2012 US Postal Service POSTAGE RATES
From the unofficial site by J. I. Nelson, Ph.D. where you will find additional commentary on why you pay more for postage and get access to on-line postage available only to corporations who send you junk mail for next-to-free
2012: 44 cents -> 45 cents on 22Jan2012
A flat, flexible business-sized envelope is cheaper than flat, flexible manila envelopes that need bigger sorting machines and they are cheaper than thick, inflexible envelopes of the same size and weight that are UNMACHINABLE.
Letters 1st Class 45¢ + 20¢
1 oz $0.45 Bad envelope penalty 20¢2 ounces $0.65
3 ounces $0.85
3.5 oz $1.05 Heavier? Go to FLATS (next).
Up 2 cents from $0.42 on 11May09.
Incrementing 20¢, not 17¢, on 17April2011.
Up 1 cent from $0.44 on 22Jan2012.
Incrementing 20¢, not 17¢, on 17April2011.
Up 1 cent from $0.44 on 22Jan2012.
Add non-machinable penalty ("bad envelope" penalty), increased to $0.20 May08;
unchanged for '09, '10, '11, '12 praise the Lord.
Square? Goes though their machines but they can’t tell which way? Add $0.20
Almost square (less than 30% height-width difference)? Add $0.20.
Too skinny? (long length more than 2.5x short)? Add $0.20.
Length over 11 ½” ? Go to “Flats” (next)
Height over 6 1/8”? Go to “Flats”.
(A Size 14 envelope is OK; Size 10 is normal)
Thicker than ¼”? Go to “Flats”.
Tired? Sorry. Too bad. Congress gave away its power of oversight and let the Postal Service change rates by itself.
1 oz $0.90 and add 20 cents each additional ounce as of 17April2011; unchanged 2012
2 ounces $1.10
3 ounces $1.30 (fold it in half and go in a business envelope for 85 cents)
4 ounces $1.50
5 ounces $1.70
6 ounces $1.90
7 ounces $2.10
8 ounces $2.30
9 ounces $2.50
10 ounces $2.70
11 ounces $2.90
12 ounces $3.10
13 ounces $3.30
2 ounces $1.10
3 ounces $1.30 (fold it in half and go in a business envelope for 85 cents)
4 ounces $1.50
5 ounces $1.70
6 ounces $1.90
7 ounces $2.10
8 ounces $2.30
9 ounces $2.50
10 ounces $2.70
11 ounces $2.90
12 ounces $3.10
13 ounces $3.30
FLATS:
Over 13 oz? Consider Priority Mail flat-rate envelope.Your envelope is inflexible, lumpy, not rectangular? Go to “Packages”.
(No cardboard to prevent creased photos, sorry.)
Length over 15” ? Go to “Packages”.
Height over 12”? Go to “Packages”.
Thicker than 1/4"? Go to “Packages”
After 12May08, it went up 3¢
After 11May09, it went up 5¢
After 17Apr11, it incremented 20¢ /oz instead of just 17¢
After 22Jan12, it went up 2¢
International and Postcards PRIORITY
ExpressMail $$$ and insurance MediaMail (bookrate)
Money Orders, Delivery Confirm Print your own zone chart Parcel Post
Padded envelopes not over 3/4" thick, rigid photo mailers, medical samples, small boxes under 1 cubic foot. You may write on your little box, "1st Class Airmail." The official name is "1st Class Package" or "1st Class Mail Parcel" ( not Parcel Post ! ).
2011: No longer available on-line to the American public.Pitney-Bowes can print it for eBay Inc, but you and I have to stand in line at the Post Office.
But wait! To send small 1st Class Packages ON LINE, go to this unpublicized URL ("Universal Resource Locater" or Web address): https://www.paypal.com/ShipNow (Thank you, JohnD.)
You must be a registered PayPal user (a part of eBay, Inc). You must enter a PayPal user name and password. No coffee breaks! If your session times out, you'll lose the address you were typing and have to log in all over again.
