No USPS Rate Increase in 2010

By: Joseph Kiefer

As a direct mailer, this has been a challenging year. Mailing has never been more expensive, yet response rates were on the decline due to the economy and variety of other factors. Worse, mailers were looking forward to another price increase in 2010. I know in our case, that rate increase was already put into our budget for 2010.

Last Thursday, however, the USPS surprised the direct mailing industry by announcing that there will not be rate increases in 2010. The USPS could not have timed this better, with the announcement coming as 2010 mailing plans are being put together. We did some major mailing plan cutbacks in 2009 and have continued to shift efforts more towards online options. The fact that there is not going to be a price increase this year probably does not push us to raise our volume, but it will at least keep us from scaling back further.

I see this as a positive step for the USPS. They have been bleeding money for a while and need to find some ways to stop the decrease in mail volume and in their customer base. Until now, it seems like they have been focusing their efforts on cost saving ideas, rather then customer retention. They have had a couple of sales, but based on the requirements I would venture to guess that they did not apply to a whole lot of companies. Keeping the postal rates the same applies to everyone and should help stabilize the volume decrease.

Stabilizing the mail volume would be a major USPS victory at this point, with the economy, e-mail and social media all working against it. Is there anyone left who does not pay their bills on-line? E-mail has obliterated personal mail and has made a major dent in business mail over the last couple of years. The USPS has a long road ahead of it, but for the sake of direct mailers I sincerely hope they continue to look for ways to keep themselves and their customers healthy and mailing.