Enhancing Mail Delivery

USPS’ Plan for Improved Service

The USPS has recently released their Vision and Ten-Year Plan to Achieve Financial Sustainability and Service Excellence.

Among the topics covered in this extensive report, there is an update on delivery times that we felt pertained to our customers and we wanted to relay that information as clearly as possible.

The USPS sets certain standards for how quickly they deliver mail. However, over the past few years, they haven’t been able to meet these targets for First-Class Mail composite or First-Class Mail 3 to 5-day service standards. One of the main reasons for this is that the current standards don’t consider the significant decline in mail volumes and the impact of complex, expensive, and unreliable transportation networks.

So, What’s The Plan?

Currently, the delivery time is fixed at 1 to 3 days. But they are proposing to make it more flexible, with a new standard of 1 to 5 days for delivery within the continental United States. This change would enable a considerable portion of First-Class Mail, which is currently transported through the air, to shift to surface transportation. This will help the USPS reduce costs and improve overall efficiency.

Impacts of these proposed changes:

• Local Mail: Mail sent locally, like within a three-hour drive time, will still be delivered within two days, without any change in the service standard.

• Volume Retention: Most of the current First-Class Mail and Periodicals volume will retain their existing standards. So, there won’t be significant disruptions for the majority of mailers.

• Modified Standards: For some mail, especially First-Class 3-day volume, there will be adjustments in the service standards based on the distance between the origin and destination processing facilities.

The aim is to use surface transportation more effectively, which will lead to better reliability and reduced costs. The USPS believes that moving a substantial part of First-Class Mail and First-Class Packages from air to surface transportation will improve service reliability and reduce rising costs. It will also allow the USPS to make better use of trailers transported by surface, eliminating the need for redundant transportation networks.

Overall, the USPS hopes to provide a more predictable and reliable service while optimizing their operations in response to the decline in mail volumes. By becoming more efficient, they can keep costs reasonable and maintain affordable postage rates. These changes will also set them up for significant cost savings and service that meets or exceeds 95 percent on-time reliability.

So, be on the lookout for updates from InfoIMAGE or the USPS directly as they work towards enhancing the mail delivery experience.