On July 6, 2010, the Postal Service outlined the content of the price increase and filed it with the Postal Regulatory Commission.

• Overall, the increase will average 5.6%.
  
  • First-Class Mail will rise 5.4% on average.
    
  • The price for retail letters and cards will increase two cents each.
    
  • Presorted letter prices will increase an average of 2.1 cents.
    
  • FCM presorted flats will jump about 12%, on average.
    


• Standard Mail prices will increase an average of 5.6%.
  
  
  • The increase for letters and flats will be about 5.0% and 5.1%, respectively.
    
  • Basic Carrier Route mail will go up 4.9%.
    
  • High Density & Saturation letters and flats will increase by 4.8% and 4.4%.
    
  • STD parcels will jump 23.3%.
    
    
• Periodicals will increase by 8%.
  
• Bound Printed Matter flats will rise only 5%.
• Special Services will go up an average of 5.2%.
  

The Postal Service acknowledges the price increase will impact customers, but expects the total net benefit of the higher prices to be about $2.3 billion, an amount that will reduce the agency’s anticipated FY2011 loss to about $4.7 billion.

The formal filing was on July 6, 2010, and the PRC has 90 days to respond (by October 4). Implementation is planned for January 2, 2011.

We are currently working on solutions to help each of our customers to identify and minimize the impact of these proposed postal rate increases. If approved by the Postal Regulatory Commission, Trend is committed to working with each of our customers to help reduce the financial impact on postage. In addition, Trend is partnering with industry organizations to challenge the proposed increase. To learn more about the industry alliance, go to: http://www.affordalemail.org.

For additional information on the proposed postal exigency, please review the Q&A document found here: http://americapost.com/r2010/q&a.pdf.

Trend will be sending more information in the weeks to follow as we receive more details.

If you should have any questions regarding this proposal please feel free to contact me directly at (562) 794-2467.

Sincerely,

Ben Madril
Trend Offset Printing
National Director, Mailing Sales & USPS Liaison