The Postal Service publishes an advance overview of planned structural changes with each price change. The Overview document does not give any pricing information, nor does it contain all of the technical information related to the upcoming changes, those will be issued later in the Release Notes.
This July there are over ten changes expected in the Market Dominant class. Some minor, and others significant. Namely;
- Marketing Mail Flat weight maximums extended, 20oz for presort and 24oz for Carrier Route.
- Eliminating bundles in Marketing Mail flat tubs.
- Marketing Mail expansion, new 2.5lb breakpoint for Heavy Printed Matter (HPM)
- HPM is a parcel category that meets marketing mail content rules and is a non fulfillment product.
- Eliminate Network Distribution Center (NDC) prices for Marketing Mail Parcels
- Clean up the nomenclature to remove the NDC category and change the Mixed NDC to Mixed.
- Eliminate Label Lists L004 and L009
- Restructure Periodicals Outside County Rates
- Eliminating bundle rates and container rates, introducing SCF pallet and Delivery Sort pallet incentives.
- Minimum Volume Requirement for First-Class Cards and First-Class Letters
- When combined the total combined minimum will be 500
- Changing BPM flats and parcels rate structure to be a piece only based on weight break vs. a piece and pound charge.
- Eliminate ADC Rate Category from Market Dominant Mail Classes.
- This will include eliminating the ADC/AADC mail prep category.
Below is a visual of those changes based on current and proposed.
Promotions for 2027
As part of the July overview USPS has announced their plans for 2027 promotions. The promotions for 2027 will still need to be filed as part of the rate case in April then be approved by PRC for the July price change.
USPS has announced that they plan to keep three of their current 2026 promotions, and both add ons; Tactile, Sensory, & Integration, First-Class Advertising, Enhanced Technology, Informed Delivery, and Sustainability. We do not know yet if there will be any technical changes to the promotion, or if the discount amounts will remain the same.
Not included in 2027 will be the Catalog Insights (which gives 10% until June 2026) and the Continuous Contact promotions.
Two new proposed promotions are planned, Impact Messaging and Direct Mail Discovery. Through USPS presentations shared at association meetings we have a bit of detail on each. The Impact Messaging will be for Marketing Mail and First-Class mail designed to get customers to take action with high impact messaging demonstrating the power of mail. The Direct Mail Discovery will be for Marketing Mail only and is being used to incentivize new mailers to try mail for the first time. (new mailers are considered mailers who have not mailed in the prior two years.) We have been told there will be a very sizable incentive to the mail owner and a smaller incentive to the mail service provider, to encourage their sales efforts. The program will have limits on the size of mailings, current projections are in the 5,000 range.
