It is hard to believe but true, the US Post Office has announced that effective January 4, 2010 that it will reduce the price of a domestic Priority Mail Flat Rate Envelope from $4.95 to $4.90! Now a nickel is not a lot of money but it is better than an increase. Sure, some prices are going up—an average of 3.3% for Priority Mail; however, let me highlight some areas that you can save on shipping that are unique bargains in this upcoming change.
The USPS has three pricing levels: retail, commercial, and commercial plus. The first thing that everyone should know about the shipping industry is this: never pay retail. Retail pricing is for people that don’t know how to qualify for a discount. My objective of this blog is to educate so that you can save. With the USPS, you can get the first level of discount by simply using your computer to ship a package. You can do this for free at www.usps.com by simply signing up for Click-N-Ship. The savings are significant. Instead of $4.95, you pay only $4.75 for a Flat-Rate Envelope AND you get Delivery Confirmation for FREE, saving you $.70 compared to buying it at the Post Office. That is a savings of 16%. Online prices, on average, are 5 percent less than retail for Express Mail and 5.7 percent less for Priority Mail. Online savings for international shipping is 10 percent less than retail for Global Express Guaranteed, 8 percent less for Express Mail International and 5 percent less for Priority Mail International.
If you ship higher volumes, you can qualify as a commercial shipper by using PC Postage with through any other qualified PC Postage provider such as stamps.com or endicia.com for a monthly fee. Many other third-party providers embed PC Postage in their solutions.
If you are a high volume shipper, shipping over 100,000 pieces a year or 420 a day, the rates are even better and there are a couple of new bargains: a Priority Mail half-pound price, starting at $4.22 for a Zone 2 delivery and a new Priority Mail Flat Rate padded envelope for $4.95, measuring 9.5 x 12.5 inches will be available exclusively for Commercial Plus shippers.
Knowledge is power!
Posted by mtaylortec 