This page normally comes up only if you sold something on eBay and must ship it. There is not supposed to be public access. When public access to this URL is shut down, there will be some excuse. You didn't sell on eBay, we don't know what you are sending. But all our parcels are subject to opening for postal inspection, so tell me again, What are you afraid of? Explain one more time why it is up to eBay, Inc. to say whether we, the American people, have the right to use our own postal system? Keep small parcel access available on line -- the Post Office needs the money as much as eBay. All Americans want a Postal Service.
1 oz $1.95 2 ounces $1.95
3 ounces $1.95 and add 17 cents each additional ounce
4 ounces $2.12
5 ounces $2.29
6 ounces $2.46
7 ounces $2.63
8 ounces $2.80
9 ounces $2.97
10 ounces $3.14
11 ounces $3.31
12 ounces $3.48
13 ounces $3.65
(After 12May08, it went up 4¢ )
(After 11May09 it went up 5¢ )
(After 17Apr11 the 1st 3 oz were made all the same & only 2¢ less than what 4 oz used 2B)
(After 22 Jan12 it went up 24¢. Wow! No wonder they publicized only the other changes.)
If over 13 oz, try instead Priority Mail flat rate boxes (any weight if you can fit it in).
Too big for the box?
Length plus girth over 108”? Go to Parcel Post calculator. No even Priority will take you.
Length plus girth over 130" Go to UPS like I told you -- Post Office won't take it.
2009: UPS max 165" length plus girth combined, or 108" max length alone. Bigger stuff can go UPS with a paid penalty, or with freight services. Length plus girth over 130" Go to UPS like I told you -- Post Office won't take it.
International and Postcards PRIORITY
ExpressMail $$$ and insurance MediaMail (bookrate)
Money Orders, Delivery Confirm Print your own zone chart Parcel Post
International Airmail
REVENUE = price x how many use the service.
Please make the service easier to use.
Please make the service easier to use.
1 ounce Canada $0.85. Mexico $0.85. Rest of World (RoW) $1.05.
One ounce is a business envelope with 5 sheets of typical Xerox paper, or 1 sheet and six 4x6" photos. Leave out 1 sheet or 1 photo to be safe. "3.5" oz means you can't weigh more, but you pay for 4 oz.
Limits, all countries: value under $400, size under 6 1/8" x 11 1/2" x 1/4" thick
CANADA 1 oz $0.85 +32¢ Limits, all countries: value under $400, size under 6 1/8" x 11 1/2" x 1/4" thick
2 oz $1.17
3 oz $1.49
3 1/2 $1.81
MEXICO 1 oz $0.85 +59¢
2 oz $1.44 The next ounce is 59¢ not 32¢? So,
3 oz $2.03 the force of gravity in Mexico is double Canada's?
3 1/2 $2.62
Rest of World 1 oz $1.05
2
3 Check below see of you are in a cheap or costly country group.
31/2
Cheaper Countries, Groups 6-9. Central and South America, Middle East, Africa,
central Asia, New Zealand, Philippines, Taiwan
1 oz $1.05 + 80¢/oz Unchanged 11Apr2011,
2 oz $1.85 up 22Jan2012 7¢ to start, 2¢ per increment
3 oz $2.65
3 1/2 $3.45
Costly Countries, Groups 3-5. European Union (France, Italy, places with castles and good food) ,
Russia & Turkey, China, Hong Kong, South Korea, Japan,
Australia (host to a key ground station
in a famous spy satellite system), 1 oz $1.05 + 87¢/oz
2 oz $1.92
3 oz $2.79 Unchanged 11Apr2011,
3 1/2 $3.66 up 22Jan2012 7¢ to start, 3¢ per increment
Go to http://postcalc.usps.gov/ and click the large envelope, not the regular-sized one, to get the higher ounces.
This over 3.5 oz world is a world of 1st Class Mail Int'l LARGE ENVELOPEs and Priority Mail International. Large envelope service still goes up to 64 oz but costs $29.19 (costly countries), so flat rate Priority Mail Int'l at $16.95 is your choice for 2, 3, 4 lbs. Compared to cheaper Priority Flat Rate, this "Large Envelope" offers nothing but a larger envelope: 12 x 15 x 3/4" vs. the tight, thin Priority Envelope at 9 1/2" x 15" (that's the legal size version; same price as classic size in International service).
