Postal Service March 2007 – Federal Register Recent Federal Regulation Documents

In this final rule the Postal Service provides new mailing standards to support most of the pricing change recommended by the Postal Regulatory Commission and approved by the Governors of the United States Postal Service. We will implement most of the new prices on May 14, 2007. We will implement new prices and mailing standards for Periodicals mail on July 15, 2007. Our pricing change includes a new ``forever stamp'' to make future price changes more convenient for consumers. The forever stamp will always equal the First-Class Mail single piece 1-ounce letter price. We also offer new shape-based prices for First-Class Mail, with lower rates for letter-size pieces over 1 ounce. We make the Priority Mail flat-rate boxes a permanent product offering, and we add a new 1-pound price for Express Mail. For commercial mailers we offer new sorting options to reduce the number of trays in a mailing of letter-size pieces. We also offer new scheme preparations to give mailers access to lower rates and to better align flat-size mail preparation with mail processing. We add a new automated Address Change Service option to reduce the costs associated with undeliverable-as-addressed mail. First-Class Mail parcel mailers have new barcode options, and we provide new opportunities for mailers to combine Standard Mail Not Flat-Machinable pieces, Standard Mail parcels, and Package Services parcels in the same mailing.