Posted on 03/26/2026 8:12:33 AM PDT by Miami Rebel
The U.S. Postal Service on Wednesday said it is seeking to impose a temporary 8% fuel surcharge for package and express mail deliveries to deal with rising transportation costs, which include higher oil prices as a result of the Iran war.
If approved by the Postal Regulatory Commission, the surcharge would take effect April 26 and remain in place until Jan. 17, 2027, the Postal Service said in a notice on its website.
The 8% surcharge would apply to postage on Priority Mail Express, Priority Mail, USPS Ground Advantage, and Parcel Select products. First-class stamps and other mail services would not be affected.
Oil prices have jumped more than 40% since Feb. 28, when the United States and Israel attacked Iran.
FedEx and UPS, two major package shippers, for years have imposed fuel surcharges on deliveries. Those surcharges have sharply increased since the U.S. and Israel attacked Iran on Feb. 28, which caused the price of oil to rise by more than 40%.
“This temporary price adjustment will provide needed flexibility for the Postal Service by helping to ensure that the actual costs of doing business are covered, as required by Congress,” the Postal Service said in its announcement.
“Transportation costs have been increasing, and our competitors have reacted with a number of surcharges,” the notice said.
“We have steadfastly avoided surcharges and this charge is less than one-third of what our competitors charge for fuel alone, so even with this change, the Postal Service continues to offer great value in shipping with some of the lowest rates in the industrialized world.”
CNBC has reached out to the Postal Regulatory Commission for comment on the Postal Service’s request.
I receive a lot of packages that were contracted through UPS, DHL and Amazon Prime where the final stage of delivery is actually completed by the Post Office.
An 8% war tax.
Why not do this when gas was $4+ when Otto Penn was POTUS?
Yes, I have that problem as well. Some of my daily mail can be 100% of someone requesting financial help. Alot of it is from groups I never heard of. I have to provide postage for most of what I mail, whether it is a donation or a bill payment. And stamps are not cheap these days as anyone can testify. I really don’t feel like subsidizing the P.O. more than I have already as I live on S.S. Before the P.O. goes after ordinary folks for funds, they need to look into the franking privileges for members of Congress & others in governtmet.
Any neighborhood older than say 1978 is going to have individual mailboxes (like my neighborhood)...and neighborhoods older than 1965 or so will have mail slots in front doors or mail receptacles near the front door. Lockable “CBU’s” (cluster mailbox units) were not a “thing” until about 2001. (some unlocked CBU’s were tried for awhile before 2000). Really rural addresses (like my Mom’s) have private “contract rural mail carriers” that deliver to individual mailboxes in private (usually right hand drive) vehicles.
https://nationalmailboxes.com/news/centralized-mail-delivery-a-history/
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.