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USPS Hike

peter4jcpeter4jc Posts: 16,472 ✭✭✭✭✭
edited January 2016 in General Discussion
Those dirty b*st*rds jumped the small Flat-Rates to $6.45.

Medium Flat-Rates went from $11.30 (online) to $13.45.

The 12# boxes of coffee I send to customer in Tulsa every month went from $16.81 to $30!

How can they justify that?!?  I am NOT a happy camper!
"I could've had a Mi Querida!"   Nick Bardis
Post edited by peter4jc on

Comments

  • CharlieHeisCharlieHeis Posts: 8,510 ✭✭✭✭✭
    Wow, that seems excessive. We're all used to a little inflation, but this is ridiculous. Time to check out the competition for the large shipments.
  • Dark_RoastDark_Roast Posts: 1,070 ✭✭✭
    That sucks! No real justification for that kind of increase except they can. Don't know how much UPS you do but maybe they will work with you.
  • SleevePlzSleevePlz Posts: 6,249 ✭✭✭✭
    The one bright side, at least for cigar shipping, is that first class packages can now go up to 1 lb instead of just 13 oz. With SFRB up to $6.10 if bought online, that will be a bit of savings. Time to figure out how many cigars I can fit in a box and keep it under 16 oz.
    LLA - Lancero Lovers of America
  • jlmartajlmarta Posts: 7,881 ✭✭✭✭✭
    SleevePlz said:
    The one bright side, at least for cigar shipping, is that first class packages can now go up to 1 lb instead of just 13 oz. With SFRB up to $6.10 if bought online, that will be a bit of savings. Time to figure out how many cigars I can fit in a box and keep it under 16 oz.
    That's a good point and I'll keep it in mind. However, the downside is that the USPS (for some unknown reason) won't let you print your own first class mailing labels online like you can with priority mail. That means a trip to the PO - Dammit!!

    With priority mail I can print the labels and schedule a pickup at my home by the mail lady when she comes by on her daily route. No trips to the PO......  B)
  • SleevePlzSleevePlz Posts: 6,249 ✭✭✭✭
    Good point, Marty. I'm lucky in that I'm neighbors with my PO so I always walk up there daily anyways. No idea why we can't do first class online. I can use it through Ebay.
    LLA - Lancero Lovers of America
  • jlmartajlmarta Posts: 7,881 ✭✭✭✭✭
    SleevePlz said:
    Good point, Marty. I'm lucky in that I'm neighbors with my PO so I always walk up there daily anyways. No idea why we can't do first class online. I can use it through Ebay.
    Yeah, I guess you could walk to the PO in a village no bigger than Goodrich. I'll bet that's a nice place - if only it weren't for the winters back there. I grew up in Detroit. 
  • peter4jcpeter4jc Posts: 16,472 ✭✭✭✭✭
    I'm with you, Marty.  If I couldn't get a carrier pickup from USPS and had to take my packages somewhere, they wouldn't be going via USPS.  The last few years I've averaged about 1,000 lbs/mo shipped of green (unroasted coffee) to other home-roasters, and there's no way I'm schlepping that somewhere to ship it.  That's the only edge USPS has is that they'll pick up here at the house, but this price increase will have me shopping around. 

    The issue for me is that I still don't have the volume to have UPS or FedEx pay any attention to me, for a pickup or volume discounts.  So this price increase is going to hurt small business way more than big business.  My only options are to absorb the extra buck or two per lb. of coffee, or increase my prices, and neither is something I want to do.
    "I could've had a Mi Querida!"   Nick Bardis
  • avengethisavengethis Posts: 5,689 ✭✭✭✭✭
    What about looking into a scale at home that weighs and prints out shipping labels? Might help offset costs a bit. I'll be looking to other options
    Team O'Donnell FTW!

