NRECA is asking the U.S. Postal Service to reconsider its proposal to curb evening mail service in rural areas, saying the plan would have a “significant and deleterious impact on America’s electric cooperatives.”
Under the plan, the USPS “is walking away from its universal service obligation to rural America,” NRECA Regulatory Affairs Director Stephanie Crawford said in a Sept. 12 letter to the Postal Service. “This is simply unacceptable.”
The Aug. 22 proposal is part of a broader USPS effort to cut billions of dollars in annual costs and make the mail carrier’s network more efficient. Among other things, the plan would eliminate evening mail pickup in rural and remote areas and could slow mail service for areas that are more than 50 miles from a large USPS regional processing facility, adding another day of delivery time to mostly first-class mail.