USPS Price Increases Already Affecting Coloradans

Mailing here in Colorado has become a bit more treacherous than one might expect.

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In fact, Colorado leads the entire country when it comes to one horrific mail statistic; lost mail.

According to iPostal1, Coloradans have 12,667 Google searches per month per 100,000 residents that are asking about lost mail. That’s an absolute boatload. Fortunately, USPS typically can find your package if you report it.

However, USPS has made the news yet again, and this time it’s not them recommending that people get larger mailboxes.

Instead, prices have yet again risen for postage stamps, and it started affecting Coloradans this month.

USPS Stamp Prices Go Up For Coloradans

Back in late May, the Postal Regulatory Commission approved a movement to make the price of postage stamps go up by 5 cents.

That may not seem like a lot, but the fact of the matter is that this is by no means new.

Axios reports that since 2000, there have been 19 price increases. The last five have all taken place in the past two years. 

The last increase was actually just earlier this year in January.

The price of the First-Class Mail Forever stamp increased from 68 cents to 73 cents back on July 14th. That’s an increase of 7.8%.

What Other Price Increases Are There?

Not only have the price of stamps gone up, but multiple other materials have as well.

This includes: metered 1-ounce letters (from 64 cents to 69), domestic postcards (from 53 cents to 56), international postcards and 1-ounce letters (from $1.55 to $1.65), along with the additional ounce price of single-piece letters (from 24 cents to 28 cents).

The reason these price hikes have been happening is relatively simple; people just aren’t mailing as much these days.

In 2006, 213.1 million pieces of mail went through USPS. Last year, they only got their hands on 116.1 million. That is a truly astonishing loss of possible revenue. 

While the USPS says this is the price of doing business these days, Keep US Posted, who talked to Axios, says that these consistent price hikes need to stop.

Only time will tell how this saga will unfold, given just how crucial the USPS is for many Americans across the country.