    "I've got a great cigar collection - it's actually not a collection, because that would imply I wasn't going to smoke ever last one of 'em." - Ron White
  • jlmartajlmarta Posts: 7,881 ✭✭✭✭✭
    avengethis said:
    What about looking into a scale at home that weighs and prints out shipping labels? Might help offset costs a bit. I'll be looking to other options
    Wouldn't you still have to pay whatever rates are in effect at the time?  How would that help anything?
  • avengethisavengethis Posts: 5,689 ✭✭✭✭✭
    I'm looking at it from a standpoint that maybe because of weights it would be more beneficial to weight it instead of going flat rate.
    Team O'Donnell FTW!

    "I've got a great cigar collection - it's actually not a collection, because that would imply I wasn't going to smoke ever last one of 'em." - Ron White
  • jarublajarubla Posts: 2,329 ✭✭✭✭✭
    Wow, just wow. 

    I was a clerk at one of their warehouses once upon a time (~11 years ago, for 6 months until I found a much better job).

    I suspect the reasons they'll give are operational loss related. Gonna go check da innerwebz and see...
    “There’ll be two dates on your tombstone and all your friends will read ’em but all that’s gonna matter is that little dash between ’em.” -Kevin Welch
  • avengethisavengethis Posts: 5,689 ✭✭✭✭✭
    http://www.stamps.com/usps/postage-rate-increase/
    Team O'Donnell FTW!

    "I've got a great cigar collection - it's actually not a collection, because that would imply I wasn't going to smoke ever last one of 'em." - Ron White
  • avengethisavengethis Posts: 5,689 ✭✭✭✭✭
    And from USA Today...

    SAN FRANCISCO – Rates for Priority Mail packages shipped via the U.S. Postal Service will go up on average 9.8% on Jan. 17, a move that comes at the same time that private delivery services are also raising rates. 

    Within the last month, UPS Ground service rates increased on average 4.9% and FedEx by 4.9%.

    In addition to the Priority Mail rate hike, the Priority Mail Express prices will rise on average 14.4%, says USPS.

    "This is the first price increase in more than three years. Calculated over that three year period, overall the price change averages out to 3.3% per year,” said USPS spokesman Roy Betts.

    The price of a one-ounce, First Class letter, currently at 49 cents, will remain the same.

    The USPS rise will mostly affect small businesses and some consumers who use the post office’s shipping service.

    Many of them "use USPS because it's economical and most areas have post offices," said Jarrett Streebin,​ CEO of EasyPost, a shipping and tracking platform for high volume e-commerce companies.

    The rate increase will be good news for UPS, because the post office's pricing "in some parcel areas eats into UPS and others' margins," he said.

    The real news is that the post office seems to be closing the gap between the rate it charges smaller customers and the rate it gives customers who ship in volume, which the postal service calls Commercial Base Pricing and Commercial Plus Pricing respectively.

    "For a long time, most anyone that wanted it could get Commercial Plus Pricing (volume discounts). Now, they're closing that gap," said Streebin. This could help the USPS capture some of the margins that previously had gone to customers who were shipping relatively low volumes but still getting volume discounts, he said.

    The number of packages USPS’ Priority Mail service ships has been steadily increasing. In 2013 it was 924 million, in 2014, 934 million and in 2015 it reached 1 billion packages shipped, Betts of USPS said.

    Priority Mail revenue have also been rising. For 2013 they were $7.0 billion, for 2014 $7.2 billion and for 2015, $7.7 billion, he said.

    Team O'Donnell FTW!

    "I've got a great cigar collection - it's actually not a collection, because that would imply I wasn't going to smoke ever last one of 'em." - Ron White
  • WylaffWylaff Posts: 5,360 ✭✭✭✭✭
    I love how revenue is steadily increasing, so they raise the rates. It would be a crying shame to continue on an upward trend like that...
    "Cooking isn't about struggling; It's about pleasure. It's like sǝx, with a wider variety of sauces."

