The United States Postal Service (USPS) is planning to change mail rates as of January 26, 2020.
The USPS has stated that the increases “will keep the Postal Service competitive while providing the agency with needed revenue.” In its fourth quarter financial statement, the USPS announced it ran a deficit in FY2019 of $8.8 billion. With thirteen years of continuous losses, the cumulative USPS deficit is now $77.8 billion.
Postal volumes declined by a total of 2.9% in 2019, the majority coming from the eroding First Class Mail category. There was an increase of 0.3% in the package delivery category, but not nearly enough to offset the overall decline.
The 2020 rate increase will not affect domestic retail postage prices such as first class letters (55 cents), metered letters (50 cents), flats ($1.00), postcards (35 cents) and additional ounces letters (15 cents). The outbound international letter rate will go up by 5 cents from $1.15 to $1.20.
Meanwhile, priority Mail envelopes and boxes will increase between 3.5% (Express) and 4.1% (Standard).
2020 Marketing Mail Rate Increases
For our printing customers, marketing mail will have an overall increase of 1.89%, with the following average rate increases per category:
- Letters=1.96% increase
- Flats=3.91% increase
- Parcels=3.91% increase
- High Density / Saturation Letters=1.41% increase
- High Density / Saturation Flats and Parcels=0.87% increase
- Carrier Route=1.14% increase
- Every Door Direct Mail – Retail=2.14% increase
The charts below provide detailed rate changes for letters and flats marketing mail. Due to the complexity of the increases per discount category, each project needs to be evaluated separately.
Automation Letters (3 oz or Less)
| Entry | Sortation | Current | 2020 | % Change |
| None | 5-Digit | $0.256 | $0.259 | 1.16% |
| None | AADC | $0.281 | $0.284 | 1.07% |
| None | MAADC | $0.291 | $0.299 | 2.68% |
| DNDC | 5-Digit | $0.234 | $0.239 | 2.09% |
| DNDC | AADC | $0.259 | $0.264 | 1.89% |
| DNDC | MAADC | $0.269 | $0.279 | 3.58% |
| DSCF | 5-Digit | $0.228 | $0.233 | 2.15% |
| DSCF | AADC | $0.253 | $0.258 | 1.94% |
Automation Flats (4 oz or Less)
| Entry | Sortation | Current | 2020 | % Change |
| None | 5-Digit | $0.405 | $0.418 | 3.11% |
| None | 3-Digit | $0.523 | $0.543 | 3.68% |
| None | ADC | $0.597 | $0.608 | 1.81% |
| None | MADC | $0.632 | $0.666 | 5.11% |
| DNDC | 5-Digit | $0.362 | $0.375 | 3.47% |
| DNDC | 3-Digit | $0.480 | $0.500 | 4.00% |
| DNDC | ADC | $0.554 | $0.565 | 1.95% |
| DNDC | MADC | $0.589 | $0.623 | 5.46% |
| DSCF | 5-Digit | $0.352 | $0.364 | 3.30% |
| DSCF | 3-Digit | $0.470 | $0.489 | 3.89% |
| DSCF | ADC | $0.544 | $0.554 | 1.81% |
Carrier Route Flats (4 oz or Less)
| Entry | Sortation | Current | 2020 | % Change |
| DNDC | Saturation Addressed | $0.186 | $0.186 | 0.00% |
| DSCF | Saturation Addressed | $0.179 | $0.179 | 0.00% |
| DDU | Saturation Addressed | $0.161 | $0.163 | 1.23% |
| DNDC | Saturation Simplified | $0.187 | $0.187 | 0.00% |
| DSCF | Saturation Simplified | $0.180 | $0.180 | 0.00% |
| DDU | Saturation Simplified | $0.162 | $0.164 | 1.22% |
| DAL | $0.040 | $0.050 | 20.00% |
2020 Non-profit Marketing Mail Increases
The charts below provide detailed rate changes for non-profit letters and flats marketing mail. Due to the complexity of the increases per discount category, each project needs to be evaluated separately.
Non-Profit Automation Letters (3 oz or Less)
| Entry | Sortation | Current | 2020 | % Change |
| None | 5-Digit | $0.138 | $0.138 | 0.00% |
| None | AADC | $0.163 | $0.163 | 0.00% |
| None | MAADC | $0.173 | $0.178 | 2.81% |
| DNDC | 5-Digit | $0.116 | $0.118 | 1.69% |
| DNDC | AADC | $0.141 | $0.143 | 1.40% |
| DNDC | MAADC | $0.151 | $0.158 | 4.43% |
| DSCF | 5-Digit | $0.110 | $0.112 | 1.79% |
| DSCF | AADC | $0.135 | $0.137 | 1.46% |
Non-Profit Automation Flats (4 oz or Less)
| Entry | Sortation | Current | 2020 | % Change |
| None | 5-Digit | $0.231 | $0.240 | 3.75% |
| None | 3-Digit | $0.349 | $0.365 | 4.38% |
| None | ADC | $0.423 | $0.430 | 1.63% |
| None | MADC | $0.458 | $0.488 | 6.15% |
| DNDC | 5-Digit | $0.188 | $0.197 | 4.57% |
| DNDC | 3-Digit | $0.306 | $0.322 | 4.97% |
| DNDC | ADC | $0.380 | $0.387 | 1.81% |
| DNDC | MADC | $0.415 | $0.445 | 6.74% |
| DSCF | 5-Digit | $0.178 | $0.186 | 4.30% |
| DSCF | 3-Digit | $0.296 | $0.311 | 4.82% |
| DSCF | ADC | $0.370 | $0.376 | 1.60% |
Non-Profit Carrier Route Flats (4 oz or Less)
| Entry | Sortation | Current | 2020 | % Change |
| DNDC | Saturation Addressed | $0.098 | $0.098 | 0.00% |
| DSCF | Saturation Addressed | $0.091 | $0.091 | 0.00% |
| DDU | Saturation Addressed | $0.073 | $0.075 | 2.67% |
| DNDC | Saturation Simplified | $0.099 | $0.099 | 0.00% |
| DSCF | Saturation Simplified | $0.092 | $0.092 | 0.00% |
| DDU | Saturation Simplified | $0.074 | $0.076 | 2.63% |
| DAL | $0.040 | $0.050 | 20.00% |
Direct mail, catalog, government and educational printing customers should review these costs carefully to make sure that the changes do not cause budget overruns in 2020.
Please contact your Printwell account representative to have a pro-forma postage estimate generated to see precisely how the USPS rate changes will impact your mailing costs.
At Printwell, we are committed to working with customers to manage their budgets and will discuss specification options that can help offset additional expense from postal rate increases. If you have any questions, please send us a message here and someone from our sales team will get back in touch with you.