The updates are part of the agency’s 10-year plan, which has faced criticism from the Postal Regulatory Commission.
The U.S. Postal Service (USPS) is implementing the next phase of its delivery-service changes beginning Tuesday, the agency said in a July 1 statement.
On March 20, the USPS announced that it planned to implement changes to its service standards, which refer to the expected number of days to deliver a piece of mail.
The new standards, projected to be implemented in two phases on April 1 and July 1, are expected to save the USPS a minimum of $36 billion over the next decade through cost savings in transportation, real estate, and mail and packaging costs.
At the time, the USPS said that while delivery times may extend by one day for mail collected at certain post office locations, overall delivery speeds of both mail and packages are expected to improve.
Under the new policy effective from Tuesday, USPS will increase the geographic reach of its two-, three-, and four-day delivery service for first-class mail and Ground Advantage, ensuring faster deliveries at more locations. At present, such deliveries can take up to five business days.
The agency attributed the increased coverage of speedier delivery times to faster transportation dispatch from regional processing and distribution centers.
As for mail and packages originating and destined within the service area of a processing facility, the USPS will provide two- and three-day delivery service for single-piece first-class mail and Ground Advantage.
The USPS said the increased geographic coverage area and updated delivery timeframes “will add value” for our customers.
Customers can check out the agency’s Service Commitments webpage to “find the expected delivery day for postal products depending on the sender and recipient’s ZIP codes,” it added. (ZIP is an acronym for zone improvement plan.)
One of the changes the USPS implemented on April 1 was increasing delivery times by one day for Ground Advantage and single-piece first-class mail and periodicals that originate within a five-digit ZIP code located more than 50 miles from their nearest regional processing and distribution center.
The USPS’s delivery standard rules implemented on April 1 and July 1 are part of the 10-year Delivering for America plan that aims to boost the agency’s financial and operational efficiency.
The changes to mail delivery service were previously criticized by the Postal Regulatory Commission (PRC) in a Jan. 31 statement.
The PRC said the USPS’s plan depends on “defective modeling and does not appear to be ready for implementation,” the statement said. Moreover, the projected cost savings rely on “overly optimistic and unsubstantiated financial projections.”
It also raised concerns that the changes under the Delivering for America plan would have “significant negative impacts on rural communities throughout the United States.”
