS requested, except for Special Services price adjustments. The PRC filing says the commission didn’t receive information about those requests in time (opens as a PDF).

“Barring any unforeseen issues,” reads the PRC filing, “the commission expects to issue the separate order well in advance of the expected January 22, 2017, implementation date.”

So market-dominant price increases are slated for First Class mail, Standard Mail, Periodicals and Package Services, as direct mailers subscribing to the GrayHair Newsletter learned matter-of-factly on Wednesday.

PRC listing of postal price increases

PRC listing of postage increases

Catalogers got a better deal in this PRC decision than they did from the original USPS proposal, says Hamilton Davison, president and executive director of the American Catalog Mailers Association. In his email to Target Marketing on Wednesday, Davison says, “for instance, the PRC order highlights a USPS explanation ‘that feedback from catalog mailers indicates that mailers have significantly reduced the number of pieces sent to potential new customers in FSS zones due to cost mitigation strategies.’ That ‘feedback’ came directly from the ACMA.”

On its site on Wednesday, USPS had no new press release about the rate increases. The release from Oct. 19 remains.