USPS slowing some mail delivery starting Oct. 1. These states will see biggest delays

[LiberalArkie]

Posted: Aug 8, 2021 / 05:34 PM CDT / Updated: Aug 8, 2021 / 05:34 PM CDT

In an effort to cut costs and provide more reliable service, the United States Postal Service finalized a plan to slow down some of its mail delivery starting Oct. 1.

The agency is changing its standard timeframe for delivering first-class letters, flat envelopes and periodicals. The benchmark will go from a one-to-three-day window to a one-to-five-day window for mail sent within the contiguous United States.

For first-class mail coming from the contiguous U.S. and going to Alaska, Hawaii, Puerto Rico or other U.S. territories (or vice versa), the standard will be four to five days.

Most first-class mail – an estimated 70% – will still arrive in under three days, according to a notice by the USPS in the federal register. In general, the delays will affect pieces of mail that have to go farther, from coast to coast or far reaches of the U.S.

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https://www.kark.com/news/national-news/usps-slowing-some-mail-delivery-starting-oct-1-these-states-will-see-biggest-delays/

[Lovie777]

1. DeJoy needs to leave . . .

[ananda]

2. Using double speak.

In an effort to destroy the postal system so my cronies
and I can make huge profits, I Louis DeJoy am putting
my strongest effort into slowing down the mail.

[2naSalit]

3. Doublespeak BS.

That criminal PMG needs to go to prison.

[pwb]

4. All mail should have a postmark again.

Pre paid envelopes with just the square in the stamp corner can be delayed on purpose. We get less time to pay our bills without late charges. Bring back Postmarks.

[questionseverything]

8. I think they want to force people to use electronic transfers

The less money a person has the more they rely on the mail

It is already a week to ten days for first class, with this new purposeful slowdown it will be 2-3 weeks

[PTWB]

22. I suspect very few people pay bills through snail mail these days.

[I_UndergroundPanther]

23. I do

I don't like when sometimes it takes forever for the electric company for instance to pull thier money out of my account, I don't have enough money to wait around for them to get it electronically,I got food to buy,cat to feed..rent to pay. So I pay by mail and money orders. That way I can breathe and know they've been paid.

I hate using electronic pay.

[questionseverything]

30. We did before de ass screwed it up

I like a paper trail

[Champp]

5. The Republicans already screwed the USPS hugely

Mail is WAY slower than it used to be. The Republicans did this to America. And now its going to get worse.

[NCjack]

6. There is no excuse for mail service decreasing like this.

Congress must stop this. Pres. Biden must find a path to fire NoJoy.

[LiberalArkie]

7. And they scream "It is all Bidens fault"... look at the map

https://www.washingtonpost.com/business/interactive/2021/dejoy-usps-delays-by-zip-code-map/

[NCjack]

27. It's happening on his watch. He must find a path to stop it and have the

Repukes hang it around his neck.

[twodogsbarking]

9. While this may be an inconvenience to some

it will cost the USPS business. Companies that have time sensitive mailings will also lose business.
Get DeJoy Boy out.

[Progressive Jones]

11. Which is their intent. Kill the USPS.

My wife is in management at a large P & DC (distribution center). She tells me that no matter what any Postmaster General might pass down as policy, the mail isn't going to stop, or even slow down as much as these stories report. She says the only real way is to slow down the trucking end, but a lot of that is done by contractors, and they're going to do their contracted runs, empty or not. They gots to get paid! USPS is going to pay those contracts. They can't default, by law. DeJoy looks even dumber.

[Blue_true]

12. Companies that have time sensitive mailings ALREADY use higher priced

alternatives. The Post Office offers higher priced alternatives that get mail delivered in one or two business days. The Post Office alternatives cost around 6 times more than the First Class mail, but are still less expensive than UPS or FedEx (for example, Next Day of FedEx can cost around $100, the USPS charges around $45).

Business that plan won’t notice any issues.

[twodogsbarking]

17. I was thinking more about advertising mailings.

Having spent many years working for a company in the mailing business I think I understand.

" Business that plan won’t notice any issues." What were you attempting to say?

[Blue_true]

21. My guess is very few people pay attention to advertising mailings.

Anyone that is reliant on postal service delivered mail to drum up business likely isn’t a strong business, targeted online ads are far more effective these days - hell, today I saw, on my phone, an ad for a guy running for City Council while I was reading a national news story. That was really unique and I could not ignore it because it was unexpected on my phone while I was on a national news site.

When I say planning I mean looking at all streams that are involved with doing something. When I am doing a new product launch, I build a critical path chart that looks at everything from buying materials from existing and new suppliers, and the process of buying equipment, to the shipping dynamics of the finished product. That takes into account items like shipping times (from my vendors and from my company to customers). I should have expanded more on the one sentence statement, it now looks like a back-handed effort at dismissal, which was not my intent.

[twodogsbarking]

24. Whatever.

[MichMan]

10. I can live with an extra day or so for something going across the country

Better that than the price of stamps going up significantly

Most packages are already going priority anyway

[Blue_true]

13. The Post Office still offer the least expensive method for

getting mail or a package from Point A to Point B.

