[NHCOLL-L:3454] USPS: New International Mail Categories and rates

[Rabeler, Richard]

Dear Colleagues:

 

As many of you may know, the United States Postal Service changed many
of the rates for mailing.  It appears that there is a change in their
international parcel operations that may be of interest to the
collections community.

 

 

Here, for your information, is a clip from the introduction to the
International Mail Manual, summarizing what transpired - overnight:

 

Issue 34 of Mailing Standards of the United States Postal Service,
International Mail Manual (IMM(r)) is dated May 14, 2007. The previous
issue was Issue 33, dated March 2006. Issue 34 corrects printing and
format errors and omissions in Issue 33

Effective with the publication of Issue 34, the Postal Service has
simplified its international product offerings into four products:
Global Express Guaranteed(r), Express Mail International(r), Priority
Mail International, and First-Class Mail International. These product
changes have caused us to revise many parts of the IMM.

What this appears to mean is that categories involving "Surface" or
"Economy" rates for international shipping are no longer available.   As
I just learned from an on-line article, the USPS "would no longer
transport goods internationally via cargo ships for individual
customers."  We have used "Economy Parcel Post" for years as our chief
way of shipping large shipments of specimens to overseas institutions.
We may need to look at that closely now and determine if there are any
reasonable alternatives.

If anyone has any ideas for alternatives, it may be something worth
discussing!

 

Sincerely,

 

Rich Rabeler, MICH

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