US Postal Service finalizes plan to slow some mail deliveries
Delivery standards will be slower for about 7% of periodicals
The US Postal Service (USPS) on Friday finalized a plan effective Oct. 1 to slow down some first-class mail deliveries as part of efforts to cut red ink.
Postmaster General Louis DeJoy proposed in March to revise existing one- to three-day service standards to one to five days for first-class mail. USPS said on Friday that 61% of first-class mail will remain at its current standard.
USPS said in a notice published in the Federal Register current standards require it "to rely heavily on air transportation, using air cargo transportation carriers and commercial passenger air carriers."
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Delivery standards will be slower for about 7% of periodicals.
Airplanes, USPS added, are less reliable than surface transportation and costs much more because of "weather delays, network congestion, and air traffic control ground stops."
The "addition of one or two days to current service standards for first-class mail and periodicals would enable the Postal Service to convey a greater volume of mail within the contiguous United States by surface transportation," it said.