Logistics: You have to go to the Post Office for Large Envelope service because it's not available online, and you might as well go for your first Priority Int'l mailing too, to get customs forms and help filling them out. You probably couldn't have done your Priority mailing from home and there's no online discount for Priority Int'l anyway.
Not just large but lumpy too? Pay slightly more and go to Packages ("First Class Mail International Packages"). http://postcalc.usps.gov/ Why stop at Canada, Mexico, Cheap, and Costly? Why just 9 country groups? UN membership is pushing 200 countries. Bureaucrats, rally round the regulatory windfall. We're not here to make a convenient service in support of this great nation and its people. Let's make sure country #83 doesn't lose money -- we don't have the vision or the leadership to grasp that we are killing the whole service with needless complexity.
We are mediocre bureaucrats. We love it. Postcard 32¢
4 ¼ x 6" max, 0.016” max (0.016" is "16 mills"; a typical business card is 12 mills)
Minimum thickness 7 mills; cheap glossy inkjet photo paper is 10 mills, so mail it. Too big? Mail under letter rates for domestic first class letter.
Increased 2¢ 11May09
Increased 1¢ 17Apr11
Increased 3¢ 22Jan12
International Postcards 98¢
RestOfWorld: $1.05 unchanged 17Apr11; up on 22Jan12 from 98¢
Aerograms / Air Letter Sheets are discontinued by the postal service of the United States
If you have old Aerograms, you can use them at the current First-Class "Regular" Letters rate by adding additional stamps. Or save them for eBay.International and Postcards PRIORITY
ExpressMail $$$ and insurance MediaMail (bookrate)
Money Orders, Delivery Confirm Print your own zone chart Parcel Post
To cope with the complexity and to obtain a discount that is about 4%, purchase Priority postage online at:
http://postcalc.usps.gov/
Since 12May08, everything but flat-rate varies by zone. So let's concentrate on flat rate. http://postcalc.usps.gov/
In 2010, everything was $4.75 on-line and $4.90 at the counter.
This was too simple.
New tiny "small" and "gift card" sizes make you pay more for less, so we'll ignore them.
The standard 12-1/2" x 9-1/2" size is less on-line than at the counter, so let's use that.
$5.15 flat rate envelope on-line price, domestic, any zone, any weight $4.90 on line.
as long as you can seal the envelope without extra tape, and
as long as it's the standard size, not big (legal) or padded.
SIZES
Stnd 12-1/2" x 9-1/2" $4.90 online
Stnd Now (2011) available in a padded version. Add 20¢ online
Legal New (2011) longer size for legal sheets, 15" x 9-1/2" Add 20¢
The next 2 smaller sizes from 2011save them money, cost the same 4you, to heck with it:
Gift card 10" x 7" $4.75
"Small" 10" x 6" $4.75 (Print your own cards on regular 8.5x11" paper, fold in half.)
$5.35 small flat rate box domestic, any zone, any weight , $5.15 online as long as you can close the flaps on the seams..
8-5/8" x 5-3/8" x 1-5/8"
$5.00 online in 2011, up from $4.85 in 2010
$5.15 online in 2012, up from $5.00
$11.35 regular/medium flat rate box any zone, 70 lb max, $10.85 online
Two medium-size boxes are available:
Two medium-size boxes are available:
11" x 8.5" x 5.5" and
13.625" x 11.875" x 3.375
13.625" x 11.875" x 3.375
$10.50 online in 2011, up from $10.20 in 2010
$10.85 online in 2012, up from $10.50
$10.85 online in 2012, up from $10.50
$12.20 online, up from $11.95 in 2010.
$12.50 to some locations.
$12.65 online, up from $12.20 in 2011.
12" x 12" x 5.5"
23 11/16" x 11 3/4" x 3"
2009 size down from 12" x 12" x 6", and
regular non-APO online price up from
$12.95 2008, $13.50 2009, $13.95 2010, $14.20 2011, $14.65 in 2012.
(Caution: these rates typically change in January -- no, not every change happens in May.)
23 11/16" x 11 3/4" x 3"
2009 size down from 12" x 12" x 6", and
regular non-APO online price up from
$12.95 2008, $13.50 2009, $13.95 2010, $14.20 2011, $14.65 in 2012.
(Caution: these rates typically change in January -- no, not every change happens in May.)
