U.S. Post Office News: Stamp Prices Rising; May Cut a Mail-Day in the Future

STAMP PRICING
The U.S. Postal Service will be making changes, due to the rising production costs, and not nearly as much mail being sent lately. They announced on Feb. 10th that stamp prices will be rising to 44-cents on May 11th, 2009. The "Forever Stamps" purchased before the May date will still be good, purchased at the 42-cent rate.
Other changes taking effect on May 11th include the price of a postcard stamp going up to 28 cents, the first ounce of large envelope increasing 5-cents, the first ounce of a parcel going up 5-cents, as well as new international prices.

A written release stated that this raising of stamp price will only cost the typical family about $.3.00--which doesn't seem like much, really.

LOSING A MAIL-DAY?
Another interesting piece of U.S. Postal Service news is that there may be a decrease in the number of days we receive/they deliver mail, according to the Associated Press in Washington (D.C.) in January.

The postmaster general, John E. Potter, has asked lawmakers in Congress to lift the requirement that the Post Office deliver mail 6 days a week. The day would probably be an "off" day, such as Tuesday, which is a day when mail seems to be at its lightest, according to previous postal studies.

Apparently the Post Office was $2.8 billion in the red last year. Mail volume was 202 billion items last year--which is over 9 billion less than the year before!

"The Postal Service is not immune to rising costs which are affecting homes and businesses across America today..." Potter stated.
"I do not make this request lightly, "he added. "But I am forced to consider every option given the severity of our challenge."

He also noted that this change wouldn't happen right away, and that the agency is working to cut costs in other ways.

Unless the economy turns, the Post Office is headed towards even larger losses this year.

As someone who sends quite a lot of letters and cards throughout the year, it's tough to see this happening, but I know how email and the electronic world are slowly booting out the old "pen and paper" concept. But hopefully the stamp prices don't have to keep rising--$3.00 is still $3.00 in this bad economy!