USPS Mail Changes Take Effect in Iowa, Illinois, and Wisconsin

Significant changes to the United States Postal Service (USPS) take effect this month. The goal is to provide "more reliable service" for Americans, but a deeper dive also shows this is a cost-saving move for a service nearly everyone in the country relies on to some degree.

To make things basic: the changes revolve around the mail service window, or rather, the speed at which people will get their mail. Some will get mail faster. Some will get it slower.

Per Yahoo! and several other sources, the USPS is adjusting service standards for the following items:

• First-Class mail
• Periodicals
• Marketing mail
• Package services

USPS said it will deliver 75% of first-class mail at the same service standard. In addition to this, 14% of the such mail will be upgraded to a faster standard while 11% will have a slower standard. All first-class mail will still be within the current range of one-to-five days.

Get our free mobile app

USPS Ground Advantage (two-to-five days) will stay the same. However, the day ranges for end-to-end marketing mail, periodicals, and package services handled by USPS will be shortened. Postal workers will be permitted to dispatch earlier and travel distances further than usual as a way to improve "service reliability and enable critical revenue growth."

Yahoo! added that mail tracking is also being organized into three "legs," as follows:

• Leg 1: The path from collection to origin processing.
• Leg 2: The path from origin processing to destination processing.
• Leg 3: The path from destination processing to final delivery.

The changes USPS is installing impact "Leg 2" only, which is the unseen way mail travels through the postal network. The changes are projected to save USPS $36 billion over the next decade.

Consumers can expect these changes implemented in two different phases: the first having begun on April 1st, the next beginning on July 1st. This all comes at a time when President Donald Trump has called for mail delivery to be privatized.

The USPS has been predominately self-funded since its reorganization in 1970. Customer fees total an annual $78.5 billion in budget, with Congress providing a "small" financial stiped around $50 million to subsidize free/reduced-cost services.

Finally, the USPS created a new Service Standards Map that allows individuals to estimate mailing times from one ZIP code to another. You can use the new tool for yourself here.

Visit Yahoo!'s website to find out more about the changes to the United States Postal Service's mail delivery.