USPS Media Mail Rates Rise, Delivery Confirmation Replaced by USPS Tracking

I learned today that the most recent USPS price hike was modest for Media Mail (my less-than-1-pound packages went up only about 12 cents each -- about 3%), but there was a big change when it came to Delivery Confirmation.... a service I've recommended for the past 2 years, that has now been replaced by "USPS Tracking" -- no more little green and white slips to fill out and paste onto my book parcels (which is nice) and the extra charge (90 cents now vs. the previous cost of 85 cents) is now shown right on the receipt.

Here are the new USPS Standard Media Mail Rates (effective Jan. 27, 2013)

Media Mail		Effective Jan. 27, 2013
Weight Not Over (lbs)	Single Piece	Weight Not Over (lbs)	Single Piece
1	$2.53	36	$17.70
2	$2.98	37	$18.13
3	$3.43	38	$18.56
4	$3.88	39	$18.99
5	$4.33	40	$19.42
6	$4.78	41	$19.85
7	$5.23	42	$20.28
8	$5.66	43	$20.71
9	$6.09	44	$21.14
10	$6.52	45	$21.57
11	$6.95	46	$22.00
12	$7.38	47	$22.43
13	$7.81	48	$22.86
14	$8.24	49	$23.29
15	$8.67	50	$23.72
16	$9.10	51	$24.15
17	$9.53	52	$24.58
18	$9.96	53	$25.01
19	$10.39	54	$25.44
20	$10.82	55	$25.87
21	$11.25	56	$26.30
22	$11.68	57	$26.73
23	$12.11	58	$27.16
24	$12.54	59	$27.59
25	$12.97	60	$28.02
26	$13.40	61	$28.45
27	$13.83	62	$28.88
28	$14.26	63	$29.31
29	$14.69	64	$29.74
30	$15.12	65	$30.17
31	$15.55	66	$30.60
32	$15.98	67	$31.03
33	$16.41	68	$31.46
34	$16.84	69	$31.89
35	$17.27	70	$32.32

The new "USPS Tracking" caught me off-guard. You'd have thought the Post Office could get their act together better and let business shippers know what's coming.

I'm wondering when the extra charge the Post Office assesses shippers for package tracking will cause me to give second-thoughts to offering this extra service at no extra charge to my customers.

I've always felt that by tossing in Delivery Confirmation (now called "USPS Tracking") I would gain an edge over competitors who didn't toss it in gratis.

But at 90 cents per parcel, this usually adds 25% to my shipping bill. Dropping the USPS Tracking would save me $90 per 100 shipments, money that would drop to the bottom line profits.

Yes, it's hard to give up on the tracking. Without it, any customer could click a button, say they never received the package, and I'd be forced to refund the order and I'd be out the book and shipping charges to boot.