Receiving no tax dollars, the United States Postal Service relies on the sale of postage, products and services to fund its operations. With a volume decline of 3.6 percent in first-class mail, the USPS is raising those rates effective January 27, 2019.
The price of a first-class letter will increase from 50 cents to 55 cents, a ten percent increase. Additional ounce price will decrease, from 21 to 15 cents, resulting in a net decrease for letters weighing over one ounce.
According to a recent article in Newsweek, the postage price increase is an effort by the USPS to offset record operating losses in 2018 totaling nearly $4 billion. The post office has experience a volume decline in 2018 of 3.2 billion pieces, according to Fox Business, with a 3.6 percent decline in first-class mail, which provides its most significant share of income.
The purchase of Forever stamps at the current first-class rates allow those sending letters to avoid needing additional postage with the price increase. The first Forever stamp, issued in 2007, was an image of the Liberty Bell.
Flat rate prices will also be increasing, as will the cost of envelopes.
Postcard stamp prices will remain at 35 cents. Outbound international letters will continue at the same price, $1.15.
In 2017, 19 billion U.S. postage stamps were printed, and $436 million in stamp and stamp product orders were received by mail, telephone at 1-800-STAMP-24 and online at usps.com/stamps.
The USPS processes and delivers 493.4 million mailpieces each day. That’s an average of 20.6 million each hour, 342,638 per minute and 5,711 mailpieces processed every second.
The USPS does not add surcharges for fuel, residential delivery, or regular Saturday or holiday season delivery. They move mail by planes, hovercraft, trains, trucks, cars, boats, ferries, helicopters, subways, bicycles and feet. A couple of the more unusual delivery methods are an eight-mile mule train to the bottom of the Grand Canyon and dock-to-dock delivery on the Magnolia River in Alabama.
The Post Office Department was founded in 1775 with Benjamin Franklin as the first Postmaster General. His annual salary was $1,000. That makes it the second oldest federal department. Before 1971, the PMG was a Cabinet member. The current United States Postmaster General is Megan Brennan, who has served since February 1, 2015.
According to Wikipedia, until 1971, the postmaster general was the head of the Post Office Department (or simply “Post Office” until the 1820s). During that era, the postmaster general was appointed by the President of the United States, with the advice and consent of the United States Senate. From 1829 to 1971, the postmaster general was a member of the President’s Cabinet.
The Postal Service delivers to more than 157 million addresses in every state, city and town in the country. Everyone in the U.S. and its territories has access to postal products and services and pays the same for a first-class postage stamp regardless of location.
The core function of the Postal Service is to provide the secure, reliable and affordable delivery of mail and packages to every address in the United States, its territories and its military installations worldwide.
