USPS Planning on a Zone 10 in July. Write your Congress person !!
Apparently USPS is planning on a zone 10 in July that is for Alaska and Hawaii for Priority Mail, Priority Mail Express, and USPS Ground Advantage.
Here is the article I found on Ecomercebytes.
The USPS is going to make it more expensive to ship packages to Alaska and Hawaii by adding a new postal zone. Sellers who offer free shipping may have to think about adjusting their product pricing to account for the structural cost change if they use the Postal Service to ship their items - even an occasional shipment to the new Zone 10 could become impactful.
Industry trade publication OMG (Official Mail Guide) covered the publication of the USPS July 2024 Release Review where the plans for a new shipping zone for competitive (not market dominant) rates were published.
Zone 10 would be added in pricing tables for Priority Mail, Priority Mail Express, and USPS Ground Advantage products.
It appears even Priority Mail Flat Rate packages would be more costly for Zone 10 than existing zones: "A separate rate structure will be implemented to allow Flat Rate Products (Priority Mail and Priority Mail Express) to have a separate price for Zone 10 and also for Zone 9 which includes the Freely Associated States (FAS)."
https://www.ecommercebytes.com/C/blog/blog.pl?/pl/2024/2/1707355789.html
mam98031
Posted 2 years ago · Edited 2 years ago·Last reply 2 years ago
61 comments
b86fiero
·2 years agoNew zone 10 rates, typical USPS summer / fall price increase if it happens, plus Holiday Surcharge on top of that leaves sellers and buyers ............
tobaccocardyahoo
·2 years agoEbay's recent financial results have made it clear that they are losing sales of mass market products to Amazon.
Amazon and Amazon's FBA sellers are increasingly using Amazon's own delivery system which has lower costs than common carriers like USPS, UPS and FEDEX.
Amazon's 3P FBA sellers are paying Amazon less to fulfill many items than it would cost them to ship.
A lot of Ebay sellers have to face whether they can compete with the Amazon ecosystem given the current trends in shipping costs.
A brand new seller today was offering a Colgate cleaning kit with a price plus shipping substantially above the Amazon delivered price. He was worried about it not appearing, but that was clearly not going to be significant. A lot of Ebay buyers, locked down during the pandemic discovered they could save money by visiting other Internet sites, and it hurt Ebay and many Ebay sellers.
Although I don't think this Zone 10 issue is a real biggie, I question whether there is any role for consumable mass market product sales on EBay, unless they are liquidation product available at a super price.
For a seller like myself who sells media and collectibles, I have to deal with deciding a new price threshold for requiring returns for a refund. Fortunately, I have few post sale issues, but this past USPS rate hike seems to have reached a high enough level to call for a change. I have enough margin so other than my lowest priced items need rethinking of my shipping charges.
buyselljack2016
·2 years agoI don't think I have any "free" at this time, but if I do it likely is an item that goes PFR.
I do have some that I do a "buyer pays flat amount". I will have to evaluate those. Some of those I have already excluded AK, HI, APO/FPO and protectorates because of the impractical shipping cost.
inhawaii
·2 years agoThanks for the heads up @mam98031
I had no idea.
It is what it is.
I'll have to try to adapt and somehow make it work.
coastaltechsolution
·2 years ago@inhawaii
It's all promoted listing fault!!!
ðŸ˜
mam98031
OP2 years agoIsn't everything??
coastaltechsolution
·2 years ago@mam98031
😂
Got yelled at for not enough wordsðŸ˜
mam98031
OP2 years agoIt needs to be at least 10 characters.
coastaltechsolution
·2 years agoCorrect, it was just sarcasm ðŸ˜
inhawaii
·2 years ago.... and managed payments. 😉
mr_lincoln
·2 years ago@coastaltechsolution
Do you mean the new Zone 10 with USPS?
coastaltechsolution
·2 years ago@mr_lincoln
I mean everything is promoted listings fault ðŸ˜
mr_lincoln
·2 years ago@coastaltechsolution
My sincere thanks for clarifying that ...
chapeau-noir
·2 years agoThis is unsurprising to me and I figured only a matter of time (and distance) before a new 'zone' was initiated.
