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Changes to the delivery standards of the United States Postal Service are expected to cause mail delivery delays for many Americans as of this weekend, adding to the concerns of many postal workers about the future of the post office and raising more concerns. questions about the motives of besieged Postmaster General Louis DeJoy.
The predicted slowdown is part of DeJoy’s 10-year plan for the post office he unveiled earlier this year.
Under the plan’s guidelines, the USPS will implement new standards for its first-class mail, extending the delivery time by about 30 percent of its volume. This means that letters, packages and magazines traveling longer distances could take up to five days to arrive at their intended destinations, instead of two or three.
“These new service standards will increase the reliability, consistency and efficiency of delivery for our customers and across our network,” USPS spokesperson Kim Frum said in a written statement to NBC News, noting one-third of first-class mail and seven percent of periodicals will be affected by the changes.
“The standards for one-piece, first-class mail traveling to a local area will continue to be two days. The Postal Service will increase transit time standards by 1 or 2 days for certain couriers traveling longer distances. “
The recent changes are expected to be particularly affected: residents of rural communities.
According to Kimberly Karol, president of the Iowa Postal Workers Union, recent changes to the way the Postal Service processes mail in DeJoy’s new system are already causing delays for Iowa residents.
“We are already starting to see the impact,” said Karol. “We have had customers who were waiting for drugs who were disappointed because the drugs were not delivered as expected. Some were very upset. “
DeJoy has made it clear that he wants more mail delivered by truck rather than by air. Under its new plan, mail passes through surface transfer centers, or STCs, where mail is handled and sorted, before being loaded onto outgoing delivery trucks. But Karol noted that there are often delays in mail leaving the facility.
“The problem with this system is that there aren’t enough truck drivers,” Karol said. “We transport the mail to surface transportation centers and there are not enough drivers to transport this mail. They wait for the trucks to be 100% loaded and it can take days to ship them out. “
In addition to the frustration postal workers and customers feel with the new system, Karol said, when mail arrives at JTS, it is difficult, if not impossible, even for postal workers to keep up.
“We can accept mail at a post office counter, but when we send it to surface centers, the mail cannot be tracked. They hold it, sometimes for days. Looks like the postal service has this mail, but the mail isn’t even in our hands. It is very difficult for customers to track their mail. “
Lori Cash, president of the American Postal Workers Union Western New York Area 183, said that over the past four months her customers have expressed similar concerns about untrackable mail, which at least appears to be temporarily falling off the network.
“People send so many important things in the mail – medicine and birthday presents. If it is in a sorting facility that we do not have access to or that we do not have the ability to track, there is no way we can do our job.
The USPS said in a written statement to NBC News that it “is currently expanding the capacity of our STC network and is able to track all containers entering and leaving centers” – but did not comment on the inability of postal workers or customers to track specific pieces of mail that go through CTSs, or fears that CTSs are contributing to mail delays.
Karol cautions that in DeJoy’s new system, even items sent via Priority Mail cannot arrive at their intended destination in a timely manner.
“Under the new system, I saw that Priority Mail which was a two-day expected delivery time now takes four days,” she said.
DeJoy said that by rolling out his 10-year plan, which will include a fleet of new electric postal vehicles, he wants to make the post office more efficient and profitable.
But the American Postal Workers Union told NBC News in a written statement that it expects the new plan to embezzle USPS revenue.
“The United States Postal Service is implementing changes that will slow mail delivery to tens of millions of people and affect billions of mail,” the statement said.
“This is a step backwards for the postal service and for the millions of people across the country who rely on fast postal service. The union remains convinced that changes in service standards will only reduce the volume of mail and much needed postal revenue. “
Porter McConnell, spokesperson for the Save the Post Office Coalition, fears the new system may erode trust in the post and in government.
“It destroys public confidence in a public institution,” McConnell said of DeJoy’s plan. “We’ve seen a lot of people who don’t get their paycheck on time or send out the rent check and it comes in late and they face eviction because of the mail delays. There are a lot of small businesses that get bad reviews because they can’t get the product on time. There is no road where post office slowdowns don’t affect everyone.
Several members of Congress including Rep. Carolyn Maloney (D-NY) and Senator Gary Peters (D-MI) questioned DeJoy’s motives for the USPS overhaul. DeJoy has been criticized for his ties to the trucking industry.
Prior to serving as Postmaster General, DeJoy was the owner of the trucking company New Breed Logistics and was the general manager of the supply chain of XPO Logistics, a freight forwarding company. Last month, The Washington Post reported that the USPS will pay XPO $ 120 million over the next five years to oversee two major distribution and sorting sites in Atlanta and Washington that are part of the facilities at the heart of the plan. DeJoy’s decade focused on mail trucks.
Further delays in the postal service are expected to impact on holiday deliveries. The USPS told NBC News it plans to hire 40,000 seasonal workers to help with the vacation rush.
But Karol is warning consumers that they should post this year’s vacation packages and cards as soon as possible.
“Postal workers will do everything possible to ensure that Christmas presents are delivered during the holidays,” Karol said. “But customers need to be aware of these new service changes.”
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