[MichMan]

19. It seems like every time I send a package, priority ends up being the same cost as first class

[Blue_true]

25. Priority is more expensive.

Generally priority is for something that is critical, generally insurance would be a desirable add-on. Priority starts at around 2x first class at the post office, a commercial operation can get a roughly 25% discount on both (because of ship volume). The total amount a shipper pays depends upon how far apart Point A and Point B are, but generally the total is under 25% extra over the base rate (for example, if the first class package base rate is $3.01 for a commercial shipper, the total rate will be in the $3.25-$3.80 range for a domestic package).

[Scrivener7]

14. Also, it looks like this will use less air transportation, so does it reduce carbon emissions?

There may be a silver lining to this.

[FakeNoose]

15. Anything with a tracking number gets delivered on time

That includes Priority Mail, Express Mail, and any package that has the tracking barcode attached. It's an extra cost to get that, of course. But that's the only way to be sure it gets there on time.

I've been tracking mail that I sent by Priority and the package/envelope has always arrived in 2 days. Regular First Class mail? Well who knows - they will take no responsibility for anything getting there in a reasonable time. In my neighborhood, tracked packages come immediately but regular mail is only delivered every other day. What does that tell you?

The postal service doesn't want to lose their contracts with Amazon and the other retailers. Nothing else matters, I guess.

[Totally Tunsie]

16. So USPS is reverting?

Wasn't Air Mail supposed to be a great innovation when introduced - faster and cheaper? Now Ground is cheaper and more dependable?

With DeJoy in place, can the Pony Express be far behind?

From the linked article in OP:

The slower timeframe allows USPS to shift more of its delivery service away from air transportation and deliver more mail via ground transportation. The agency says air mail is more susceptible to unexpected weather delays and costs more, so the new system will be cheaper and more reliable.

Something seems to be backward here.

[MichMan]

18. Do you remember how expensive air mail postage used to be?

You had to pay extra for air mail, it wasn't a given like it is now. Air mail was faster, but it sure wasn't cheaper

I looked up some old rates and air mail was around 50% more than first class for a regular letter. It was phased out in 1975

[A HERETIC I AM]

20. A bit of perspective from a guy who hauls this stuff

My firm runs mail coast to coast. We have lanes that run from New York to LA and the PNW and from Jacksonville, Florida to The Bay Area, as well as north and south routes.

Most of the long haul trailers are moved via a relay system now. We used to run the Jax -> San Francisco and LA trips using 2 man teams, but now it's done with a relay, where drivers meet and swap trucks every 600 miles or so, the eastbound guy meeting the westbound guy, etc.

A trailer that is loaded and sealed at the Jacksonville Network Distribution Center (NDC) at 5 PM today, will arrive at the SF NDC around 9PM Tuesday night, given no extraordinary delays. A distance of 2789 miles running I-10 to I-5 up to the bay area. Roughly 40 hours of driving time.

Similar cross country times are made on almost every route we run. The trucks move about 20 to 22 hours a day (averaging 60 MPH for the most part, but all of our trucks are set at 68, max) , the other 4 spent on driver swaps, fueling and mandatory breaks for the drivers.

I say all this so folks can understand that moving a truck all the way, coast to coast is not much more than a 2 day undertaking. It's also important to remember that the USPS does NOT use the railroads to "Piggyback" trailers. US Mail is a federally protected commodity, and placing a trailer on a railcar is just not something that is done. No trailer loaded with US Mail sits overnight in a truck stop, either. The drivers do not stop for anything more than rest and fuel breaks. All of our trailers AND tractors have GPS devices installed so the firm and the Postal Service can know where a given truck and/or trailer is, 24/7/365.

It would seem to me that allowing the extra day for delivery is primarily so the NDC's and other facilities on either end have a bit more time to do their sort and send it further along.

And yes, we have a major lane that has been affected by the I-70 shutdown in Colorado. It's forcing a detour that adds about 4 to 6 hours to the trips

[Deminpenn]

28. Mailbags used to come on the trains

when I was a kid.

[A HERETIC I AM]

31. They sure did.

For years the railroads had Railway Post Offices;



The P&DC in Downtown Detroit used to have rail lines that ran right through the building. The inside trenches have been filled in, but the doors still remain and the rails are still visible crossing 10th street on the west end of the building.

https://goo.gl/maps/JnJBax2Ea81SucoG9

Some of the equipment we haul have locator pins that serve several purposes, one of which is to drop in to holes in the floors of rail cars to keep them in place. My firm does not move anything to the railroads, but I think Amtrak hauls some mail in the Northeast corridor.

[Steelrolled]

32. Thanks for the info, and it makes sense.

I think there is a clear need for a service that is reasonably quick, but does not need to waste fuel for air transport. I use the USPS for that quite a bit and am fine with it.

[leftyladyfrommo]

26. I haven't had mail for three days.

I ordered some seeds from Amazon. They were supposed to come on the 5th. They are coming USPS but they haven't come and there is no tracking number.

I pay my bills by phone or automatic payment but not having reliable mail is a real nuisance.

[oasis]

29. 70% delivery under 3 days, my ass. That's what DeJoy's using as

a setup for his total, nationwide slowdown of the mail.

It won't be long after the October start date before complaint calls go through the roof.