The flat-rate-size Priority boxes may be used internationally (20 lb maximum; 4 lbs for the small one).
$11.35 small, $26.55
$12.95 small, $32.95 med, $39.95 lg Canada & Mexico
$16.95 small, $47.95 med, $60.95 lg ROW, Rest of World.
SIZE LIMITS IN THE US POSTAL SYSTEM -- Escape from a flat rate box.Internationally, non-flat rate costs about as much as the large box, and gives you sizes up to 42" long max, and length plus girth of 79" max. Domestically, non-flat-rate Priority Mail lets you escape to sizes up to 108" length plus girth, but there are penalties. You pay for your size in both Priority and Parcel Post service, even if the weight is small. For example, 23 lbs across the country for $28.96 in a Parcel Post carton with only one side over a foot long will jump to $108.23 in a carton with length + girth over 108 inches.
Over 108", Priority stops (airplanes get crowded fast) and Parcel Post is all you have left (trucks have more space). Stay under the 70 lb limit, but other than that, your weight is irrelevant -- you pay the "Oversized Penalty Price" until 130" for length + girth brings your expulsion from the Postal Service altogether. Remember that girth is width + height + width + height. Check prices online.
On-line discount? All these non-standard-box rates are cheaper online, but international flat rate boxes cost the same standing in line vs going online, which is dumb. No online discount is dumb, because the more we customers do all the work, the higher their profit margins -- no bricks, no mortar, no clerks at a counter.
Price increases 22 Jan 2012 for the Priority International Small Flat Rate Box was a staggering $3.70 from $13.25 to $16.95, a 28% increase (Rest of World rate). The price increase 22Jan12 for a Medium Flat Rate Box to Canada and Mexico rose $6.40 from $26.55 to $32.95, a stunning increase of 24%. I saw no mention of these 24% and 28% increases in any USPS announcements, and no Websites making 2011 announcements of upcoming 2012 postage increases that I found ever discovered them either. Transparency is the foundation of democratic government. Thanks, guys. Jan2010, Jan2011: Prices virtually unchanged (but we fiddled them -- your gov't never sleeps).
TO ORDER PRIORITY BOXES:
If this USPS link stops working, search on MAILING SHIPPING PRIORITY MAIL NO CHARGE like this.
Look for a hit from shop.usps.com.
If you are registered with eBay, try getting some free boxes here and let me know how it goes:
http://ebaysupplies.usps.com/usps
I say there is no weight limit on the small size box.
Pouring the small box full of liquid lead gets you 29 lbs, so I say their weight limit shows an intelligence limit.
You can fill any box with a solid block of aluminum and they'll ship it. (On the large box, leave 1/2" of free space on top.) The medium-sized boxes can be about half-full of solid iron.
The large box needs to be under 1/3 full of iron to pass -- solid iron all the way up to the top of the box would be 225 lbs, lead would be 325 lbs., and don't even think of gold. I have friends to handle the 552 lb avoirdupois weight, but I don't have the $8 million. (552.5 lbs Au, 14.583 Troy oz per lb Av. At $1000/oz Troy, that's $8M.) Meanwhile the price went from $1000/Troy oz. to $1600/Troy oz. I waste my time with these stupid calculations while everyone else makes another $5 million on gold speculation. Where is everybody? Now I've got a little white 552 pound carton and nobody to help me get it out of here. If it's not a flat rate shipment, you can use your own packaging.
If it's virtually a local shipment, don't use flat-rate.
70 lbs is the limit throughout the USPS, period: Parcel Post, Media Rate, and Priority.
Insurance:
Pre-May 12, 2008: insurance up to $500 was available on-line;
up to $5,000 if you presented the package to a Post Office clerk.
2011: You can buy larger amounts of insurance on line -- $thousands. For some easy-to-steal-and-sell items, you may be forced to get insurance when you fill out the customs form. Forget "Regional Rate box size A & bigger box size B".
This is the Post Office's 2011 attempt to win back Amazon-style free shipping from UPS, by limiting weights to 15 and 20 lbs and discounting only nearby zones heavily. As long as you ship about 5,000 Priority items or 75,000 pieces overall per year, you qualify. Their Priority prices go down about about 13% in 2011, while the rest of us pay 3% more. Why not give corporations a smaller discount and leave the prices alone for the rest of us?
