USPS Informational Webinars on Service Standard Changes

New Mailing Standards for Domestic Mailing Services Products

The Postal Service, published on May 1st in the Federal Register a proposed rule for the structure changes as part of the proposed July 2025 postage increase. A final rule will be published once the Postal Regulatory Commission approves the R2025-1 Market Dominant rate change.

Search for a new Postmaster General (PMG) – could the wait be over?

This is the first National Postal Forum in my recollection in which we did not have a permanent Postmaster General (PMG) in office. There have been transitional periods in USPS leadership – such as when acting PMG is in place due to retirement, resignation, or before a successor is officially named, but historically that replacement has been named prior to the NPF.

Takeaways from the National Postal Forum 2025

Last week concluded a very successful National Postal Forum in Nashville, TN. GrayHair participated in six sessions at the forum on topics of Address Quality, Hot topics in Mail, Bridging the Gender Gap with leadership tips, and working with Postal and Client Data at Scale.

July 2025 Postage Increase

The U.S. Postal Service recently filed notice with the Postal Regulatory Commission (PRC) of mailing services price changes to take effect July 13. The new rates include a 5-cent increase in the price of a First-Class Mail Forever stamp (increasing from 73 cents to 78 cents). The bulk mail price file has yet to be posted on the PRC site.

The new service standard changes took effect on April 1st, 2025. The new measurement is using a 5-D to 5-D versus the less granular 3-D to 3-D. Phase one of this change will be adding an additional day to single-piece First-Class mail that is entered more than 50 miles from an origin Regional Processing and Distribution Center (RPDC) and non-destination entered Marketing Mail and Periodicals. A phase II is scheduled to begin July 1st, 2025, which will add extra hours saved in transportation that is proposed to provide time savings to a portion of the First-Class, Marketing Mail, and Periodicals.

To help with the communication to both the mailing industry and the consumer public using blue box to enter remittance mail, the Postal Service has created two recorded webinars posted under their strategic planning DFA USPS about page.

Consumer Tools webinar – 10:36 minutes

Changes Overview webinar – 23:32 minutes

A FAQ sheet has been updated as of Apr 25, 2025

The four-page Fact Sheet (updated Apr 25, 2025) is also available.

A Service Standard Map tool allows you to enter the origin ZIP Code and mailing service to estimate your delivery on a color-coded map.

https://www.usps.com/service-standards/