Postal Service Wants to Raise Rates on PO Boxes, Hazardous Shipments

If its request is approved, the cost of renting post office boxes will rise by 3 percent in July. The agency lost $9 billion in 2025.

Mail boxes in front of a U.S. Postal Service facility in Chicago on Aug. 13, 2020. Scott Olson/Getty Images

Your post office box might become a little more expensive this summer.

The U.S. Postal Service (USPS) has filed a notice with the Postal Regulatory Commission to raise prices for some of its service offerings, which, if approved, would come into effect on July 12, the agency said in a May 11 statement.

First, USPS is seeking to raise the rental price of its post office boxes by 3 percent. The agency also wants to impose new fees for handling hazardous materials, such as flammable items or chemicals, shipped via priority mail and priority express services. Also on the wish list are noncompliance fees on shippers who improperly prepare hazardous materials for transportation.

In addition, USPS is seeking to eliminate the ounce-based rate differentiation for its Commercial USPS Ground Advantage shipping service.

Currently, USPS sets prices on these parcels based on weight class and geographic zones. For parcels weighing under a pound, there are four weight classes—below 4 oz., 8 oz., 12 oz., and 15.999 oz. The agency is seeking to eliminate these ounce-based rate differences, while clarifying that customers who have already negotiated commercial rates will not be impacted by the changes.

“The Postal Service generally receives no tax dollars for operating expenses and relies on the sale of postage, products and services to fund its operations,” USPS said.

“Shipping Services prices are primarily adjusted according to market conditions. The Postal Service governors evaluate shipping rates and fees and adjust them when needed as part of the Postal Service’s 10-year network modernization plan to return the organization to financial sustainability.”

The agency has raised prices of its services multiple times in recent years. Most recently, a temporary 8 percent increase in certain domestic rates was applied due to higher fuel costs, which went into effect April 26 and will remain until Jan.17, 2027. In March, Postmaster General David Steiner urged lawmakers to allow first-class stamp prices to be raised from 78 cents to almost $1.

In a Feb. 19 statement, the nonprofit Keep US Posted criticized USPS for filing a petition with the Postal Regulatory Commission, which the organization said would give the agency “unlimited power” to raise prices of Market Dominant mail, including first-class mail.

“Postage rates are rising significantly faster than overall inflation, imposing significant affordability burdens on mail users,” Kevin Yoder, executive director of Keep US Posted, said. “The data strongly supports restoring the CPI-based rate cap to protect the public interest and stabilize the mail system,” referring to the Consumer Price Index, a measure of inflation.

Yoder said that productivity at USPS declined “markedly” during fiscal years 2021-24 when the agency was imposing large rate increases on its mailing services.

“This decline marks the worst productivity performance by USPS since measurement began in 1972 and highlights that USPS does not have a revenue problem—it has a cost control problem that it has proven to be incapable of addressing on its own. … Restoring the CPI-based rate cap will impose the need for USPS to reduce its costs, imposing the cost discipline that shareholders bring to private companies,” the executive director said.

USPS’s decision to keep raising prices comes amid significant losses at the agency over the past several years.

During fiscal year 2023, it suffered a net loss of $6.5 billion, which was followed by a $9.5 billion loss in 2024 and a $9 billion loss in 2025. For the first and second quarters of 2026, the agency reported net losses of $1.26 billion and $2 billion, respectively.

In a March 17 testimony at a House committee hearing, David Marroni, director of physical infrastructure at the Government Accountability Office, said the USPS has lost money in every single fiscal year since 2007 except for one, resulting in net losses of $118 billion.

In a May 8 statement, Yoder said the USPS needs financial help from Congress. However, any such assistance must be “tied to a CPI-based price cap, stronger Postal Regulatory Commission oversight, and measurable cost controls that protect universal service and affordability.”