Used to be able to ship cheaper with USPS Priority, now Parcel is cheaper any ideas?

[bearmom465]

Hi all, for the last few years whenever someone chose Parcel Select as their shipping method for their purchase, my discount for Priority shipping made it cheaper to ship Priority, so I did that.  Now all my packages are cheaper to ship Parcel Select again...does anyone know why?  I searched for USPS rate increase but didn't find anything except a temporary increase in October...but my issue just started within the last week or so. For years I've shipped Priority over Parcel because with the discount it was always cheaper, or close to the same price, but now its at anywhere from 40 cents to $1+ more. Thanks for any answers. 

[nobody*s_perfect]

The surcharge that went into effect on October 3 expired on December 26.

USPS implemented their annual rate schedule changes on January 9.  

Under the new rates, Parcel Select Ground is significantly cheaper than Priority Mail for many zone/weight combinations, especially for farther Zones. For instance, shipping 5 pounds to Zone 8 costs $24.01 at online Priority Mail rates (minus 3% if you're a TRS and purchase postage through eBay) but only $13.98 via Parcel Select Ground, a difference of over $10.  

You need to either ship via Parcel Select as shown in the listing, or change your listings to just offer Priority Mail, or offer both services and let the buyer choose whether they want their shipping to be cheap or fast.  The shipping calculator in eBay listings defaults to show the retail price for Priority Mail, which exaggerates the difference between Priority and Parcel Select. You can change this in your site preferences so that buyers also see the online rate for Priority.

http://pe.usps.com/cpim/ftp/manuals/dmm300/notice123.pdf