The U.S. Postal Service is hitting package shippers with its first-ever fuel surcharge starting next month, as skyrocketing diesel prices driven in part by turmoil in the Middle East push the already cash-strapped agency toward the financial brink, the Wall Street Journal reported Wednesday.
The 8% surcharge kicks in April 26 and is set to run through January 2027. It applies to packages only, with a medium Priority Mail flat-rate box set to jump from $22.95 to $24.80 overnight.
The move comes as diesel prices hit $5.38 a gallon this week, up 51% from a year ago, with FedEx and UPS having already dramatically hiked their own fuel surcharges in recent weeks amid the oil market chaos unleashed by the Iran war.
New Postmaster General David Steiner warned lawmakers just last week that the agency will run out of money within a year. Amazon, the USPS’s biggest customer, also plans to sharply cut the volume of packages it ships through the postal service by this fall, which could cost the agency billions in desperately needed revenue.
The agency noted the surcharge is “less than one-third” of what FedEx and UPS charge for fuel alone.
“We have steadfastly avoided surcharges and this charge is less than one-third of what our competitors charge for fuel alone, so even with this change, the Postal Service continues to offer great value in shipping with some of the lowest rates in the industrialized world,” the agency said.
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