{"id":1973,"date":"2025-03-12T10:23:54","date_gmt":"2025-03-12T14:23:54","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/gcn.com\/us\/?p=1973"},"modified":"2025-03-12T10:23:54","modified_gmt":"2025-03-12T14:23:54","slug":"us-postal-service-making-big-changes-mail","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/gcn.com\/us\/us-postal-service-making-big-changes-mail\/","title":{"rendered":"The US Postal Service is making big changes to this mail \u2013 and here\u2019s what Americans need to know now"},"content":{"rendered":"

The U.S. Postal Service will soon be implementing some big changes<\/a> to its first-class mail and this change is expected to save the agency billions of dollars over the next ten years.<\/p>\n

The U.S. Postal Service is delivering a change<\/h2>\n

The United States Postal Service has made the decision to implement a “refined service standard<\/a>” for its first-class mail. Once these new service standards come into effect, the agency has predicted savings to the amount of $36 billion over a ten year period. These savings will be a result of cost reductions in transportation, mail processing, and real estate.<\/p>\n

Additionally, the Postal Service’s ongoing “Delivering for America” plan has also cut annual transportation costs by $1.8 billion due to the elimination of “redundant networks and rationalizing the use of air and surface options, and reduced 45 million workhours, or $2.3 billion annually, by improving plant productivity, and eliminating unnecessary facilities.” Revenue has also increased annually by $3.5 billion as product offerings were in the process of transitioning.<\/p>\n

The refined service standard will come into effect on April 1. This will be seen in the adjustment made to service standards for first-class mail, periodicals, marketing mail, as well as packaging services. In the news release for this announcement, the Postal Service revealed that going forward, 14% of first-class mail will be delivered at an upgraded standard, 11% will be done at a lower rate, and the remaining 75% will continue to be delivered at an unchanged standard.<\/p>\n

“Under the new approach, while most mail will retain the same service standard, some mail will have a faster standard, and some will have a slightly slower standard,” the agency explained. “For first-class mail, the current service standard day range of one to five days is staying the same, while the day ranges for end-to-end marketing mail, periodicals, and package services are being shortened. All mail will benefit from more reliable service.”<\/p>\n

Other changes at the United States Postal Service<\/h2>\n

In addition to the upgraded standard of service, the Postal Service has also announced that the currently used three digit ZIP codes will be replaced with five digit ZIP codes. This transition is being done in order to heighten accuracy and improve delivery transparency.<\/p>\n

The agency has share that these changes are necessary to “to improve postal operations and achieve the critical \u2014 and significant \u2014 cost savings that are necessary for financial sustainability as required by law.”<\/p>\n

Furthermore, in the news release, Postmaster General Louis DeJoy shared that, “The Postal Service has been historically burdened by service standard regulations and onerous business rules that have not been appropriately adjusted to account for volume and mail mix changes, forcing costly and ineffective operations.”<\/p>\n

“For decades – and most specifically during the last three years – Congress has actively resisted operational solutions and meaningful change. By implementing the new standards and the operational initiatives to which they are aligned, we will be better able to achieve the goals of our modernization plans and create a high-performing, financially sustainable organization, which is necessary to achieve the statutory policies and objectives established for the Postal Service by law,” DeJoy added.<\/p>\n

Implementation dates<\/h2>\n

The U.S. Postal Service will be facilitating the implementation of the refined service standard in two phases so as to ensure an effective execution of operation. The first phase will come into effect on April 1. This will then be followed up by phase two which will begin on June 1.<\/p>\n

Information regarding these changes will be made available at retail locations, as well as with commercial customers so as to ensure all mailers are aware of the changes. The Postal Service has also shared that it will have “user-friendly tools available so customers understand how long it should take for mail they are sending to reach its destination.”<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The U.S. Postal Service will soon be implementing some big changes to its first-class mail and this change is expected to save the agency billions of dollars over the next ten years. The U.S. Postal Service is delivering a change The United States Postal Service has made the decision to implement a “refined service standard” […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":1974,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jnews-multi-image_gallery":[],"jnews_single_post":{"subtitle":"","format":"standard","override":[{"template":"1","parallax":"1","layout":"right-sidebar","sidebar":"default-sidebar","second_sidebar":"default-sidebar","sticky_sidebar":"1","share_position":"hide","share_float_style":"share-monocrhome","show_share_counter":"1","show_view_counter":"1","show_featured":"1","show_post_meta":"1","show_post_author":"1","show_post_date":"1","post_date_format":"custom","post_date_format_custom":"m\/d\/Y H:i","show_post_category":"1","show_post_reading_time":"0","post_reading_time_wpm":"300","post_calculate_word_method":"str_word_count","show_zoom_button":"0","zoom_button_out_step":"2","zoom_button_in_step":"3","number_popup_post":"1","show_author_box":"0","show_post_related":"0","show_inline_post_related":"1"}],"image_override":[{"single_post_thumbnail_size":"no-crop","single_post_gallery_size":"crop-715"}],"trending_post_position":"meta","trending_post_label":"Trending","sponsored_post_label":"Sponsored by","disable_ad":"0"},"jnews_primary_category":[],"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1973","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/gcn.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1973","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/gcn.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/gcn.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gcn.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gcn.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1973"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/gcn.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1973\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gcn.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1974"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/gcn.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1973"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gcn.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1973"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gcn.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1973"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}