Let’s start with the good news! And there is good news. For the last few months, the Postal Service has been showing pictures of how rate increases will look as a result of folding the savings from the growth promotions into the mix. Thus, the dreaded 11.9% increases for Marketing Mail that many, yours truly included, feared. Just kidding, guys! That’s just for internal calculations. The actual increase will be about 7.385% overall, although there will be variations within each class, as always. Still a big increase, but more bearable. Good one, Postal Service!
There’s no bureaucrat like a postal bureaucrat, but they have really outdone themselves with the current rate case, proposed to go into effect on July 13. Actually, we are talking rates cases. There are two versions – one that continues to use Bound Printed Matter rates, and another where Bound Printed Matter is eliminated and becomes Marketing Mail.
Well, what the heck – you probably don’t use BPM anyway, so who cares? You do – or you should. If BPM is eliminated, it creates a completely new set of rates for every piece of Marketing Mail, including letters and flats, as well as parcels. The PRC has 30 days from the filing to choose what they want to do with BPM. Then, the appropriate set of rates will be revealed. No fun if you need to program to the rates.
Of course, with new rates come new regulations. Here are some of the highlights for later this year and 2026:
- Promotions are changing a bit. A new catalog promotion offering a 10% discount kicks off on October 1, 2025, and runs through June 30, 2026.
- The IMbA promotion will not be continued in 2026.
- The Mail Growth incentives will become a permanent fixture with rates into the future. The base year will become the previous calendar year, as opposed to the apples and…um…different apples approach before.
- A new sortation level is being added to presorted First-Class Mail. Mailers who can generate SCF pallets will be able to get a $4.00 discount for those pallets. This should help speed up delivery averages for First-Class Mail a bit, with fewer handling steps for those high-volume mailers who can make SCF pallets. This may also present an opportunity to comminglers.
- There is a plan to provide a 5% discount on base promotions in 2026. 10% on catalogs.
- The “Add On” promotions will continue into 2026: Informed Delivery and Sustainability.
- The drop ship discount for NDC mail is being eliminated. This will create some challenges for comminglers and logistics companies, as some lower density areas would drop to a NDC level. This mail will either need to be inducted at origin or divided into small SCF pallets.
So, what will the new rates be? Well, I can tell you that it will cost $.78 to send a Valentine to Aunt Fannie. We won’t really know Marketing Mail and Nonprofit rates until the PRC decides how it feels about Bound Printed Matter. But, overall, expect increases of about 7.4% for letters, 9.6% for flats.
This really just scrapes the surface of this rate case – and it all still needs the blessing of the Postal Regulatory Commission. The inclusion of the BPM question gives the PRC more leverage than they usually have. So, for now…it’s “proposed.”