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US: regulators disregard UPS, FedEx complaints and allow USPS price drop

Friday 22 August 2014 14:27 CET | News

US regulators have approved plans by the US Postal Service to lower its Priority Mail rates for business customers from September 2014, a decision which comes contrary to concerns raised by shipment companies UPS and FedEx, postandparcel.info reports.

Retail rates for Priority Mail will increase on average 1.7% in order to maintain the Postal Service’s overall rate cap.

Nevertheless, businesses on the Commercial Base pricing will see rates drop by 0.9% and those on Commercial Plus will witness a 2.3% cut. In some categories, commercial shippers may see their rates fall by 57.8%. The rate decreases cover ground packages in the 6-20 pound range sent within the continental US.

The price decrease has been criticised by UPS and FedEx, who have been increasing their shipping rates year-on-year, and are about to introduce new dimensional pricing.

UPS told the Postal Regulatory Commission that the Postal Service was increasing its postage rates for its monopoly services by 5.9%, due to its “exigent” rate increase, while dropping rates for competitive services.

UPS also complained of a notable transparency decline regarding USPS pricing for competitive products since the last postal reforms were brought in by Congress in 2006.


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Keywords: US, regulators. UPS, FedEx, shipment, delivery, complaints, price drop, Postal Service, continental US
Categories: Payments & Commerce
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Countries: World
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Payments & Commerce