    At any given time the urge to sing "In The Jungle" is just a whim away... A whim away... A whim away...
  • kswildcatkswildcat Posts: 1,490 ✭✭✭✭✭
    Sure isn't do to fuel prices. My guess is wage increase. Short term fix until everything gets higher, end result throughout  history is once everything settles your no better off or worse off.
  • Amos_UmwhatAmos_Umwhat Posts: 8,805 ✭✭✭✭✭
    It's January, everything always goes up.
    WARNING:  The above post may contain thoughts or ideas known to the State of Caliphornia to cause seething rage, confusion, distemper, nausea, perspiration, sphincter release, or cranial implosion to persons who implicitly trust only one news source, or find themselves at either the left or right political extreme.  Proceed at your own risk.  

    "If you do not read the newspapers you're uninformed.  If you do read the newspapers, you're misinformed." --  Mark Twain
  • kswildcatkswildcat Posts: 1,490 ✭✭✭✭✭
    Except my wages lol 
  • C-LOVEC-LOVE Posts: 1,407 ✭✭✭
    I shipped a small flat rate last week for $5.25, shipped one yesterday $6.80.
  • avengethisavengethis Posts: 5,689 ✭✭✭✭✭
    I think if you print your label online its $6.10 but that is still an  $.85 hike.
    Team O'Donnell FTW!

    "I've got a great cigar collection - it's actually not a collection, because that would imply I wasn't going to smoke ever last one of 'em." - Ron White
  • webmostwebmost Posts: 7,713 ✭✭✭✭✭
    Stop to consider they lost $5 bil last year, yet intend to replace the entire fleet of mail delivery trucks this year for $8 bil. Gotta make that up somewhere.
    “It has been a source of great pain to me to have met with so many among [my] opponents who had not the liberality to distinguish between political and social opposition; who transferred at once to the person, the hatred they bore to his political opinions.” —Thomas Jefferson (1808)
  • peter4jcpeter4jc Posts: 16,472 ✭✭✭✭✭
    edited January 2016
    avengethis said:
    I think if you print your label online its $6.10 but that is still an  $.85 hike.
    I'm not seeing any online pricing, only one price, $6.85.

    From USPS, "Click-N-Ship Pricing: Starting in 2016, Commercial Base Pricing (online discounts) will no longer be available for the Click-N-Ship program for shipping labels printed on USPS.com. All pricing for the Click-N-Ship program will be Post Office/Retail Rates."
    "I could've had a Mi Querida!"   Nick Bardis
  • avengethisavengethis Posts: 5,689 ✭✭✭✭✭
    You are right, I was reading that article on Stamps.com they offer that $6.10 price with their service but you no longer get the discount through the usps website.
    Team O'Donnell FTW!

    "I've got a great cigar collection - it's actually not a collection, because that would imply I wasn't going to smoke ever last one of 'em." - Ron White
  • jlmartajlmarta Posts: 7,881 ✭✭✭✭✭
    edited January 2016
    avengethis said:
    You are right, I was reading that article on Stamps.com they offer that $6.10 price with their service but you no longer get the discount through the usps website.
    This is the first time I've heard of Stamps.com. I've been using the USPS Click-and-ship thingy. Is there an advantage to Stamps.com?  I mean other than the price you just mentioned?  I don't want to register on their website just to learn more about it....
  • avengethisavengethis Posts: 5,689 ✭✭✭✭✭
    I have never used stamps.com but have heard of it.  There is a few either monthly or annually for it however. I have always used the USPS click n ship as well.
    Team O'Donnell FTW!

    "I've got a great cigar collection - it's actually not a collection, because that would imply I wasn't going to smoke ever last one of 'em." - Ron White
  • jlmartajlmarta Posts: 7,881 ✭✭✭✭✭
    avengethis said:
    I have never used stamps.com but have heard of it.  There is a few either monthly or annually for it however. I have always used the USPS click n ship as well.
    Ah, thanks for that. You just saved me the effort/nuisance of going the whole route just to find out I wasnt interested. Guess I'll just stick with USPS. What the heck, it's only money....  B)
  • Dark_RoastDark_Roast Posts: 1,070 ✭✭✭
    Try explaining to a customer their coffee juist increased $1,00 a pound due to increase shipping cost levied by the Federal Government. Trust me its not easy. Sometimes its just not just money. Sometimes its your lifestyle. 
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