Cost of sending a parcel to US through USPS set to double

• 15 June 2020
• Transport / Logistics Services

Parcel shipment rates to the US are are set to significantly increase when sent from the UK through the US Postal Service from July 1 thanks to the Universal Postal Union (UPU) terminal dues rates increasing.

Terminal dues rates are the fees set by a postal operator to deliver a parcel from abroad within their own country.

The UPU terminal dues rates are now set individually by countries that have more than 75,000 tonnes of inbound mail a year. This is thanks to the Trump administration threatening to pull out of the UPU over the existing terminal dues rates that effectively meant it was cheaper for a company to send a parcel to the US from China than it was for a US domestic shipper to send one to the next state. 



Parcels that are 2kg or less will now see parcel rates increase inbound to the United States to USD $3.95 per kg or $2.87 per piece. This equates to around 70% of the US domestic rate.

According to Royal Mail this is set to increase their cost of sending a parcel to the US by more than 100% and this is to be passed onto customers.

As well as the the US self-declaring its terminal dues, a further 31 countries of the 192 UPU members have set their own too.