Every shipping carrier negotiates its rates. But only one of them has to prove their math to a federal regulator before any discounts take effect.
I’m of course referring to the US Postal Service.
USPS has to file its negotiated service agreements (NSAs) with the Postal Regulatory Commission. And the Commission has to sign off on everything before that custom pricing goes live.
FedEx and UPS don’t have any equivalent obligations. Meaning no third-party regulators or anyone outside of those companies reviews their contracts (and nobody ever will).
The difference that gets described here with USPS is transparency. But in all honesty, that oversells what’s happening. Understanding how the public NSA filings from USPS work can help you from a negotiation standpoint.
Why USPS Files Every NSA With the Postal Regulatory Commission
Postal law splits USPS products into two categories:
- Market Dominant Products: Protected by the mail monopoly and sit under a price cap
- Competitive Products: Like Priority Mail, Priority Mail Express, and Ground Advantage, which don’t have caps but are bound by different constraints.
Under 39 U.S.C. 3633, competitive products face three requirements:
- They can’t be subsidized by monopoly mail revenue.
- Each one has to cover the costs that are specifically tied to it.
- Collectively, they all need to contribute a share of the Postal Service’s institutional overhead determined by the Commission.
NSAs aren’t exempt from these rules.
So when USPS negotiates a custom contract, they have to include a filing to the Postal Regulatory Commission with a certification that the agreement complies with this section. Particularly that each product will cover its own costs and contribute toward institutional costs. Then the Commission reviews that certification as part of the contract approval process.
This means that the discount your USPS rep offers is bound by a cost calculation that has to pass this third-party inspection.
How the NSA Cost Floor Gets Enforced
There are two things to keep in mind when you’re looking at these constraints.
First is that attributable costs are not full costs. It’s just the standard costs specifically for that product, and not a complete allocation of everything else that USPS spends. There’s a meaningful gap between those two numbers.
It’s also worth understanding that the Commission’s check is partially retrospective. Approval happens up front based on projections. And whether the contract actually covers its cost gets evaluated after the fact in the Commission’s annual report.
These reports are worth knowing about because they show the floor getting breached. For example, the report covering fiscal year 2025 which was issued in March 2026 found that 18 competitive products failed to cover their attributable costs.
It also found five individually negotiated contracts came in under cost even though the broader non-published-rates product they belonged to did cover its costs.
Contracts that miss the mark get flagged and USPS is directed to fix the pricing. This correction ultimately lands on the customer’s rates.
Are USPS NSA Rates Public?
All USPS NSA filings are public and can be found on the Postal Regulatory Commission’s eDockets System. However, that doesn’t mean you get to see what other shippers are paying.
The contacts themselves are filed under seal, and the Commission keeps most of the materials confidential, including:
- Price structure
- Underlying costs and assumptions
- Pricing formula
- Customer’s mailing profile
- Cost coverage projections
- Customer’s identity
All of the agreements appearing on the public docket have contract numbers but no actual company attached.
What’s public is basically the existence of the agreement and the product classes covered under it. You can also see the regulator’s conclusion about whether the pricing got their stamp of approval.
What USPS NSA Filings Can Tell You
Despite the bulk of the contract information not being publicly available, there are a few things you can learn from the these filings:
- Discounts are bound by a cost calculation that someone outside the USPS has to approve, which creates a known ceiling to your discount.
- Density, predictable volume, and cubic-friendly dimensions all serve as a better argument when cost projections are calculated.
- When USPS won’t move any further, there’s a good chance they’ve reached the floor of what they can offer.
- Proof that contract pricing is routine, which can be checked through the eDockets System.
What You Can’t Use USPS Negotiated Service Agreement Public Filings For
Nothing that’s filed with the Commission can help you:
- Benchmark your rates against other shippers.
- Identify any of the businesses tied to the contracts.
- Leverage information during your negotiations with a rep.
- Help you with FedEx or UPS.
How to Approach Your USPS NSA Negotiation
Knowing that your discount is capped by a cost calculation that needs to pass regulatory scrutiny changes how you’ll negotiate with USPS. This is going to be a little different than your negotiation table with UPS, FedEx, DHL, or a regional carrier.
Volume alone can only get you so far. And it doesn’t matter “how much your rep likes you.”
Here’s what to focus on instead.
Favorable Zone Profiles: 1,000 packages per week spread across every zone in the country costs USPS considerably more to handle than those same 1,000 packages in a concentrated area.
Predictable Volume: It’s cheaper for USPS to plan around consistent volume that’s on schedule compared to volume that spikes randomly and then disappears.
Standard Dimensions: Fix your package dimensions before you argue about rates. USPS offers cubic-eligible packages based on size rather than weight, and anything that’s oversized or awkward costs more to move no matter what’s inside of them.
Network Entry Points: Consider where your packages flow into the USPS shipping network. Consolidators and regional injection strategies can be more cost effective than having USPS pick up packages at your dock and move them across the country.
You should also recognize the floor when you finally hit it. That’s a signal to stop pushing on price and start asking whether a regional carrier or different injection point changes the economics.
It’s also worth noting that the same playbook can’t be used quite the same with other carriers. UPS and FedEx care about this too. But they’re able to price things lower and then rebuild margin through surcharges, accessory fees, and general rate increases. With those carriers, the headline rate is less important than everything else in the contract.
What Negotiated Service Agreement Filings Mean for Your Shipping Rates
Market rates vary based on lots of factors, including which company is shipping the parcels.
But there’s only one carrier legally required to hand its contracts to a federal agency, and they have to stand behind every number.
As you can see, these filings aren’t as transparent as you may have initially thought. And that’s ok. They give you a constraint to work within, and an understanding that USPS pricing isn’t anchored in the same way as other shippers.
The problem the filings don’t solve is the only one that matters when you’re staring at a proposal: is this a good offer?
While a docket can confirm a contract exists, it doesn’t tell you the prices and whether there’s more room to negotiate. That’s the benefit of working with a consultant.
Here at The Cost Guards, we’ve seen the other side of these contracts from other shippers. So we know how low USPS is actually willing to go based on your specific shipping mix. Which means we can benchmark for you in a way that public records never do well.
If you want to know whether USPS is actually offering you a competitive rate without guessing, book a free consultation.