The U.S. Postal Service is moving forward with its plan to expand its dimensional reporting requirements on July 12, but noncompliance fees for newly eligible shipments won't apply until later, the agency said in an April 8 notice to shippers.
A Postal Service manifest currently requires accurate dimensions for parcels exceeding 1 cubic foot or 22 inches in length, if they're shipped through the agency's commercial Priority Mail Express, Priority Mail, USPS Ground Advantage or Parcel Select services. A $3 noncompliance fee — up from $1.50 previously — applies for eligible shipments that don't include accurate length, width and height dimensions.
On July 12, the requirement will begin applying to all shipments within the affected services regardless of size. However, newly eligible shipments with inaccurately reported dimensions won't be assessed noncompliance fees at the outset. Instead, the fees will be implemented for those parcels in a phased approach, according to the notice.
The first phase starting in July will involve the Postal Service evaluating data, reviewing customer activity and implementing and testing systems accuracy, per a final rule on the change published in the Federal Register on March 31.
The second phase, tentatively scheduled for early next year, will involve the Postal Service implementing "an automated approach to detect dimensions are included and that they are accurate in the manifest," per the rule. At that time, the agency will begin to assess the noncompliance fee on smaller shipments with inaccurately reported dimensions.
The agency said it decided to move forward with a two-phased approach after consulting with stakeholders. The USPS noted that commenters voiced concerns on erroneously applied fees potentially pushing Ground Advantage shippers "back to the competition." Additionally, commenters flagged that the requirements could drive higher costs for shippers, such as increased investments to implement dimensional capture capabilities.
"The Postal Service is mindful of the concerns in these comments and plans to address these very exact concerns and balance them with our need for accuracy and efficiency during phase two of this initiative," the USPS said in the rule.
Many larger-scale USPS shippers already collect dimensional information for every parcel they handle, Carlos Barbosa, VP of e-commerce solutions at ePost Global, said in an interview with Supply Chain Dive earlier this year. However, businesses that print Postal Service labels and ship packages without measuring dimensions could be vulnerable to additional fees due to the increased scope, he added.
