Related Articles
USPS Delivery Times : USPS says its network modernization plans are badly needed to revitalize its legacy infrastructure, which was primarily built for transportation papers.
The Postal Service is planning a series of changes next year to lower its operating costs and ensure more reliable service for most of its customers.
The USPS says the next phase of its network modernization plan, which will take place next year, is to get mail and packages to their destination in fewer trips between mail processing plants and post offices.
The agency hopes these adjustments will not only help it squeeze $3 billion in annual overhead costs out of its operations, but enable faster delivery of mail and packages to customers within 50 miles of the agency’s largest regional mail processing plants.
For customers outside a 50-mile radius, however, USPS “anticipates that some mail and packages will experience a longer service standard,” according to a filing to its regulator on Thursday.
In those cases, mail and packages in those more rural areas will remain in transit for about a day before reaching their final destination.
The USPS, however, told the Postal Regulatory Commission that these changes would have a “net positive impact” on service for first-class mail, package and marketing mail, and would be delivered “at the same level of service.” Or faster, “for most customers.
“The Postal Service has significant discretion to determine how to meet our statutory obligations, including discretion to determine how to consider the best balance of service adequacy with the need for affordable and cost-effective operations,” USPS told its regulator.
The USPS says 75% of first-class mail has seen no change, and it will deliver about two-thirds of the mail in three days or less.
In all cases, for first-class mail and packages through USPS Ground Advantage, delivery within five days is considered on time.
The USPS says it will continue to deliver prescription drugs through the mail “at its current speed, or faster,” under these plans, and that its service standards will still apply to rural and urban areas alike.
The USPS expects these changes, once fully implemented, will cut $30 billion in costs over the next decade, and help get the agency back on track to achieve long-term financial stability.
“The proposed operational changes will modernize our ground transportation network to reflect customers’ changing needs, reduce costs to become financially self-sufficient, and provide a more predictable and reliable service,” USPS wrote in a press release on Thursday.
Postmaster General Louis DeJoy said in a statement that these changes, once implemented, “will improve service reliability, reduce costs and grow our business. ”
“For the next step in its network modernization plan, USPS wants to cut costs by standardizing its transportation program for trucks carrying mail and packages from regional mail processing plants to community post offices, and vice versa.” “”
Under the plan, trucks will primarily drop off mail early in the morning for post offices and the furthest from regional plants. End-of-day trips between these facilities.
“This consolidation will provide flexibility in our transportation scheduling, allow a significant amount of mail volume at USPS plants to begin processing soon, and reduce local transportation costs, carbon emissions, and truck trips through the U. S. neighborhood,” the agency wrote.
DeJoy has repeatedly laid out his strategy in contrast to previous USPS plans before his tenure, which focused on closing and consolidating facilities as well as limiting hours in post offices.
DeJoy, in an exclusive interview earlier this year with USPS, said he has begun to tolerate “wasteful practices” that have led to higher costs and slower deliveries.
“You don’t want empty trucks everywhere. You don’t blow stuff that you can get off the ground, “DeJoy told the Federal News Network in February.
“This is by no means a consolidation of good stuff. This is the rearrangement of furniture, “he said. “I think we’ll come up with more square footage deployed around the nation before we start. It’s not just useless class footage, “DeJoy said. “I’m talking about waste, and instead of handling things 17 times, instead of handling it once or twice – because it’s remarkable. That’s what other people do. ”
By making these changes, the USPS hopes it can provide faster service for local deliveries. In some areas, the USPS expects all local mail to be delivered within three days “at the slowest possible pace,” and in some cases, it will achieve the two-day standard.
It supports the development of local commerce
Source link
