USPS updates service standards, impacting mail delivery times
USPS says it's refining its service standards for First-Class Mail, Periodicals, Marketing Mail, Package Services, USPS Ground Advantage, Priority Mail, and Priority Mail Express.
Under the new approach, some mail will have a faster standard, and some will have a slightly slower standard.
The changes took effect on April 1st as part of the ongoing Delivering for America 10-year plan. It's in an effort to save at least $36 billion dollars over the next decade.
USPS says upwards of 75% of customers will not notice a change in First-Class Mail service, but that number is up for debate.
The agency also estimates 14% will see faster delivery times and 11% will face longer delivery times.
Overall for First-Class Mail, USPS says the current service standard day range of 1-5 days is staying the same.
'The new service standards are easy to understand and provide more precise expectations for mailers, as they are based on 5-Digit ZIP code pairs, rather than current standards that are based on 3-Digit ZIP code pairs,' the USPS stated in a recent FAQ fact sheet. Click this link to read the full document.
USPS has also released a new Service Standards Map on its website that allows customers to see how many estimated days it would take mail to arrive based on their zip code.
Implementation will be in two phases. The first began on April 1 and the second on July 1, 2025.
To find more on the changes, check out coverage from News Nation here.
Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
Hashtags

Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Yahoo
an hour ago
- Yahoo
New Postmaster General Distances USPS from Privatization Push
David Steiner started his tenure as Postmaster General with an attempt to clear the air about the future of the United States Postal Service (USPS), indicating his lack of desire for the national courier to be privatized. 'I do not believe that the Postal Service should be privatized, or that it should become an appropriated part of the federal government,' Steiner said in a video to employees Thursday. He also said he believed in the agency's current structure 'as a self-financing independent entity of the executive branch.' More from Sourcing Journal UPS, Teamsters at Odds Over Driver Buyouts New Postmaster General Faces Pressure to Halt USPS Overhaul Amid Mounting Criticism Walmart and Target Double Down on New Delivery Pilots Steiner officially took on the role Tuesday, four months after previous USPS head Louis DeJoy stepped down. The new Postmaster General's statement comes as the future of the USPS has remained uncertain under President Donald Trump. The president had previously floated the idea of privatization during his first administration, and had said earlier this year that there's a possibility the agency gets moved under the control of the Commerce Department. In a Congressional hearing last month, multiple industry stakeholders pushed back against privatization, with some calling on Steiner to halt certain aspects of the Delivering for America plan until the new USPS leadership team examines the full impacts of the program. That often-criticized turnaround plan was first introduced by DeJoy in 2021. While he didn't mention the 10-year Delivering for America program by name in the six-minute video, or in his accompanying separate letter to USPS employees that outlined the same points, Steiner touted the transformation plan for having brought the agency 'substantially closer to private sector logistics practices.' 'Pricing and product strategies have improved competitiveness,' said Steiner, who himself was a FedEx board member before taking his post at USPS. In recent years, the agency has raised its mail prices each January and July. While it skipped the January hike this year, the courier increase the price of a first-class Forever stamp from 73 cents to 78 cents on July 13. One of Steiner's primary focuses is the on-time delivery of mail and packages, which has been a central concern among detractors of the 10-year turnaround plan. Implementation of that reform included a network consolidation designed to streamline mail processing, but delivery delays become more prominent last year in and around cities like Atlanta, Houston and Kansas City, Mo. In a May audit, the USPS Office of Inspector General indicated that the changes in recent years have negatively impacted service performance, even after the courier lowered its own service standards. To kick off 2025, the agency said it expected to deliver 87 percent of two-day first-class mail on time, and 80 percent of the three-to-five-day first-class mail on time. These numbers are down from last year's goals of 93 percent and more than 90 percent, respectively. According to the USPS, this year's on-time numbers have failed to reach the lower expectations, with two-day deliveries in the second quarter making their deadline 81.8 percent of the time. The three-to-five-day deliveries have an on-time performance rate of 66.8 percent. On July 1, USPS said it will no longer count Sundays and federal holidays as part of its on-time delivery metrics. The agency doesn't deliver mail on these days, but its mail processing operations run every day. Despite the rough 2025, the former Waste Management CEO said he was 'certain' that the USPS will continue to improve and achieve its on-time performance objectives. During the video, Steiner also stressed the Postal Service's commitment to 'operate in a financially self-sustaining manner.' USPS saw a rare $144 million net income in the first quarter, but ended the second quarter with a $3.3 billion net loss. The agency expects to end this fiscal year with a $6.9 billion net loss. 'The Postal Service needs to be on a realistic path to match costs to revenues on a consistent, long-term basis,' Steiner said. 'I believe this is achievable, but only through effective organizational commitment, alignment and execution to drive new operational efficiencies and generate sustained revenue growth.' Steiner's start at USPS came just days after members of the American Postal Workers Union (APWU), ratified a new three-year labor contract with the service that will run through Sept. 20, 2027. That union represents more than 190,000 clerks, mechanics, vehicle drivers, custodians and employees in administrative positions. The APWU had been one of multiple USPS labor groups that have been critical of Steiner's appointment as Postmaster General, with much of the concern existing due to a potential conflict of interest with his FedEx ties. Solve the daily Crossword
