Mail Delivery By United States Postal Service To Get Slower, To Be Pricier for The Holidays

The United States Postal Service is all set to implement new operating standards and this could result in slower operations. The USPS said that the implementation process may backup mail deliveries and pickups. Spokeswoman Kim Frum said that the new operating standards for First Class Mail and Periodicals will be implemented this week and may result in slower operations. Some of the changes that the agency is implementing are expected to increase transit times for cross-country. Also, long-distance deliveries will get delayed. Frum also said that the target delivery time would be around 30 percent lower than the normal time.

But not all customers need to worry about it as the spokeswoman has confirmed that around 93 percent of periodicals and 61 percent of first-class mail won’t get affected because of the changes. Single-piece first-class mail will still be delivered within two days within the same region. According to Frum, first-class mail is defined as ‘standard sized letter and flats’ by the USPS. There is a difference between first-class mail and first-class packages. The latter is generally used to ship smaller lightweight packages. There is no difference between the delivery standard of first-class mail and first-class packages at the moment. But this is set to alter once the changes are implemented.

Moreover, the delivery is going to be more expensive in the coming days. However, this will be for a small period i.e. from October 3 to December 26. The US Postal Service has decided to increase the prices of both commercial and retail domestic packages ahead of the holiday season. But the increase in prices is not going to affect international products. The changes being implemented by the US Postal Service are part of Postmaster General Louis DeJoy’s 10-year strategic plan. DeJoy had announced the plan this past March. Under the plan, USPC will invest in training, technology, and inducting a new fleet of delivery vehicles. A new fleet will result in more efficiency. DeJoy said that the need to implement these changes in the US Postal Service has been long overdue. As part of the transformation, the USPS will use more ground transportation as it called the mode more reliable and cost-effective when compared to air transportation.