USPS to skip rate hike this winter peak season

In a break from past year’s price hikes, the U.S. Postal Service (USPS) will not levy an extra delivery surcharge during the winter peak season, saying the decision makes USPS “the most affordable way to mail and ship this holiday season.”

Specifically, USPS said there will be no additional fees for residential area delivery, for Saturday delivery or for minimum volumes. “We are ready to deliver for the holidays in a superior and routine manner,” Postmaster General and CEO Louis DeJoy said in a release. “We have been planning early and leveraging investments in our people, infrastructure, transportation and technology made possible by the Delivering for America plan. And with no holiday surcharges, we are strongly positioned to be America’s most affordable delivery provider this holiday season.”

In past years, USPS has hiked its fees from roughly October to January during the annual surge, including increases in 2022, 2021, and 2020. 

This year, in order to prepare for a swell of holiday mailings that totaled more than 11.7 billion mailpieces and packages during the 2022 holiday season, USPS said it had made five upgrades: 

• hiring 10,000 seasonal employees in a steep drop from the 28,000 it hired in 2022, due to a policy that has converted many part-time workers to full time jobs since 2020
• installing 348 new package sorting machines since the beginning of 2021, 
• increasing its daily package processing capacity to approximately 70 million in a 10 million-unit increase over last year, 
• moving 95% of its volume via ground transportation instead of air to save money, and 
• adding a new shipping solution called “USPS Ground Advantage.”