Another Postal Question

[Quasimodem]

Recently, when I sent one of those huge priority envelopes containing some t-shirts for friends over to Germany, the clerk asked if there were a letter inside. There was just a note, but WTH? Even if there had been a letter, wouldn’t it have just been part of the weight of the larger envelope, and therefore paid for?

(I was just going to add this to the other postage thread as a hijack, but I know it pisses some of y’all off, so I didn’t. It’s my effort to be a better Doper)

Thanks

Quasi

[Chas.E]

Many countries’ postal regulations (including the US, IIRC) prohibit sending of letters in parcel-class packages. Don’t ask me why.

[dqa]

International Mail Manual
Parcel Post
281 General:
**
Parcel post resembles domestic zone-rated Standard Mail (B) mail. Merchandise is permitted, but written communications having the nature of current and personal correspondence are not permitted.**

Elsewhere, we get a definition of Standard Mail

**
Standard Mail: Usually circulars, printed matter, pamphlets, and merchandise that is not mailed as First-Class Mail, Periodicals, or Package Services. Standard Mail must weigh less than 16 ounces.**

Couldn’t find what is meant specifically by Standard Mail (B). I wish I could do better, but these postal regs are really quite Byzantine.

Several categories of mail are designed to benefit certain classes of businesses. In order to better appreciate all the services our postal system provides, I once sent a newspaper by comparatively cheap Fourth Class mail. At the post office, the clerk examined the oddly heavy newspaper with staples around all the edges, and asked suspiciously if there might be something inside.

[What follows is WAG] The postal service benefits from a lower rate for printed matter because it encourages higher volume shipping, without that big an increase in handling. It may also be that some of these discounts are inherited from the days when Congress was more directly involved in postal affairs. Discounts for printed matter promote free speech, and more importantly provided a lifeline of news, entertainment, and catalogs to rural states in the days before radio etc.

Similar motivations may lie behind the package rates. Also, it behooves the post office not to allow their rates (read: profits) to be subverted by misuse: Say I have 500 kids at my school who are pen pals of a school in Germany. Each could send a separate envelope, using an 80¢ stamp, for $400 in postage. Or the principal could illegally box them all up, and send the 16-lb package for $73.20.

[dqa]

We may also have international obligations in defining these categories, hinted at by Cecil.

That opened the door to a long round of rate tweaking. Since terminal dues were originally charged strictly by weight, bulky periodicals incurred huge costs while letters, which required just as much handling, got off dirt cheap. After complaints by the U.S. and other nations…Meanwhile, we negotiated a separate terminal dues formula with 13 European countries that included a rate per piece plus a rate per kilogram.

[RealityChuck]

The U.S. used to charge for any first-class material included in a package; you’d have to tack on an extra stamp. Later, realizing the rule was impossible to enforce, they dropped it.

Evidently the rule still exists for international rates.