Achieving Discounts -- New Numbers, Same Advice

IN THE wake of postal reform, the U.S. Postal Service (USPS) started a new practice last year: annual rate increases. Last May, this May, and potentially every May in the foreseeable future, prices will change for most forms of mail and USPS services—usually upward. Each such “price adjustment” (as a rate case is now known) is linked to a calculated increase in the Consumer Price Index (CPI) for the previous 12 months compared to the CPI for a similar period a year earlier. This figure caps the average rate increase for a class of mail (e.g., First-Class Mail), but changes within a class—such as the rate cells in a rate category—can be greater.