31
2013
Free Priority Mail Insurance May Remove Stealth Postage
An article by shipsurance
The United States Postal Service (USPS) recently added free insurance coverage to their Domestic Priority Mail services. This coverage is either $50.00 or $100.00 based on how you are printing your labels. This is meant to combat the service offerings from competitors like UPS and FedEx. This is a good option for some, but we wanted to alert you to the possibility of losing the option of stealth postage on your shipments. Stealth postage is when the shipping label is printed without displaying the postage amount. As Stamps.com states “… your customers won’t be angry that they were charged more than the cost for postage and you can charge shipping and handling fees that better reflect your true costs”.
If the USPS is asked to insure a package in the amount of $25.00, for example, this eliminates the stealth postage option. Below is a screen shot from the Endicia Dazzle software indicating such.
Since the USPS started offering this free coverage on the 28th, many shippers have not noticed this change as of yet. We wanted to alert you so you caught this before your customers might start questioning the postage amount. Remember, this is only the case if the USPS is told to insure a package AND provided with a value.
