USPS customers threaten the boycott of upcoming price increases on January 21
The agency is confronted with a counter coupling while costs continue to climb for customers.
The new year has always causes new changes, and in recent years, which has certainly been true for the American postal service (USPS). The agency is currently being overhauled a decade in order to meet its financial and operational challenges, and a large part of this transformation has been price increases. But with constant cost adjustments and the next on the horizon, the USPS faces new backings and boycott calls.
In relation: USPS starts the new year with all these changes to your mail .
Back in March 2021, when the general post office Louis Dejoy released Deliver for America (DFA) Plan, the 10 -year overhaul was intended to pass the postal service "from an organization in financial and operational crisis to that which is independent and very efficient", according to the agency's website. AE0FCC31AE342FD3A1346EBB1F342FCB
One of the initiatives of the DFA is to create a "more rational pricing strategy" for the USPS. However, the realization has meant an increase on costs for customers on several occasions. The first price increase occurred in August 2021, bringing the stamp forever to 58 cents. The prices were pushed in 2022, then twice in 2023. Now customers are about to see their fifth increase in the postal rate under Dejoy.
On October 6, the USPS submitted opinion with the Postal Regulatory Commission (PRC) to offer new prices for 2024. According to the Federal register , the PRC has since Approved changes , which will increase the prices of the products of the diffusion services by around 2%.
The new prices should come into force on January 21 and "will include an increase of 2 cents of the price of a first class cachet forever, from 66 cents to 68 cents," said the USPS in its initial announcement.
In relation: USPS has just issued a new warning regarding email .
While the USPS is preparing to increase costs for customers again, many are now expressed against this initiative.
"These unprecedented shipping costs give Americans assess the cervical boost and compromise the capacity of the postal service to be delivered for America" " Kevin Yoder , a former member of the Congress and the Executive Director of Keep US Publier, a defense group for non -profit defenders who represent consumers and businesses such as newspapers and publishers who count on the USPS, told CBS News In a declaration sent by e-mail.
Several customers also went to social networks to share their frustrations before the last price increase.
"Why is the @usps tariff the average person to use them for communications? It seems to me that if you lower the price of stamps, more people would buy stamps. User published the 31st of December .
Another wrote December 27 , "Tu'stra. When I say I'm so tired that Usps increases their prices."
Some are so indignant by the repeated price increases that they call a boycott against the agency in their posts. "The first class messaging stamp goes to 0.68 cents in 2024. It is time to put the USPS to graze an burial this dead horse. #Boycott", wrote an X user December 23 .
It is not only to speak either: Yoder told CBS News that the rate increases distance consumers and companies to rely on the USPS.
"The volume of the mail is currently down by almost 9% in annual shift, after the rate increases have entered into force in January and July, and the increase proposed next January will only perpetuate these losses", a- he said. "The paper mail activity keeps USPS afloat, and with each postal hike, more mail leaves the system forever."
Nevertheless, the postal service argued that the increase in costs is necessary for its continuous transformation.
"While inflationary pressures on operating expenses are continuing and the effects of a previously defective pricing model are still in line, these price adjustments are necessary to provide the postal service essential income to carry out the Financial stability requested by its home delivery for America, "said the USPS. "The prices of the postal service remain among the most affordable in the world."
In relation: For more information, register for our daily newsletter .