USPS Is Making These Changes to Your Mail, Starting Sept. 19
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These days, you may find yourself encountering a new change at the post office every time you go. Over the past two years, this has been most noticeable in the form of repeated price hikes that the U.S. Postal Service (USPS) instituted as part of its 10-year overhaul initiative, Delivering for America (DFA). With those adjustments and others being made under the DFA, customers will certainly feel the impacts as time goes on—but not all changes are unwelcome. Read on to discover what you should prepare for, starting next month.
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The Postal Service just enacted its latest price hike last month. On July 9, the agency introduced a three-cent increase for the cost of a First-Class Mail Forever stamp—raising the price per stamp from 63 cents to 66 cents. With this change, the agency increased the overall price of First-Class Mail by 5.4 percent in order to “offset the rise in inflation.”
“As operating expenses fueled by inflation continue to rise and the effects of a previously defective pricing model are still being felt, these price adjustments are needed to provide the Postal Service with much needed revenue to achieve the financial stability sought by its Delivering for America 10-year plan,” the USPS said in a press release. “The prices of the U.S. Postal Service remain among the most affordable in the world.”
If you haven’t already stocked up on stamps, however, you’ll want to be aware of what’s on the horizon.
RELATED: See a Sticker on Your Mailbox? Don’t Touch It, USPS Says .
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The USPS is planning to release two never-before-seen stamp designs next month. According to an Aug. 18 press release , the first will be an early introduction to the winter season with a snow globe stamp series. Launching Sept. 19, this collection will include four new stamps with Christmas snow globes on them.
“In each of the four stamps, artist Gregory Manchess used oil paint to reproduce the magic of the holidays held within four tiny, encapsulated landscapes,” the USPS stated in its release. “The stamps include a snowman, Santa Claus poised on a chimney, a majestic deer and a Christmas tree.”
In an Aug. 17 press release , the Postal Service also announced plans to drop a new design to commemorate NASA’s OSIRIS-REx spacecraft. Customers will be able to buy this stamp starting Sept. 22.
“The stamp artwork shows the capsule containing the sample parachuting to the Utah Test and Training Range, a U.S. Department of Defense facility in the desert,” the agency shared.
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The two new stamps coming in September aren’t the only ones on the Postal Service’s schedule. In an Aug. 24 press release , the USPS revealed that it would be unveiling a design to honor the late Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg as well. This stamp is set to drop on Oct. 2, following a first-day-of-issue ceremony at the National Portrait Gallery in Washington, D.C.
“The Ruth Bader Ginsburg stamp features an oil painting of her in her black judicial robe and iconic white collar,” the agency stated in its release, noting that it was designed by USPS art director Ethel Kessler , with a portrait from Michael J. Deas based on a photograph by Philip Bermingham .
“The stamp captures her enduring spirit and tireless dedication to upholding the principles of the Constitution,” the USPS added.
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You may have to pay more for the new stamps, but the Postal Service is also trying to make a change that offers discounts to certain customers in the new year.
In an Aug. 11 press release , the USPS announced that it had filed notice with the Postal Regulatory Commission (PRC) for plans to establish two mail growth incentives: a First-Class Mail Growth Incentive and a Marketing Mail Growth Incentive.
The agency is looking to initiate these incentives in order to “promote volume growth,” and if approved by the PRC, they will begin on Jan. 1, 2024 and run through Dec. 31. During this time, mail owners will have the opportunity to earn postage credits for helping grow First-Class Mail and Marketing Mail volumes beyond baselines, according to a separate Industry Alert from the Postal Service.
“These two incentives will drive mail owners to increase the volume of First-Class and Marketing mail entering the network while providing them lower overall postage costs on incremental growth—allowing mail owners to maximize total return on investment, by providing additional cost-savings and strengthening the value of mail,” the USPS explained in its release.