Curiously, I ship relatively often to Alaska and Hawaii.
fern*wood
·2 years agoWhere's @inhawaii ? Oops, got an error for not talking enough. ðŸ˜
coastaltechsolution
·2 years ago@fern*wood
yes it has yelled at me before also ðŸ˜
Adding this so I do not get in trouble
tobaccocardyahoo
·2 years agoEcommercebytes makes its own decisions on what it thinks is news.
I think this rates a yawn from every seller who is not selling from the new Zone 10.
My sympathies to those who do.
This looks like another rational business decision from USPS.
mr_lincoln
·2 years ago@tobaccocardyahoo Comments in red
hartungcards
·2 years agoI may be wrong, but I don't think Congress has any control over USPS rates.
mam98031
OP2 years agoThat does get confusing. Since USPS is a federal agency, Congress can legislate stuff pertaining to USPS. But you are right about rates. That is governed by Postal Regulatory Commission.
https://www.prc.gov/about
retro_entertainment_collectibles
·2 years agoBack in the day I was on the regional Postal Community Council (PCC) which is in interface between regional management and customer base. There was about 40 of us or so and it was remarkable how resistant they were about any concepts.
For example, my ex (Politician) suggest several revenue makers to them which they really care less about. One of the better one's was cards, automation... So Biz or Personal want mail out say Christmas cards, upload a list, select you're card and put you're text in, pay, done. That could all be centralized in one facility or even subcontracted but literally they didn't care a hoot. Yet years later there sits packs of Xmas cards for the holidays as upsell items in USPS stations at such bloated pricing I get a much nicer card at Hallmark.
Another brilliant idea she'd had was USPS Electronic Mail. USPS slap all sorts blame of letter mail being desolated by eMail and electronic communications. Why not get into the business of it? People want real privacy, real security, on and on, certified services this/that... Nope, not even hear a word of it. She actually presented the idea to Congressionals who thought it brilliant (much more to it than I've said here) but said never get it past the powers that be. She'd even shown how it could be used towards secure electronic voting which of course OH no no no no no... Part of the "game" is controlling vote accessibility.
I just dont see a light at the end of the USPS tunnel, continual rate increases in parcels will come full circle.
sapphire_studio
·2 years agoAt least it's only 5%. My business model can absorb that so I'm sticking with free shipping and maybe I'll get a few extra customers out of it.
mr_lincoln
·2 years ago@mam98031
Thanks for posting that. That would definitely affect Sellers who offer Free Shipping unless eBay comes up with a 2 tiered Free shipping setting on the listing tool. One for the lower 48 and one for Alaska & Hawaii. Meaning a Seller could set Free Shipping for the Lower 48 but not for Alaska & Hawaii.
I use the Calculated setting and only occasionally ship to those two states.
mam98031
OP2 years agoIf this poses a real problem for a seller, they should consider moving away from Free Shipping. They have time to ponder this change and if it would be right for them.
mr_lincoln
·2 years ago@mam98031 Agreed!
wastingtime101
·2 years agoYou can do that now @mr_lincoln . Read my post upthread (link).
mr_lincoln
·2 years ago@wastingtime101
Thanks for that, I've never used that feature but nice to know it's there.
bashort
·2 years agoMore and more I feel better about using calculated shipping for everything, in a way "free" shipping is like older USPS rates, some pay more, some pay less with free shipping than they would of with calculated shipping.
mr_lincoln
·2 years ago@bashort
I think it is the best approach with all the shipping cost increases in the last few years. It lets a Customer see what it will cost them to ship your item to them. I think it time as shipping costs continue to rise there will be a trended towards regional Buying. I can easily see myself losing sales to Sellers on the west coast simply because shipping from the east coast is so expensive for them. A very common sale for me is a 2 Lbs item for around $ 20. To ship that item to California with their sales tax and $ 15.70 shipping cost Ground Advantage they wind up paying around $ 38.00. That's approaching double the item price.
The other issue for Sellers will be the cost of return labels if shipping starts to approach the item price. If forced to pay return shipping they would basically be looking at a lost on the transaction. I offer Free 30 Day returns so this is something I watch very closely.
toomuchstuffagain35
·2 years agoI think buyers are going to have to come to terms with the fact that shipping cost isn't JUST the postage cost but it's the price they pay for the convenience of shopping online and having it shipped to their door without them having to drive all over to find their 'stuff' and that's if it's even available in their local area.
bashort
·2 years agoI think that regional buying is already happening, when you sort price + shipping lowest it happens somewhat automatically, also as a added benefit, quicker shipping times.