Packages larger than 1 cubic foot traveling far (Zones 5 through 8) are priced by size because such trips use air transportation. Or rather, you use the same old tables that price everything by weight, but you must use an imaginary weight calculated from your package size as 8.9 lbs per cubic foot. This works out to LxWxH in inches divided by 194. //Rant: These people are trying to have something both ways at once (size or weight? We can't decide!!) Now we have a world of lies: your box surely does not weight exactly 8.9 lbs/cubic foot. Complexity, lies, and indecision might be some people's definition of "bureaucracy". //EndRant
International and Postcards PRIORITY
ExpressMail $$$ and insurance MediaMail (bookrate)
Money Orders, Delivery Confirm Print your own zone chart Parcel Post
because the prices are ridiculous?
2011: no changes for flat rate.
22Jan2012: Envelope goes up to $18.95, box (70lbs max) goes to $39.95
To cope with the complexity and to obtain a discount that is nearly 5%, purchase Express postage online at:
http://postcalc.usps.gov/
http://postcalc.usps.gov/
Any Express letter up to 1/2 lb must use a "Flat Rate Envelope". If not a flat rate shipment, you can use your own packaging, but, if it will fit, a flat-rate mailer is usually cheaper, because:
a $18.95 flat rate envelope ($17.75) takes any weight to any zone.
a $18.95 flat rate envelope ($17.75) takes any weight to any zone.
Since 2011 there's a longer size for legal paper, 15" x 9-1/2", still at the same price (22Jan2012).
Otherwise,
--- for 2 lbs to near-to-far zones, expect $17.40 to $36.45, (Jan2012, up from $29 in 2010;
--- for 4 lbs, expect $19.85 to $46.95
--- for 2 lbs to near-to-far zones, expect $17.40 to $36.45, (Jan2012, up from $29 in 2010;
--- for 4 lbs, expect $19.85 to $46.95
Order flat rate envelopes in cardboard or Tyvek here.
To find the page if it has been moved, search on Express mail maximum order like this: sample search. Look for hits on pages with the address "shop.usps.com"
International and Postcards PRIORITY
ExpressMail $$$ and insurance MediaMail (bookrate)
Money Orders, Delivery Confirm Print your own zone chart Parcel Post
No variation by zone; not cheaper locally, but still cheapest per pound if you qualify. OK for: books, DVDs, manuscripts, printed music, big educational charts. Because advertising is forbidden, you must take all magazines out of your box. The books themselves may add only incidental announcements of other books -- as old-fashioned publishers so often did on the otherwise blank end-pages.
After 11May09: Domestic Rates
Up to 1 pound: $2.38
Up to 2 pounds: $2.77
Up to 3 pounds: $3.16
Up to 4 pounds: $3.55
Up to 5 pounds: $3.94
Yes, it goes higher, see http://postcalc.usps.gov/ After you get to 7 pounds for $4.99, the increments are 40¢ per pound, all the way up to $30.19 for the 70 lbs max. At the Post Office, be prepared to open and reseal the box.
To send Media Mail packages ON LINE, go to this unpublicized URL ("Universal Resource Locater" or Web address): https://www.paypal.com/ShipNow (Thank you, JohnD.)
You must be a registered PayPal user (a part of eBay, Inc). You must enter a PayPal user name and password. Normal United States citizens are not allowed to buy Media Mail postage on-line. Corporate customers are privileged to enjoy services that US citizens don't get, even though the USPS is authorized by the Constitution of the United States to serve all its people. Of course, when public access to this URL is shut down, there will be some excuse. But all our parcels are subject to opening for postal inspection, so tell me again what you're afraid I'll mail. Explain one more time why it is up to eBay, Inc. to say whether we, the American people, have the privilege of fully using our own postal system. Keep Media Mail access open -- the Post Office needs the money.
