William K. Wolfrum Chronicles

The U.S. Postal Service, faced with an existential dilemma with e-mail, faxes, and text messaging eating away at its communications monopoly, has decided to go hari-kari and opt for doing itself in.

Size matters, so does shape under new postal rates

The postal rate increase that kicks in Monday is shaping up to be a big headache for many businesses.

Many companies say they are confused and frustrated as they try to adjust to the new rules, and some say mailings could be severely curtailed due to higher postage costs.

The new regulations mean larger envelopes and packages will automatically cost more than smaller mail. Currently, postage is determined by weight, unless it’s an especially large or odd-shaped package that warrants special handling.

If your solution come Monday is to stuff the same amount of material into a smaller envelope, the Postal Service could get you there, too: There are new thickness restrictions.

For first-class, letter envelopes, the allowed thickness is a quarter inch. If you go over a quarter inch, you run into more costly large envelope or parcel rates.

Postal Service spokesman Dave Partenheimer said the new rates take shape into account because it requires more effort to process a larger piece of mail.

“Before, thickness didn’t matter,” he said. Now, “thickness does come into play. If it gets too thick you create a new shape.”

Cindy Golebiewski, an office manager in Wilmington, Delaware, said her company faces much higher postage costs under the new rules.

“The price is just doubling,” she said.

Many believe the Postal Service is taking a gamble by instituting a Soviet-style, keep-the-common-man-buried-in-nonsense-rules approach to the mail. Others believe the USPS is opting for a “death by confusion” culmination to its business.

The new rate for a first-class card or letter is now 41 cents for the first ounce. The cost for each additional ounce drops to 17 cents.

Details of the new rates are available at www.usps.com or you can call and leave your condolences at (800) 275-8777.

–WKW

This entry was posted on Monday, May 14th, 2007 at 4:19 am and is filed under Life and Such. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Responses are currently closed, but you can trackback from your own site.