“It’s a lifeline.”Īnother crucial aspect of USPS service is its affordability - which is currently being undercut by price hikes on many first-class mail products. “USPS isn’t just a public service,” Twyla Baker, a member of the Mandan-Hidatsa tribe in North Dakota, told Vox. Since the USPS is mandated to deliver to any postal address in the US, no matter what - something private companies like FedEx and UPS aren’t required to do - the Postal Service in particular plays a vital role in ensuring rural communities, including tribal areas, have dependable access to mail service. “Everything in American society is getting faster, it seems, except for the mail delivery - which is now going to get slower.”Īs Catherine Kim explained for Vox last April, mail delivery is a crucial lifeline for millions of Americans in rural areas. “It’s the least fortunate who will be hurt hardest by this,” Steidler told CBS. The USPS said in its Federal Register notice that approximately 61 percent of first-class mail would still be delivered at its current standard - meaning, theoretically, that many customers wouldn’t notice much of a change in the delivery schedule.īut in practice, according to Steidler, the new policy will be “disastrous,” especially for certain populations like the elderly, people with disabilities, and those in rural areas for whom mail delivery is critical to their health care, financial security, and connection to the broader world. According to the Washington Post, the Postal Service will reduce the amount of mail transported via plane from 20 percent to 12 percent.Īccording to an August notice from USPS in the Federal Register, using cargo planes and passenger aircraft to transport mail is more expensive and less reliable because of “weather delays, network congestion, and air traffic control ground stops.” Who will be affected by the changes, and how? That’s because the USPS is set to reduce its reliance on planes to transport mail as part of a broader cost-saving effort, instead shifting some deliveries within the continental US to ground transportation. That “means mail delivery will be slower than in the 1970s,” for an estimated 40 percent of first-class mail, Paul Steidler, an expert on the postal service and supply chains at the Lexington Institute, told CBS. Prior to the changes, customers throughout the US could expect first-class mail to reach its destination in one to three days now, that timeframe will extend to between one and five days. The most widespread and significant change will affect first-class mail - things like letters, small packages, bills, and tax documents. The United States Postal Service started slowing its mail delivery on Friday, part of an effort by Postmaster General Louis DeJoy to cut costs over the next 10 years.
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