FSS Postage Rates Will Raise Issues for Catalogers, Publications, Printers, and USPS

Because of a provision in the recently announced postal rates, mailers and printers have four months to overhaul the way they prepare catalogs, magazines, and other flat mail.

The coming changes raise a variety of uncertainties for flats mailers, printers, and the U.S. Postal Service (USPS) itself. And they will make it difficult for many mailers to project how much the new rates will cost them.

The higher rates slated to take effect January 26, will require something that until now has been optional—and little used: Flat mail going to ZIP codes served by the Flats Sequencing System will undergo FSS preparation.