Changes at the US Postal Service kick in Friday. How will it affect your mail?
United States Postal Service changes to delivery times kick in Friday, meaning that cross-country mail could see up to two-day delays going forward.
The changes also mean package shipments will be more expensive during the upcoming holiday season, U.S. Postal Service spokesperson Meiko Patton said.
Current standards regulate that first-class mail shipped from any location reaches its destination in three days or less. New regulations would allow mail to be delivered in up to five days, depending on where it is coming from within the continental U.S., as the service transitions more of its operations to ground shipping from air.
Mail traveling more than 931 miles, or 20 hours, will have a four-day delivery standard. Mail traveling more than 1,908 miles, or more than 41 hours, will have a five-day delivery standard.
Still, 61% of first-class mail and 93% of periodicals — like subscription magazines released at regular intervals — will not be affected by the changes, Patton said.
Consumers can still choose priority mail services for one-to-three day shipping across the continental U.S.
The U.S. Postal Service also will increase the cost of domestic package shipments during this holiday season — from Oct. 3 to Dec. 26 — to reflect the needs presented last year, Patton said. International mail will not be affected.
Previously, letters and flats coming from within a six-hour drive would have a two-day standard. The U.S. Postal Service adjusted that to apply to flat mail within a three-hour drive, bumping most mail coming from farther away to a three-day standard.
But packages within an eight-hour drive, rather than from the previous time-frame of six hours, will now meet two-day standard. Sixty-eight percent of packages will still have one-to-two day delivery.
The U.S. Postal Service contends that this better meets consumer needs, as demand increases for packages in a more competitive market and decreases for letters and flats.
Shipping and mailing letters and flat mail via the U.S. Postal Service has steadily declined over the past decade and sharply during the coronavirus pandemic. In 2020, the U.S. Postal Service delivered more than 129 billion pieces of mail across the country, a decline of 11% since 2019. The U.S. Postal Service sorts almost 430 million pieces of mail to more than 160 million addresses at least six days a week.
The changes, starting Friday, Oct. 1, are part of the service’s 10-year plan to optimize its services and prevent devastating financial losses that have already started to derail its network.
Over the past 14 years, the U.S. Postal Service has lost $87 billion. And the organization forecasts that it will lose much more over the next 10 years as use of its services shrink against competitors and online messaging.
Dubbed “Delivering for America,” the plan allows more wiggle room for delivery times, modernizes some of the organization’s processes and reaches into the e-commerce space. It’s ground fleet, for one, has been the same for 25 years — the organization hopes to introduce new vehicles in 2023 and that, with congressional approval, they can be zero-emission by 2035.
Air shipments have greater impacts due to weather, flight traffic and overall availability, as the U.S. Postal Service does not own its own planes. The plan for first-class mail would reduce reliance on air carriers. Ground transportation has historically been more reliable for the postal service, according to its plan.
The U.S. Postal Service’s estimated delivery times have not been completely accurate over the past eight years, and they worsened during the pandemic, said Robert Cintron, the U.S. Postal Service’s vice president of logistics, in a conference proposing the changes in April.
About 93% of mail that had to be delivered through air carriers was on time before the pandemic, Cintron said. In February 2021, only 56% of mail was delivered on time. From April to the end of June, almost 84% of mail was delivered on time.
By increasing the number of days for first-class mail that travels long distances, the U.S. Postal Service expects that its accuracy in determining delivery times will bolster to 95%.
“The Postal Service’s problems are serious but, working together, they can be solved,” U.S. Postmaster General Louis DeJoy said in a release. “Our 10-year Plan capitalizes on our natural strengths and addresses our serious weaknesses.”
This story was originally published September 30, 2021 at 5:00 AM.
