The U.S. Postal Service has quietly initiated a surcharge on package deliveries to rural areas, which includes much of Wyoming. The up-charges have been quietly slipped into Postal Service agreements with merchants like eBay.
Postmaster General Louis DeJoy has a few new uses for ZIP codes under his Delivering For America Plan, but that’s not all those five-digit numbers are being used for. DeJoy has a new use for them that has quietly added what amounts to a de facto surcharge on deliveries, mostly to rural areas.
The surcharge doesn’t affect what ordinary postal customers are paying at the post office for deliveries. They were instead slipped into what are called Negotiated Service Agreements, which the Postal Service makes with various commercial partners, back in September. These NSAs are filed under seal with the Postal Regulatory Commission, so not typically in what’s considered the public domain.
But they do eventually bubble up to the surface when those companies, such as eBay, inform their customers of pending rate changes.
That’s how these changes came to light, with partners like eBay warning those who use their online auction service that there would be changes to delivery rates for select ZIP codes, effective Sept. 16.