In a developing story, Capitol Forum is reporting that U.S. Postmaster General Louis DeJoy is sunsetting the postage reselling program. This program has allowed Pitney Bowes, Stamps.com, and other resellers to offer smaller shippers sharply discounted rates for over thirty years and has provided a competitive channel for national package shippers outside of the classic FedEx / UPS model. The change was acknowledged by USPS spokesperson David Partenheimer in a July 9^th email to Linn’s Stamp News. There is no indication that DeJoy’s intention is to adjust the reseller rates, but rather he intends to end the program entirely.

Several resellers and consolidators, Pitney Bowes in particular, have significantly increased market share since 2020, when the onset of capacity challenges drove shippers to explore other, non-standard avenues. While shippers have the benefit of pricing agreements with Pitney Bowes (and other resellers), these agreements have clauses that allow the carrier to adjust pricing in the event of a USPS pricing change.

As of now the program will end on October 1, 2022, leaving reseller shippers little time to adjust their 2022 peak plans. If you are using Pitney Bowes today, or if you are considering adding them to your carrier mix, now would be the time to have a serious conversation with your account executive about how the company intends to address this significant change in direction from the USPS.

Joe Wilkinson is Vice President, Transportation Consulting, enVista.

Editor's Note: PARCEL spoke with Pitney Bowes after this article was published, and they wished to issue a few points of clarification.

• Pitney Bowes does not have a reseller agreement with the USPS and is not a reseller under the USPS postage reselling program.
• The USPS’ sunsetting of its postage reselling program has no relationship to, or impact on, Pitney Bowes’ physical parcel logistics or consolidation services. Solutions that Pitney Bowes SendTech and Pitney Bowes Presort Services provide to their clients are also unaffected.
• Pitney Bowes is working directly with the USPS to ensure our Expedited Delivery Service, which relies on Priority Mail and First Class Parcels labels, is not impacted by USPS decisions to end re-seller agreements.