How postal rules affect bulk mail

Every time the United States Postal Service changes the price of a stamp, there is a flurry of articles reminiscing about the days when it cost only pennies to send a letter.

Well, right now the Postal Service is implementing the largest change in business mailing in decades, yet there has hardly been a whimper heard in the news.

On July 1, the Postal Service implemented classification reform, a new system of organizing first-class presort, second-class and third-class mail. These changes will affect virtually all businesses that currently take advantage of bulk mail or presort mail discounts.

The first change is semantic. Although First Class mail gets to keep its name, Second Class mail will now be called Periodicals Class, while Third and Fourth Class mail will be called Standard Class.