Yahoo
an hour ago
- Yahoo
USPS Posts $3.1B Loss Ahead of New Chief's Tenure as Stamp Hikes, Delivery Delays Draw Fire
The U.S. Postal Service (USPS) incurred $3.1 billion losses in its fiscal third quarter, the final period before new Postmaster General David Steiner took the helm at the courier. In remarks to the USPS board of governors on Thursday, Steiner said the agency is 'on the right path,' highlighting growing volumes via the Ground Advantage parcel delivery offering, alongside improving on-time service performance. More from Sourcing Journal Canada Post Workers Reject Contract Offers, Prolonging Labor Standoff Amazon CEO on Tariffs: 'It's Impossible to Know What Will Happen' UPS China-to-US Shipments Decline More than Expected in Q2 The latter has been a major subject of criticism since a wider network overhaul began taking shape, where mail processing is currently being streamlined across some 60 regional processing and delivery centers, causing delivery delays in some major metropolitan areas and rural areas alike. Net losses widened from $2.5 billion in the year prior, with $1.6 billion of the current losses being controllable by management. The remaining $1.45 billion losses are fixed costs outside of current USPS control, including retiree pension contributions and workers' compensation claims for employees injured on the job. Total operating revenue remained flat at $18.8 million. Strategic price increases are narrowing losses for First-Class Mail, with revenue decreasing 1.4 percent to $5.8 billion on a 5.4 percent volume decline to 9.9 billion pieces. Similarly, shipping and packages revenue from parcel delivery increased 0.8 percent to $7.8 billion, on a 6.5 percent volume decline to 1.6 billion pieces. Steiner, who officially became Postmaster General on July 15, asserted that the beleaguered agency's 10-year Delivering for America plan installed by previous USPS head Louis DeJoy was a 'sound' strategy. A former FedEx board member, Steiner said the modernization efforts have brought the Postal Service closer to private sector logistics practices. 'Both the pricing and product strategies have improved our competitiveness,' Steiner said. 'We will continue to aggressively pursue those strategies.' At a congressional hearing in June, multiple industry stakeholders had agreed that public-private partnerships would help bolster USPS services and finances, but had largely called on Steiner and management to put the turnaround program on hold until a full reassessment was conducted. Nonprofit advocacy group Keep US Posted is urging Steiner to pivot away from 'DeJoy's 'tax and spend' strategy,' namely to reject the plans implemented to hike rates and focus on packages over mail. 'While the Delivering for America plan promised to grow parcel volumes, lower costs and allow the Postal Service to break even by 2023, it lost $6.5 billion that fiscal year, and it continues to hemorrhage money,' said Keep US Posted executive director Kevin Yoder in a statement. 'Steiner should free the American public from DeJoy's disastrous decisions and pursue his own strategy to help USPS recover so that it can keep delivering to every American six-days per-week' As the courier seeks ways to generate more revenue, the USPS board of governors urged the Postal Regulatory Commission (PRC) not to limit its ability to implement price hikes following criticism from Keep US Posted. The regulator proposed a rule in June that would limit the Postal Service to only raising prices once per year. The USPS already increased the price of a first-class Forever stamp from 73 cents to 78 cents on July 13 after skipping a hike in January, after raising them twice in 2024. In 2026 and 2027, the hikes will return at a twice-a-year pace. With the agency at a high risk of running out of cash in recent years, the PRC opened USPS to setting mail prices higher than the rate of inflation in 2020. As such, stamp prices have skyrocketed. Since 2019, the Forever stamp's price has increased 56 percent from a then-50 cents. Yoder said that with the latest increase, 'the situation will no doubt worsen and push even more mail from the system.' Governor Ron Stroman, a former deputy postmaster general, said during the public board meeting Thursday that the PRC would be making a mistake to undercut their pricing decisions. Stroman indicated that if the Federal Reserve lowers interest rates, the agency may decide to raise prices only once per year. 'Based on the data I have reviewed, I have concluded that twice-a-year price increases have maximized the Postal Service's revenue during the post-pandemic period of high inflation,' Stroman said. 'However, I can certainly envision future scenarios where we conclude that the factors we consider in exercising our business judgment weigh against a twice-a-year price increase.' Keep US Posted shared its support for legislation introduced in May by Congressman Sam Graves (R-Mo.) that would give the PRC the power to stop stamp hikes. The bill, called the USPS Services Enhancement and Regulatory Viability Expansion and Sustainability for the U.S. Act (or USPS SERVES US Act), would limit price increases to once per year, and institute other reforms aimed at ensuring accountability and efficiency across its delivery network. Under that legislation, the USPS would create an autonomous customer advocate office to hear Americans' concerns about the agency.


Bloomberg
a day ago
- Bloomberg
Fund Managers to Get New Risk Management Tool: ESG Investing
Companies will soon be expected to reflect climate risk in their profit and loss accounts, revealing to investors how floods, storms and droughts affect bottom lines. The International Accounting Standards Board, whose rules are used in some 169 jurisdictions across the globe, is due to have a finalized set of examples by October to show companies how to disclose the impact of a hotter planet on P&L items including impairments and provisions.