And in your example of the buyer paying $38 total for a $20 item the effective ebay fees are right at 25%
retro_entertainment_collectibles
·2 years agoI think it's baloney. The USPS has committed a krapload of $$ to electronic vehicles that are non-impactors basically environmentally. As with all EV's battery efficiency goes downhill w/ cold weather. They continue to resist bi-daily deliveries which would cut costs in enormous fashion. If you want speak about money losers at the USPS, Media Mail is a loser, a big one but it was enacted via law to support basically educational institutions.
Instead of doing REAL things to cut losses/costs they're just going to continue boosting rates. I was told there may be an interim increase towards end of summer along with the planned increase. We'll see.
mam98031
OP2 years agoBi-daily mail service would significantly hurt some people. Those waiting for a check or the medications for example.
DeJoy was pushing to stop Saturday deliveries and it was denied for the reason I stated above.
And now they have to fund the disaster they have created at the Texas processing center.
nobody*s_perfect
·2 years agoHow many time-sensitive payments are actually made by mailed paper check nowadays? And I think medicine delivery would not be affected, because those are packages and isn't the proposed less-frequent delivery about letters, not packages.
mam98031
OP2 years agoI take no issue in us not agreeing.
For some people, every payment is time sensitive. You may be surprised to find out how many people simply don't have bank accounts for one reason or another.
When Ebay took MP sitewide, we lost some sellers because they had to have a bank account and they didn't want one.
https://www.fdic.gov/analysis/household-survey/index.html#:~:text=Key%20Findings,-National%20Unbanked%20Rate&text=An%20estimated%204.5%20percent%20of,the%20survey%20began%20in%202009.
retro_entertainment_collectibles
·2 years agoCertainly problems are real with significant change. My lady has many meds she's got MS. Some are at pharmacy and the others all come FedEx, of course folks have wide ranging circumstances and those that service said circumstances would need adjust.
Don't get me wrong I love my daily mail as do we all but the very real problems require very real solutions as the continual costing is unlikely to spiral downwards. I'm sure many point of sale folks end up with no sale due to that shipping sweet spot, we might cite Mamazon Prime as a measure of how many folks were discouraged by shipping expenses? Maybe? Prime the example of a biz w/ forward looking vision in respect to freighting albeit successful or failure.
Sooner or later sorta like PL's here rising USPS shipping come full circle, loose revenues due to pricing being too unattractive to consumers. There are instances right now where when I ship I could save a few pennies or dimes using UPS versus the USPS on what amounts to two pounds skewed of course by eBay's deals w/ said entities. Twice eBay selected UPS and I wasn't paying close enough attention so my bad, was cheaper but there I have to now drop at the UPS Store.
If for example what I was told is correct, an interim increase and who knows what that amounts to along with the planned increases later this year were to push pricing higher than UPS or even equal what do I do?
Am I likely to continue using the USPS over UPS? Not that I believe we get there but maybe? UPS is far more cautious at least in my years of experience and they track to the door which I and the customer can see. Not a region/zip as USPS shows albeit they now have GPS scan. Yet that GPS scan will often false. That is to say the USPS carrier has 15 packages for my street, scan them in the truck, then deliver versus scan at point of deliver (which is what they are supposed to do). UPS scans at the door.
Even if the USPS went bi-daily lets say that's a band aid for some term of time but rather impossible externally calculate. Much of the USPS expense is also tied up in what were "Sweetheart" retirements.
mr_lincoln
·2 years ago@retro_entertainment_collectibles
Good post. Here is a dynamic that I think USPS has been dealing with and projecting out to future delivery services. That is the drop off of junk mail as more generations switch to electronic delivery services. We have two sons and even after they moved out to new apartments they still had mail delivered to our home. Once they established more permanent residence they changed their address BUT what I noticed was the lack of junk mail they were receiving compared to my wife and I.
We have switched a number of things over to electronic delivery over the last few years and the result has been less mail and less junk mail. That all comes in an email now.
