All About Pocket Knives

USPS is going to add a fuel surcharge of 8% to packages starting April 26th and is “supposed” to sunset Jan 17th 2027. This is not being added to letter mail.
I’ll believe the sunset when I see it. I don’t know how they can figure out now how long fuel prices will be high enough to justify keeping it on for that long or how they can see an end to the high fuel prices ending in January? Seems to me that it would be easier to swallow if they said it will be there as long as fuel stays above a certain level, but they didn’t.

I respect the post office and they try their best. Good people where I live but come on. The prices before this increase was high for a knife in a small box. Most of us don’t do this hobby for the money. And I refuse to charge more just for shipping. Guess we’ll be taking it in the teeth for awhile.

The toll roads were only supposed to be for the duration of the civil war. We're still paying tolls.

Sharpnshinyknives wrote: ↑Thu Mar 26, 2026 6:46 pm USPS is going to add a fuel surcharge of 8% to packages starting April 26th and is “supposed” to sunset Jan 17th 2027. This is not being added to letter mail.
I’ll believe the sunset when I see it. I don’t know how they can figure out now how long fuel prices will be high enough to justify keeping it on for that long or how they can see an end to the high fuel prices ending in January? Seems to me that it would be easier to swallow if they said it will be there as long as fuel stays above a certain level, but they didn’t.

I believe the 'Ol song goes like this: "Ain't no surcharge ever gone...
Ain't no surcharge ever gone...
Ain't no surcharge ever gone...
Never gone, never gone,
it won't ever go away....

Just another way to increase the bottom line without going thru the
traditional way for a increase to be passed ( Congress? )

Bob

P.S.

Probably will never go down - I have yet to see prices go
down even though the initial reasons may go away

Yes. Selling a not so expensive or very used knife
is going to be expensive when shipping a small box
will be 10 dollars.

I don't think I've ever seen a government employee or government agency promote its shrinkage, rather, it has always been asking for more, more, more.

Have you ever noticed that postal rates don't go down when fuel costs go down?

I too doubt this surcharge will ever go away and will likely be renewed.

In my area, the Post Office is a sore subject. They have a new facility, yet the outside is unkept, and the people at the counter are surly and painfully slow. The carrier that services our mailbox is always on the phone, and I've seen her in other areas, and she's on the phone there too. She has a problem matching the little numbers on the mail to the little numbers on the mailbox, meaning mail goes into the wrong box too frequently. And this is a big problem because many in the area are part-time residents, and may not check their mail for months.

My mailman is a real nice guy. For the most part the workers at the post office are all pleasant people. They all say the same thing, incompetent people in charge are causing all the problems for the post office. Big shots and politicians wreck everything they touch.

chickenman62 wrote: ↑Fri Mar 27, 2026 3:12 pm My mailman is a real nice guy. For the most part the workers at the post office are all pleasant people. They all say the same thing, incompetent people in charge are causing all the problems for the post office. Big shots and politicians wreck everything they touch.

I agree and the USPS works for me . They are hirers of veterans.

A surcharge is a Tax is a Tax is a Tax. And Taxes are very rarely removed.

With all of their electric vehicles why do they need fuel?

For an organization that vigorously touts, "Buy American", it seems that all of the vehicles that are parked and driven at my local post office are Mercedes-Benz vans that are NOT built in the USA.
On a positive note: the postal employees here are all friendly and very helpful.

My PO has nice folks too, but somewhere in the system they have plenty of morons. I have sent two packages to relatives in the past two weeks and paid for priority mail. One got the 600 miles to my sister's house three days late and the other's tracking shows it's supposed to be at a cousin's house in Washington State today but instead is still in MA. Naturally the PO does not refund you the extra paid for priority when they fail to deliver on time.

Ray, the PO vans made by Mercedes are made in South Carolina. The little RFD delivery trucks are made here also.

I hate how much it costs to send a little package, and I hate even more that it’s going up. I’m not getting upset, though. I’m grateful for the postal service and want them to survive. I have about 4 different post offices I can go to, all within 20 minutes or less. I don’t particularly care for some of the workers in some of them, so I understand the frustration some of you feel. I’m fortunate that the closest one - less than 10 minutes away - is a small community PO - no town, just a gas station there. It’s a one man operation, and the previous guy who retired was super nice. There’s a young guy there now, and I like him too. I tell you how small this community is. There is no home mail delivery. People there have to have a PO Box to get their mail!

I went camping with an old buddy a couple of weeks ago. He came out from California, and he left something in my car and wanted me to send it back. It weighed over 5 lbs. to ship it in a box ... so, I went to the post office to see about a large flat rate box to ship it in, because I thought that would be cheapest. It was $31.50 at the Post Office.... the item was an old blanket an ex-girlfriend had given him years ago. I never liked her, and you couldn't get $1 for that blanket at a yard sale .... but he wanted that blanket back... A few years ago, a large flat rate box was about $13 to ship.... The cost just keeps going up, up, up!!!