Before 12May08: Up to 1 pound: $2.13 Up to 2 pounds: $2.47 Up to 3 pounds: $2.81 Up to 4 pounds: $3.15 Up to 5 pounds: $3.49 | Up to 2 pounds: $2.58 Up to 3 pounds: $2.93 Up to 4 pounds: $3.28 Up to 5 pounds: $3.63 | Up to 1 pound: $2.38 Up to 2 pounds: $2.77 Up to 3 pounds: $3.16 Up to 4 pounds: $3.55 70 lbs max: $29.29 |
Domestic Money Orders
Up to $500 -- $1.15
$500.01 to $1000.00 -- $1.55
Domestic Delivery Confirmation ("Signature Conf")
After 22Jan2012:
Sig conf $2.55 for most services, and $2.10 online; First Class Signature Confirmation was $0.80 at the counter ("retail") in 2009,
so we are not going up more than 20%, we are going up more than double. Certified mail (proof you sent it): $2.95, up from $1.15 in 2009; lots of large price jumps here. Return Receipt (proof they got it): $2.35 little changed in price from $2.30 in 2009
Registration (postal employees sign a register as the item passes each step in its journey) starts at $10.95, little changed form $10.60. Registration is a prerequisite to adding large amounts of insurance.
Maximum liability has been increased to $25,000 from $5,000 in 2009.
There is no separate "Declared Value Insurance", only "Registration" at some level of "Declared Value".
Express Mail ($100 insurance built in) and Priority are limited to $5,000 -- less for some foreign-country destinations. But not to worry. For $48.50, you can mail a declared value of $25,000 as a registered item. But suppose you hit it big on Antiques Road Show? For your items over $15 million, postage starts at $21,013.50 to persuade the Post Office to carry it -- then take the paperwork around to private insurance companies looking for coverage. The Hope Diamond was mailed this way. Let me know if you need my address.
$ 00.01 to $100: $11.75
$100.01 to $500: $13.50
$4,000.01 to $5,000: $20.50
$24,000.01 to $25K $48.50
For your personal wealth, restrictions to as little as $400/envelope apply to foreign mail – try a wired bank to bank transfer instead. Banks charge $25 or $50 per transaction. You need bank routing numbers, not just the account number for your deposit. The government records everything without a warrant, so this is certainly **not** how 14,700 American set up their off-shore, numbered accounts, 4,450 of themunmasked at the Union Bank of Switzerland (UBS) by a famous whistle-blower, the only one now in jail, of course. (That's funny, how'd you get so many diamonds in your toothpaste?)
First Class Flats padded envelopes and small pkgs
International and Postcards PRIORITY
ExpressMail $$$ and insurance MediaMail (bookrate)
Money Orders, Delivery Confirm Print your own zone chart Parcel Post
POSTAL ZONES
from my town McLean to ZIP XXXxx
Try http://postcalc.usps.gov/Zonecharts/ (a U.S. Postal Service link) for your own town. You can get a chart like the one below.
This zone chart is handy for Priority boxes that are not flat rate, and essential for Parcel Post if you insist on killing yourself instead of using the on-line calculator at http://postcalc.usps.gov/
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PARCEL POST
To send Parcel Post pkgs ON LINE, go to this unpublicized URL ("Universal Resource Locater" or Web address): https://www.paypal.com/ShipNow (Thank you, JohnD.)
You must be a registered PayPal user (a part of eBay, Inc). You must enter a PayPal user name and password.
This page normally comes up only if you just sold something on eBay and need to ship it. We'll see how long public access lasts. Normal United States citizens are not allowed to buy Parcel Post on-line. Corporate customers are privileged to enjoy services that US citizens don't get, even though the USPS is authorized by the Constitution of the United States to serve all its people. Of course, when public access to this URL is shut down, there will be some excuse. But all our parcels are subject to opening for postal inspection, so tell me again what you're afraid I'll mail, what you're afraid you can't track. Explain one more time why it is up to eBay, Inc. to say whether we, the American people, have the privilege of fully using our own postal system. Keep Parcel Post on-line -- the Post Office needs the money.
This page normally comes up only if you just sold something on eBay and need to ship it. We'll see how long public access lasts. Normal United States citizens are not allowed to buy Parcel Post on-line. Corporate customers are privileged to enjoy services that US citizens don't get, even though the USPS is authorized by the Constitution of the United States to serve all its people. Of course, when public access to this URL is shut down, there will be some excuse. But all our parcels are subject to opening for postal inspection, so tell me again what you're afraid I'll mail, what you're afraid you can't track. Explain one more time why it is up to eBay, Inc. to say whether we, the American people, have the privilege of fully using our own postal system. Keep Parcel Post on-line -- the Post Office needs the money.
