The Postal Regulatory Commission (PRC) has officially approved the Postal Service’s proposed rate and classification adjustments for competitive products, set to take effect July 12, 2026.
Industry groups and the Public Representative raised concerns about the new Addressing API, (1) that the Postal Service may be leveraging its unique position to build an unfair competitive advantage, and (2) that eliminating the legacy free Addressing API would disrupt the market, and possibly discourage small mailers from address standardization. The PRC approved the new API, BUT they wrote that they “encourage the Postal Service to… implement a reasonable grandfathering period to ensure changes can be implemented as smoothly as possible. “
I hope the Postal Service seriously considers that suggestion, as there are now less than thirty days until the change takes effect, and the only public published notification of eliminating the free API was done on Tuesday June 9th.
A summary of the components of the competitive case:
- New HazMat Fees: Shippers will see a $7.50 HazMat Handling Fee for Priority Mail and Priority Mail Express, and a $50.00 HazMat Noncompliance Fee will apply to commercial packages that contain hazardous materials but aren’t properly declared and labeled.
- USPS Ground Advantage: The ounce-based pricing structure is being eliminated to match Parcel Select, resulting in an average price increase of 11.8% for lighter commercial parcels.
- The Dimensional Weight Divisor is Dropping: The dim divisor will shift from 166 to 139 to match industry standards. This means large, lightweight packages could see a price increase.
- Paid Addresses API: The legacy free version of the Addresses API is being discontinued on July 12. Users will need to migrate to the new tiered, fee-based version (starting at $10/month), switch to the AMS API, or manually look up addresses for free on USPS using their address validation tool.
The full order 9607 can be found on the PRC site.
