In a move that could expose some shippers to additional fees, the U.S. Postal Service is planning to expand its dimensional reporting requirements to include smaller packages in July, according to a Federal Register notice published last week.
Currently, a Postal Service manifest requires accurate parcel dimensions for certain shipping services only when a parcel's size exceeds 1 cubic foot or 22 inches in length. A $1.50 dimension noncompliance fee applies to shipments of that size that fail to include dimension information. The requirement applies to commercial Priority Mail, Priority Mail Express and USPS Ground Advantage and Parcel Select services.
The Postal Service is proposing to remove the size threshold starting July 12, meaning accurate length, width and height dimensions would always be required in the manifest for parcels of any size using those services, per the notice. An exception would apply for flat rate-priced pieces and USPS returns volume.
"Failure to comply with the expanded requirement, would continue to subject the parcel to the Dimension Noncompliance Fee," the notice said.
The proposal is open for public comment through Feb. 9.
The expected impact of the planned rule change is unclear, as many larger-scale USPS shippers are already collecting the full dimensional information of every parcel they handle, Carlos Barbosa, VP of e-commerce solutions at ePost Global, said in an interview with Supply Chain Dive. One potentially vulnerable group is businesses that generate USPS labels from shipping platforms and don't have the proper systems or partners to capture package dimensions.
"This is going to impact anybody that's printing a label and going straight themselves to USPS without [measuring dimensions]," Barbosa said.
Affected shippers may opt to move volume to carriers that don't have dimensional measurement requirements or partners that can handle the process for them, according to Barbosa. Others might simply adjust their operations to measure dimensions to avoid the fee.
Charges related to package dimensions can sting a shipper's bottom line if left unchecked. Last year, UPS and FedEx rolled out tweaks to how they measure dimensions, rounding up all fractional measurements for length, width and height. Experts warned that the practice could cause shippers' delivery charges to climb further, even if they're shipping the same-sized packages as they have historically.
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