USPS mail price hikes driving away more customers than predicted, study finds

The Postal Service has raised mail prices five times since December 2020, when its regulator granted new pricing flexibility — and may soon be asking for a sixth increase that would go into effect this summer.

But a new industry report warns USPS is underestimating how much these rate hikes on its monopoly mail — or “market-dominant” — products are driving away some of its biggest customers.

A report from Keep US Posted — a nonprofit group of consumers, nonprofits, newspapers, greeting card publishers, magazines, catalogs and small businesses — finds market-dominant revenue in fiscal 2023 fell $1.8 billion short of the Postal Service’s own forecast, “signaling a potential issue with the model used to defend rate increases.”