The U.S. Postal Service is moving forward with its plan to slow down delivery for about one-third of small and lightweight packages as it advances its plan to cut costs and reverse longstanding financial losses at the agency.
Currently, USPS aims to deliver all First-Class packages in two or three days. Beginning May 1, that will shift to just 68%, with 17% taking four days and 15% taking five days. The change is part of Postmaster General Louis DeJoy’s 10-year strategy to steady postal finances and follows USPS slowing down its delivery standards for about 40% of First-Class mail last year.
The Postal Service is moving forward with the change despite USPS’ regulator in September blasting the agency for failing to demonstrate it could implement its operational plan, provide consistent and reliable service or achieve its anticipated efficiencies. Postal management leaned on oversimplified assumptions and predicted outcomes “potentially inaccurate and unachievable,” the Postal Regulatory Commission said. It added USPS failed to analyze the impact of its changes on customers and challenged the proportion of packages that would be affected.