I use flat rate Priority for small stuff, and the brown UPS trucks for heavy boxes (over 5 lbs or so).
https://wwwapps.ups.com/ctc/request?loc=en_US
UPS insurance is free up to $100, I paid $5.40 for $600 in 2011, and you have to jump through hoops to collect more than $1000 -- an original receipt for the item, a signed receipt from the guy across the counter when you dropped off the package, perhaps the original complete package saved exactly as it looked at the other end, perhaps a police report . . . ).
For Parcel Post, a local 1 lb shipment 22Jan2012 is $5.20 to $5.70 (depends on zone). Max weight, 70 lbs. At 84" length + girth, your "balloon" penalty weight is 20 lbs even if your real weight is less ($12.33 locally to $26.23 to cross the country). At 108" length + girth, you get the full oversize penalty ($64.42 locally, $108.23 to cross the country). At 130", you are expelled from the Postal System. Go directly to UPS or FedEx Freight, do not pass Go, do not pay the penalty.
To preserve your parcel post sanity, use the USPS rate calculator for "package" or "large package". http://postcalc.usps.gov/
CALCULATING PARCEL POST BY HAND (Don't go there.)
To calculate what it costs to send a box by Parcel Post, our government wants you to get a postal zone table for zones measured from your home town, like the one above, and to use the two tables below and do these steps:
1. Find the BMC city or the ASF city that serves your Zip code.
You can think of a BMC/ASF as a big mailing center or an automatic sorting facility. The largest BMC/ASF is the State of Alaska
2. Inter or intra? See if the parcel's destination is or is not in a Zip code also served by your own BMC or ASF. Now you know if this is a intra- or an inter-BMC/ASF shipment.
3. Get the zone. For an inter-BMC/ASF shipment, use the destination Zip and a zone table sheet calculated from your home town like the one above for my town to get the destination zone.
4. Decide whether or not you have a nice little machinable box.
A parcel is “machinable” and cheaper if it is not more than 34 inches long, or 17 inches high, or 17 inches thick, or 35 pounds in weight, isn’t tied with string, and other obscurities. (For books, or other printed matter going Parcel Post, the maximum weight is 25 pounds.) More at http://pe.usps.com/cpim/ftp/manuals/dmm300/101.pdf
The non-machinable penalty for inter-BMC/AF rates is $3.89.
Within an BMC/ASF, the non-machinable penalty is $2.87
Within an BMC/ASF, the non-machinable penalty is $2.87
5. If INTER (between BMCs/ASFs), look up the cost to that zone on the inter-BMC/ASF table below, on either the machinable or non-machinable side.
6. If INTRA, here are the costs to Zone 5 for packages from 1 to 10 lbs:
- $6.83
- 7.59
- 8.33
- 9.00
- 9.63
- 10.19
- 10.73
- 11.21
- 11.66
- 12.08
Big government can't run any businesses, they always fail. If they are not failing fast enough, then we help them fail a little faster. Amtrak, the Post Office, they are all the same, they are all money-losers. Give the business to corporations that know how to make a profit.
#3 FedEx $34B in revenues in 2010
#2 brown UPS $50B 2010
#1 U.S. Postal Service $65B 2011
Number One is the USPS, our post office: sixty-five billion in revs -- the 2nd largest civilian employer in the country (over half a million career employees), the largest fleet of vehicles in the world. And when #3 and #2 tear out the profitable parts of the corpse, I'm sure rural Americans will not pay more than the rest of us to get their mail, and I'm sure all 574,000 USPS employees (2011) will move into the private sector without layoffs, and all the pensions will be protected and nobody will lose their health insurance, and there won't be any office temps and even the contractors won't be forced to drive their own cars because we would never hire contractors just to avoid giving out employee benefits. And don't tell us about any Piggy Banks, and don't regulate us so that we save for our employee's future. Kiddies need a Piggy Bank but we are corporations, we are grown-ups, so don't tell us what cash reserves we should keep on our books.
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