From Oct. 3 through Dec. 25, the US Postal Service will "temporarily" increase the cost to ship "parcels," which are shipped boxes but not anything akin to a postcard, letter or flat (a large envelope, newsletter or magazine), from 25 cents to $5 depending on the delivery service you pick and the distance the parcel has to travel. Note that this price increase is not for letters, but the post office just increased the cost of stamps in August...
The USPS will implement new permanent service standards for First-Class Mail delivery times (see the chart above for the new delivery estimates). According to USPS, 60% of First-Class Mail and 93% of periodicals will be unaffected by the changes and services will remain at the same delivery rate as it currently stands to reach customers in a local area. Overall, 70% of First-Class Mail volume would receive a standard of 1-3 business days. However, the Postal Service will increase time-in-transit standards by one or two days for certain mail that is traveling longer distances. In short, because of these USPS changes we should all expect a permanent slow down in the delivery of packages...
