Well, the details are in on the new USPS rates. As it is every year, there are winners and there are losers.
We all know stamps went up 2 cents (or 4.76%). Overall, the increase is 3.5%. Almost all classes we checked got an increase this year (including the 01/18/09 partial increase). However, not all did.
A number of our customers use First Class mail solely for the timing benefits. First Class will reliably deliver within about 3 days of the drop date, where Standard Mail will take 3 to 6 or more. The reasons they care vary. In one example, they bring in extra staff to man the phones on the dates they expect the mail to start arriving in homes. This is fine for letter size mail under an ounce. Once you get outside that, the postage goes up a great deal.
What we do in these cases is switch to Standard Mail with drop shipping. The Standard Mail rates are lower, and by dropping the mail closer to its destination, we’re able to overcome the timing issues.