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The United States Postal Service began slowing mail delivery on Friday, as part of an effort by Postmaster General Louis DeJoy to cut costs over the next 10 years.
The most widespread and significant change will affect first class mail, such as letters, small parcels, invoices and tax documents. Before the changes, customers across the United States could expect first class mail to reach its destination in one to three days; henceforth, this period will extend over one to five days.
This “means mail delivery will be slower than in the 1970s,” for about 40% of first-class mail, Paul Steidler, postal service and supply chain expert at the Lexington Institute, told CBS.
That’s because the USPS is poised to reduce its reliance on planes to carry mail as part of a larger cost-cutting effort, instead moving some deliveries within. Continental United States to ground transportation. According to the Washington Post, the Postal Service will reduce the amount of mail carried by air by 20 to 12 percent.
According to an August notice from the USPS in the Federal Register, using cargo planes and passenger planes to transport mail is more expensive and less reliable due to “weather delays, network congestion. and air traffic control ground stops “.
Who will be affected by the changes and how?
The USPS said in its Federal Register notice that about 61% of first class mail would still be delivered at its current standard, which theoretically means that many customers would not notice much of a change in the delivery schedule. .
But in practice, according to Steidler, the new policy will be “catastrophic”, especially for certain populations such as the elderly, the disabled and those in rural areas for whom mail delivery is essential to their health care, their safety. financial and their connection. to the wider world.
“It’s the less fortunate who will be affected the most by this,” Steidler told CBS. “Everything in American society is accelerating, it seems, with the exception of mail delivery – which will now slow down.”
As Catherine Kim explained to Vox last April, mail delivery is a crucial lifeline for millions of Americans in rural areas. Since the USPS is mandated to deliver to any mailing address in the United States, no matter what – which private companies like FedEx and UPS are not required to do – the Postal Service in particular. plays a vital role in securing rural communities, including tribal areas. , have reliable access to the messaging service.
“The USPS is not just a public service,” Twyla Baker, a member of the Mandan-Hidatsa tribe of North Dakota, told Vox. “It’s a lifeline.
Another crucial aspect of USPS service is its affordability, which is currently being undermined by price increases on many first-class mail products. As the USPS points out, their flat rate shipments are still among the lowest in the industrialized world, and a three-cent increase in the price of a Forever stamp doesn’t seem like much.
But larger price increases – albeit temporary – are expected to take effect between Oct. 3 and Dec. 26, during peak USPS holiday shipping season, with package prices rising to $ 1.
The Postal Service will also revise its rates more frequently in the future, according to the Washington Post: Prices could increase twice a year, in January and July, as the agency seeks to limit its budget deficit.
Why is the USPS making changes?
DeJoy, a major donor to former President Donald Trump who began his tenure as Postmaster General in June 2020, outlined his plans for the Postal Service in March this year, citing the need to offset what he plans to be a shortfall of 160 billion dollars. over the next decade. DeJoy predicted in March that postage rate hikes would offset about $ 44 billion of the expected shortfall, and parcel rate hikes would amount to about $ 24 billion.
But the plan – like DeJoy himself – has its share of critics, including Senator Gary Peters (D-MI), chairman of the Senate Homeland Security and Government Affairs Committee, which oversees the Postal Service.
“While I understand the desire of Postal Service leaders to set long-term goals, I am concerned that several of the initiatives in this plan will hamper service for people across the country who rely on the Postal Service for prescription drugs. , financial records, running their small businesses, and more, ”Peters said when DeJoy presented the plan in March.
Peters also expressed concern that the proposed reductions, particularly late delivery and reduced hours in retail stores, would have a particular negative impact in rural and otherwise underfunded communities.
Rep. Gerry Connolly (D-VA) was even more forceful in his criticism, saying DeJoy’s plan “secures the death spiral of the US Postal Service”.
The Independent Postal Regulatory Commission, or PRC, which serves as the regulator for the USPS, also reported that the USPS slowdowns may not have the desired effect. The agency warned in July that while price increases for first-class mail and parcels made sense, the plan to slow delivery is based on “unproven assumptions” and that the Postal Service would only make “paltry” savings.
What awaits the postal service in the future?
As Recode’s Adam Clark Estes explained in January, the USPS has been struggling financially for years.
According to Clark Estes:
Many of them date back to 2006, when Republican-led Congress passed the Postal Accountability and Enhancement Act. This has forced the USPS to pre-fund the health care benefits it promises to future retirees of its workforce with annual payments of around $ 5.5 billion. This meant that even when the agency was operating at a profit, it looked like a financial disaster on paper. Then the Great Recession occurred in 2008, causing the volume of first-class mail to drop and reducing postal service revenues.
Although the House of Representatives decided to change the pre-funding mandate in February 2020, the Covid-19 pandemic took hold soon after, leaving legislation to flounder in the Senate – and causing further delays to the postal service.
The USPS board of governors appointed DeJoy, a logistics CEO with no previous postal service experience, as post general manager in June. Under Trump, the postal service had already suffered; Trying to run the operation like a business, as opposed to a utility, Trump suggested quadrupling prices and threatened to veto a $ 25 billion package – which was passed by the House with bipartisan support – for the agency as it grappled with delays due to Covid-19 and operational changes in the run-up to the 2020 elections.
Congressional Democrats saw DeJoy’s appointment as another blow to the USPS, and his policies – like removing high-speed sorters from some postal facilities, decommissioning PO boxes, and reducing hours in retail stores – have drawn widespread criticism in the run-up to the 2020 election, which relied heavily on postal voting amid the Covid-19 pandemic.
DeJoy suspended implementation of those changes ahead of the 2020 presidential election in response to public outcry, but he faces yet another setback over this month’s changes to USPS services.
Opponents have called for DeJoy’s ouster virtually since he took over as post general manager, citing conflicts of interest and negative changes in USPS performance under his leadership. While it’s possible DeJoy may be removed from office, that’s the mandate of the USPS board of governors, making it unlikely that this will happen with the current board. Some Democrats also urged President Joe Biden to directly remove Trump-appointed board members to pave the way for DeJoy’s sacking.
“Your power to remove governors from office” for cause “is absolute,” Rep. Bill Pascrell (D-NJ) wrote in an August letter to Biden. “It would be difficult to identify a clearer cause than the refusal of board members to protect the USPS from chaos and ruin.”
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