USPS has to compete more with carriers like UPS, FedEx, DHL, etc for package volume whereas those other companies are not trying to compete with USPS for "letter" type delivery. It is quite possible that as more and more "letter" type mail drops off USPS might drop daily deliveries and go to an every other day schedule.
Shipping packages is a big business ... one of my customers (in my regular day job) offers fulfillment services for frozen food products (perishable goods). They receive products from their customers and fill orders from internet sales. They have numerous warehouses strategically located across the US so they can deliver within 48 hours of a sale and guarantee the food safety aspect of the perishable goods.
That is not unlike Amazon who has many warehouses so they can deliver ASAP to as many locations as possible. There are two that I pass on a regular basis in my travels in PA and MD ... and they are HUGE.
ckimodog
·2 years ago@mam98031
Thank you for sharing Mam. Appreciated.
junkinabox
·2 years agoHere's the notice. See section II Summary of Changes.
https://www.govinfo.gov/content/pkg/FR-2023-12-04/pdf/2023-26528.pdf
II. Summary of Changes
The Notice proposes establishing Zone 10 rates for Priority Mail Express, Priority Mail, and USPS Ground Advantage. The rates will apply to packages that have Alaska, Hawaii, and U.S. Territories as their destination but not originating in the same state or territory.
The classification changes will be made in the relevant price charts to include new columns for Zone 10 prices. See Governors’ Decision No. 23–6 at 2–3. The changes are summarized
below.
A. Price Changes
Prices are designed to be five percent higher than the Zone 8 prices proposed in Docket No. CP2024–52 that are intended to take effect January 2024. The Zone 9 prices for USPS Ground Advantage will be increased to align with the new Zone 10 prices. The Zone 10 rates apply to (1) packages originating in the Lower 48 States and destinating in Alaska, Hawaii, or the U.S. Territories; (2) packages originating in Alaska and destined to Hawaii or the U.S. Territories; (3) packages originating in Hawaii or a territory in the Pacific Ocean and destined to Alaska, Puerto Rico, or the U.S. Virgin islands; and (4) packages originating in Puerto Rico or the U.S. Virgin Islands and destined to Alaska, Hawaii, or a territory in the Pacific Ocean. Id.
dbfolks166mt
·2 years agoI would assume this would be a 2 way street and that sellers in those 2 states and protectorates would see an increase for outgoing packages as well.
fern*wood
·2 years agoThat's what I was thinking. This would be worse for sellers in those states. Sadly, I can't see Congress doing anything about anything at this point.
dbfolks166mt
·2 years agoThat's what I was thinking. This would be worse for sellers in those states. Sadly, I can't see Congress doing anything about anything at this point.
At the present time I have a hard time seeing Congress doing anything about anything.
wastingtime101
·2 years agoYour assumption is correct. Read my post above.
slippinjimmy
·2 years agoMaybe I'm off.......
MY reading of this paragraph is that outgoing packages sent FROM HI or AK to the Lower 48 will NOT be subject to Zone 10 rates. Zone 10 will only apply under the 4 circumstances listed.
A. Price Changes
Prices are designed to be five percent higher than the Zone 8 prices proposed in Docket No. CP2024–52 that are intended to take effect January 2024. The Zone 9 prices for USPS Ground Advantage will be increased to align with the new Zone 10 prices. The Zone 10 rates apply to (1) packages originating in the Lower 48 States and destinating in Alaska, Hawaii, or the U.S. Territories; (2) packages originating in Alaska and destined to Hawaii or the U.S. Territories; (3) packages originating in Hawaii or a territory in the Pacific Ocean and destined to Alaska, Puerto Rico, or the U.S. Virgin islands; and (4) packages originating in Puerto Rico or the U.S. Virgin Islands and destined to Alaska, Hawaii, or a territory in the Pacific Ocean. Id.
carlmarxx
·2 years agoThe USPS has Zone 9 that both HI. and AK. Should have been placed in 2 years ago with Zone 10 for All U.S. Territories . Zone 9 has been in place since 2009 .
carlmarxx
·2 years agoWell Puerto Rico was never placed in Zone 9 by the USPS 10+ years ago . and is in Zone 8 rates .And yet USPS will not move Puerto Rico ion the Zone 10 with HI. and AK. ? odd isn't it ?
