The United States Postal Service wants to save $3 billion annually through changes that reflect greater reliance on optimized regional networks while maintaining local mail delivery times of one to three days and allowing customers to track some delivery schedules with greater accuracy.
Officials said election mail would not be affected.
The proposal, announced Thursday, would adjust mail delivery times while maintaining a maximum five-day delivery commitment for the flagship Ground Advantage program nationwide and a maximum three-day delivery commitment for local First Class Mail.
Postmaster General Louis DeJoy said the changes coming next year are needed to “allow us to operate more efficiently and reliably, grow our business, and give us a chance at a viable future” after an 80% drop in First Class mail since 1997 and a corresponding rise in packages. In total, the Postal Service has lost more than $87 billion from 2007 to 2020.
Details were released by the Postal Service ahead of a Sept. 5 meeting where the proposed changes will be discussed with stakeholders before they are presented to the Postal Regulatory Commission.
Election mail and holiday mail would not be affected because the proposed changes would not be implemented until next calendar year, officials said. Medicines would also continue to be delivered at current rates or faster under the proposal, officials said.
Representative Gerry Connolly, a frequent critic of DeJoy's changes, was not impressed with the proposal.
“Any attempt to reduce service while raising prices is a recipe for deadly decline at the Postal Service,” Connolly, a Democrat from Virginia, said in a statement. “This is the second time Postmaster General DeJoy has proposed reducing service standards. He might as well announce a return to horse and buggy mail delivery.”
The proposal reflects the Postal Service's move to rebuild its processing and transportation network with an emphasis on major regional hubs, something it is already beginning to do in Atlanta, Richmond, Va., and Portland, Ore. The changes to better utilize existing ground networks mean the Postal Service must adjust pickup and delivery times between post offices and processing plants, which will speed up the delivery of some mail, officials said.
The proposal is consistent with the organization's mandate to be financially self-sufficient while continuing to deliver mail to all addresses nationwide six days a week. If adopted, 75 percent of first-class mail would be delivered no different from current service standards, and about two-thirds of mail would be delivered in three days or less, the Postal Service said.