The USPS has announced their new service standard effective October 1st for First Class Mail. This impacts “letters” & “flats” (traditional picture order envelopes and upgraded envelopes). They are allowing 1 – 2 additional days for delivery in some areas. Here is a Fact Sheet from the USPS. This states that the impact will primarily be for items traveling the furthest distances and that pre-sorted items will not be impacted. However, our recent experience has been that additional transit time for those items often occurs. But most of the US is still commonly 1-3 days from OKC.
For time sensitive items (such as proofs with deadlines), please allow extra USPS time. This would be especially important as we near the holidays.
USPS rate changes (again)
The USPS has announced a temporary peak surcharge for some items. This surcharge will run from 10-03-21 thru 12-25-21. Recently, temporary surcharges have commonly become the new rates so we will watch for that information at the start of the year.
For items over 1lb and under 10lb a peak surcharge of $0.25 to $0.75 will be applied depending on the zone. (coastal areas are higher) This may impact items such as plaques. And parcels under 1 lb will also have a peak surcharge during this time of $0.30.
CCS’ shipping program compares the cheaper of USPS Priority including surcharges vs FedEx to determine the cheaper rate at the time. So, we will continue to use the cheapest method between the two given similar service levels.
You may want to adjust your sliding scale shipping during this time period.