slippinjimmy
·2 years agoPuerto Rico is a lot closer to the lower 48 than AK and especially HI. PR's much higher population means higher volume which means lower costs.
onefootflipper
·2 years agoIt is already incredibly difficult to compete as a seller in those states anyway, sort of like being in Canada except without the large Canadian population to buy from you.
mr_lincoln
·2 years ago@onefootflipper
The folks who live in those states already know shipping costs are high, that's old news for them.
toysaver
·2 years agoI support it if it prevents shipping prices from raising. There is no reason for Continental shipping to subsidize shipping to AK & HI.
bashort
·2 years agoYes, that is what has been happening for years, at least as far as I know the US no longer subsidizes packages from the Far east like had been done for decades, thank you very much to the one that got that stopped.
bashort
·2 years agonot surprising, the elimination of regional rate, the elimination of first class package, flat rate boxes have been priced out of consideration, the USPS has been going toward pricing that more closely follows what it costs to provide the service for a while now. I wonder what the future of media mail is?
ed8108
·2 years agoService improvements are not without some cost
You need to recognize the need of the Postal Service for increased revenue to pay modernization costs such as for new electric vehicles, etc
wastingtime101
·2 years agoI read about this in December. It's not just AK/HI, it's also all US territories and protectorates.
Here's the notice. See section II Summary of Changes.
https://www.govinfo.gov/content/pkg/FR-2023-12-04/pdf/2023-26528.pdf
II. Summary of Changes
The Notice proposes establishing Zone 10 rates for Priority Mail Express, Priority Mail, and USPS Ground Advantage. The rates will apply to packages that have Alaska, Hawaii, and U.S. Territories as their destination but not originating in the same state or territory.
The classification changes will be made in the relevant price charts to include new columns for Zone 10 prices. See Governors’ Decision No. 23–6 at 2–3. The changes are summarized
below.
A. Price Changes
Prices are designed to be five percent higher than the Zone 8 prices proposed in Docket No. CP2024–52 that are intended to take effect January 2024. The Zone 9 prices for USPS Ground Advantage will be increased to align with the new Zone 10 prices. The Zone 10 rates apply to (1) packages originating in the Lower 48 States and destinating in Alaska, Hawaii, or the U.S. Territories; (2) packages originating in Alaska and destined to Hawaii or the U.S. Territories; (3) packages originating in Hawaii or a territory in the Pacific Ocean and destined to Alaska, Puerto Rico, or the U.S. Virgin islands; and (4) packages originating in Puerto Rico or the U.S. Virgin Islands and destined to Alaska, Hawaii, or a territory in the Pacific Ocean. Id.
hollysfinds
·2 years agoAs a seller you can choose not to ship to Alaska , Hawaii, & protectorates.
I offer free shipping & I have excluded those locations.
I sell to the continental US only.
tsme35
·2 years agoYou can also set different rates for HI and AK if you have flat shipping rates
wastingtime101
·2 years agoYou can set up rate tables to continue offering free ship to continental US, but charge a flat fee to AK/HI/territories. You can even set up a flat fee per pound instead of per item which works as long as you enter weight on your listings. Mentioning it in case ship cost is the only reason you don't ship there.
With the heavy, breakable dishes you sell, perhaps you have other reasons for not wanting to ship Ground with long transit times.
hollysfinds
·2 years agoYou're right that I don't want to ship breakables those long distances.
And, I like to keep things simple, so continental US only is how I want to do it.
tobaccocardyahoo
·2 years agoIt is hard to think of a large volume of orders to those destinations given the SMALL population in those destinations.
Population of Alaska 2020 733,391
Population of Hawaii 1.4 million with about a million of those on Oahu.
This is why I tend to minimize my reactions to anything in Ecommercebytes.
mam98031
OP2 years agoDon't shoot the messenger. Ecommercebytes isn't responsible for USPS considering making this change, they just reported about it.
Now the comments on that site, well they get pretty wild sometimes.
mr_lincoln
·2 years ago@tobaccocardyahoo
Ahhh, but if just a quarter of those people need or want what you sell then it is certainly worth it to ship there.