- Source: https://about.usps.com/newsroom/national-releases/2023/0410-usps-files-notice-with-prc-for-new-mailing-services-pricing.htm
- Source: https://pe.usps.com/text/dmm300/Notice123.htm
- Source: https://about.usps.com/newsroom/national-releases/2023/0818ma-usps-to-shake-up-mail-with-snow-globe-stamps.htm
- Source: https://about.usps.com/newsroom/national-releases/2023/0817ma-usps-to-issue-osiris-rex-stamp.htm
- Source: https://about.usps.com/newsroom/national-releases/2023/0824ma-usps-to-unveil-stamp-honoring-ruth-bader-ginsburg.htm
- Source: https://about.usps.com/newsroom/national-releases/2023/0811-usps-files-with-prc-to-establish-mail-growth-incentives.htm
- Source: https://postalpro.usps.com/node/12375
See a Sticker on Your Mailbox? Don’t Touch It, USPS Says
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Your mailbox serves a very simple purpose: receiving mail and leaving outgoing mail for a carrier to pick up. Still, some of us enjoy sprucing up our mailboxes, adding personal flair, color, or even decals to help an otherwise standard mailbox stand out. But if you notice a paw print sticker on your mailbox that you didn’t add, don’t start peeling it off just yet—it’s likely part of a program run by the U.S. Postal Service (USPS) to help keep carriers safe. Read on to find out what these stickers mean and why you shouldn’t remove them.
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In 2023, more than 5,800 Postal Service workers were attacked by dogs while delivering mail, up from 5,300 in 2022, according to a USPS press release.
Larger cities had the highest numbers of attacks, with Los Angeles, Houston, Chicago, St. Louis, and Cleveland claiming the top five spots.
“Even though a customer’s dog is friendly to most people, it can always have a bad day,” said letter carrier Tara Snyder . “I know, from experience, even when a dog is in the house, customers need to make sure their door is secure so their dog can’t push it open and bite the letter carrier.”
To her point, the USPS writes that “all dogs can bite, even those perceived as nonaggressive.” In fact, many of the attacks that letter carriers report are by dogs whose owners told them, “My dog won’t bite.”
Such an attack can result in consequences for the homeowner, too. According to data from the Insurance Information Institute, the average cost per insurance claim for a dog bite is $64,555, the USPS states.
“When a postal employee suffers an injury, the owner could be responsible for medical bills, lost wages, uniform replacement costs, and pain and suffering for the employee,” they explain.
RELATED: USPS Is Making These Changes to Your Mail, Starting Now .
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To combat dog bites, the Postal Service shared tips on how pet owners can “support safe mail delivery.” These include keeping dogs inside the house or behind a fence, away from the door or in another room, or on a leash.
“Pet owners also should remind children not to take mail directly from a letter carrier as the dog may view the carrier as a threat to the child,” they state.
Mail carriers also follow protocol to keep them aware of areas where dogs might be present, and they’re equipped with scanners to remind them of possible dog hazards, as well as dog warning cards that are added during mail sorting.
In 2020, the USPS added another preventive measure: the PAWS Program . First introduced in Pennsylvania, the program uses mailbox stickers to keep carriers safe.
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The PAWS Program uses color-coded stickers affixed to mailboxes to inform mail carriers about dogs in the area. An orange sticker with a black paw print tells carriers that there is a dog at this home, while a yellow sticker with a black paw print tells them there is a dog at the next house.
Citizens are informed ahead of time that the stickers may appear on their mailboxes. In a notice sent to Lakewood, Ohio, residents, the Postal Service wrote, “Carriers will soon be placing a paw sticker on mailboxes to indicate that a dog or dogs live in the area —yellow indicates dog nearby/orange indicates dog at residence. The sticker will act as a reminder to the carrier that they should proceed with caution, especially when delivering packages to the door.”
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Removing these stickers may do more harm than good, as your mail service can be halted if your carrier feels unsafe. Not only does this affect the home of the dog owner, but it also applies to the entire neighborhood, the USPS said in a previous press release . Service isn’t restored in these instances “until the aggressive dog is properly restrained.”
At the end of the day, these stickers are put in place to “reduce the risk of dog bites and attacks that occur while delivering mail,” which is just another reason you should leave the sticker on your mailbox.
“We all love our dogs,” Kimberly Tilley , acting postmaster for Winston-Salem, told WGHP. “We love our animals, but we … have to take responsibility to protect the carrier and the people around us as well from our animals.”
Tilley added that dog bites are more common than you think, and they can be traumatic for carriers. “Once a carrier has been bit, it sets some fear in them long term for the rest of their life,” she told the outlet.
However, although these stickers are strongly recommended, if you object to having a sticker placed on your mailbox, you can opt out , Kyle Stevens , Southwest Carrier Annex station manager in South Dakota, told KELO in 2021. To do so, the first step would be to contact your local post office.
This story has been updated to include additional entries, fact-checking, and copy-editing.
