What You Need to Know About the 2022 USPS Rate Increase

The United States Postal Service (USPS) is struggling financially. Despite efforts to cut costs and increase revenues, the Postal Service has continued to lose money. The financial problems are mainly due to a failure to keep postage rates up-to-date with dramatically lower letter volumes caused by the internet and other digital services. The price of a first-class stamp will go up again in  2022—the result of another temporary emergency rate increase that was enacted in January 2018. These additional rate increases will bring the cost of mailing a letter from from 51 cents to 53 cents in July 2022.

While this article focuses on the effects of the current postal rate hike on small businesses, it’s important for every business owner who ships via USPS to understand how these rate increases may affect them personally and their business moving forward; and how they can get the best USPS rate across the board.

2022 Postal Rate Increase

The USPS rate hike from July 2022 moved as high as an increase fo 5%, increasing fees across the board with added holiday surcharges that range from $.010 to $1 or more per shipment. In July 2022, the Postal Service said it aimed to generate $4.7 billion in additional annual revenue by introducing these new rate increases and holiday surcharge hikes. Here is a detailed overlook of the 2022 USPS rate increase to give you a more complete picture.

The Bottom Line

It is important for every business owner who ships via USPS to understand how these rate increases may affect them personally and their business moving forward. While you can’t do anything about the past rate increases, you can take steps now to prepare for the future rate hikes.

To avoid the ever-increasing rates from the U.S. Postal Service, consider using a shipping software solution like ReadyShipper X. It is an hybrid-cloud shipping software that can be used in conjunction with online shipping services like USPS, FedEx and UPS. It will help you organize your shipments and select the best shipping method for your business needs with built-in USPS rates that have no holiday surcharges and that defeat the cancelled USPS reseller program by offering you a negotiated rate that’s still gives you better than Commercial Plus Pricing on all your outbound shipments.