[78-L] USPS strikes again

[David Lennick]

Here's a new one. Yesterday I made one of my increasingly rarer trips over the 
border to ship some parcels, including a few for Europe and Asia. They have a 
new way of calculating how much money they're going to snatch from your 
pockets, involving measuring the width of the parcel plus the girth, and adding 
the two figures. If it's over 42 inches, the package goes by Priority and you 
fill out the large CP 72 Customs Declaration and you give them a lot of money. 
Less than 42, the smaller CN 22 form and not as much money. Nobody at this PO 
seemed to understand why this was now the case, and I don't understand how I 
can go online and look for shipping costs on a 13x13x5" package and come up 
with around $35 but USPS will tell me that the same parcel (whose length+girth 
totals 49") will cost around $48. "Girth" is front to back, down and back 
around to the front of the package. Does any of this make sense and does 
anybody have the foggiest idea if it's being applied correctly? Weight of the 
parcel didn't seem to figure (one of the packages was definitely under 4 pounds 
but still cost $51.05 to send).

dl