Beginning Monday it will cost a penny more to mail a letter.
William Lloyd, Wilson postmaster, said prices for first-class stamps will increase from 41 cents to 42 cents.
High fuel prices are just one reason the stamp rates are rising, Lloyd said.
"The Postal Service has the largest fleet in the United States," he said. "That is a tremendous cost we have to bear. We are going to every residence every day."
Wilson has 31 postal vehicles and covers 42 routes. Rural postal workers are also compensated for gas mileage, Lloyd said.
"When you think of a city like Raleigh with more than 300 or 400 routes, again that is a tremendous expense," he said. "You also have to take into consideration the two-ton trucks and 18-wheelers that transport mail from city to city."
The Postal Service is regulated and only allowed to increase the stamp rates through increments, Lloyd said.
"That is why last time (when stamp prices increased to 41 cents) we didn't raise them 2 or 3 cents," he said.
Lloyd urges people to purchase Forever Stamps before Monday at 41 cents. After the price increases they will still be valid, he said.
Monday the Forever Stamps also increase to 42 cents, Lloyd said.
This is the second time in two years the price of stamps has increased.
Charles Guy, the former director of the Postal Service's Office of Economics and Strategic Planning, said those increases suggest that postal rates will continue to rise annually.
"Raising stamp prices -- even on a yearly basis -- won't save the Postal Service from the significant fiscal challenges it faces," said Guy, now a senior fellow at the Lexington Institute.
Due to reform legislation passed in 2006, USPS must keep future rate increases within the official rate of inflation. The legislation also requires the Postal Service to provide $50 billion to fund its pension obligations over the next decade.
"With stamp prices tied to the Consumer Price Index, the Postal Service can't just raise prices to meet its pension-funding requirements," Guy said in a press release. "That leaves it only two ways to cover costs: lowering the amount spent on labor or introducing new products that will increase revenue."
But since the Postal Service's track record with new products has not been good, the Postal Service has to find ways to reduce its labor costs substantially, Guy said.
Monday's rate hike is the fifth price increase since 2001. Stamp prices have gone up nearly 24 percent during that time.
eddie@wilsontimes.com | 265-7820