UAMS Mail Center News

Quick Links:

UAMS Home Page
Campus Operations

This news archive is from the 1st Quarter of 1999
A more recent Postal Rate change can be found here.

H Rate Stamp Image Courtesy and Copyright United States Postal Service

H Rate Makeup Stamp Image Courtesy and Copyright United States Postal Service

REPRESENTATIVE RATES
Product	Previous Rate	New Rate
First Class Letter	0.32	0.33
Priority Package	$3.00	$3.20

HIGHLIGHTS OF NEW POSTAGE RATES
* Effective January 10, 1999

FIRST-CLASS:The First-Class stamp goes up one penny, from 32 to 33 cents -- a 3.1 percent increase, the lowest in 27 years, and the second consecutive adjustment at or below inflation. The second-ounce price decreases from 23 cents to 22 cents. The single-piece rate for post cards remains 20 cents and the rate for a two ounce flat is 55 cents.

EXPRESS MAIL: The half-pound rate for Next Day Service to Addressee increases $1.00 to $11.75. The two-pound rate increases to $15.75.

PRIORITY MAIL: The Priority Mail flat rate for up to two pounds increases 20 cents, to $3.20. The Postal Service introduces delivery confirmation for Priority Mail. For mailers who apply their own barcodes and access postal information systems for electronic confirmation, the service is free. Retail service is available for 35 cents.

Postal Rate Changes

Many customers are not sure how stamp prices are set and why periodic adjustments are necessary. They often have the perception that the U.S. Postal Service raises rates more frequently than it does, and without regard to customers' concerns and input. The facts are quite different, and postal customers deserve to know the whole story.

The Postal Service attempts to raise rates just enough to cover costs and sustain high quality, universal service at a price our customers can afford -- without taxpayer subsidies.

The Postal Service does not set rates unilaterally. The Postal Reorganization Act of 1970 shifted rate-making authority from the Congress to two presidentially appointed bodies-- the Postal Service Board of Governors and the Postal Rate Commission (PRC).

When the Postal Service determines, through cost and volume studies, that an adjustment is required, the Board of Governors requests a recommended decision from the independent PRC, which holds evidentiary hearings on the request.

New postage rates took effect January 10, 1999. Despite record financial performance over the last four years, the U.S. Postal Service's costs have risen just like those of any business.

The increase in 1995 represented the first rate adjustment in nearly four years, a record period of rate stability for the Postal Service and its customers. With the last two postage rate increases significantly below the rate of inflation, the real price of a First-Class stamp has dropped by 7 percent since 1995.

The modest penny rate increase is one-third the rate of inflation, and comes after four years of steady stamp prices, the longest period of rate stability in the Postal Service's 27-year history. It is just enough to sustain universal service at reasonable rates into the 21st Century. Through improved performance and better cost management, the Postal Service is making the mail a better communications value for the American people.

For more information visit the United States Postal Service Web Page.

Located in Little Rock, Arkansas