![]() Generally, the deciding factor in making a decision in First Class vs Priority Mail comes down to weight. Keep mailing letters: The majority of First-Class Mail will be unaffected by the Postal Service’s new service standards.The two most common USPS services a merchant uses to ship with are First Class and Priority Mail. When sending mail long distance, mail early: If it would take you more than a day to drive your mail to its destination, make sure to give your long-distance mail some extra time to travel with USPS. Plan ahead: For mail or correspondence that requires a deadline, the Postal Service encourages consumers to plan ahead and send their mail early so the Postal Service can ensure it reaches its final destination on-time. With new service standards implemented on Oct. 26 and range from an additional 75 cents to as much as $5 for Priority Mail, Priority Mail Express and first-class package service, according to the agency’s price list. Instituted Sunday, the increases will last until Dec. Yet USPS never met the target to deliver 96 percent of first-class mail on time and first-class mail delivery times declined in five of the past seven years, as shown below.”Ī definite increase in cost to consumers ahead of the holiday shopping season is USPS’ new, temporary price increase on mail and packages. “Then as now, USPS said having a lower service standard would be good because it would provide greater predictability in delivery times, thereby benefiting customers. “Cost savings were not realized, the significantly reduced service standards were never met, and large amounts of first-class mail, USPS’s most profitable product, permanently left the system,” he said in a statement. ![]() Steidler said the USPS plan, crafted by Postmaster General Louis DeJoy, mirrors what the agency did in 2014 “and the results were bad.” There is no reason it should take longer to deliver mail now than in the 1970′s.” Paul Steidler, senior fellow at the Lexington Institute and an expert on the postal service, recently took to social media, saying “America has stellar logistics capabilities. ![]() It does a disservice to the nation and likely will hurt the Postal Service as well in the competitive shipping marketplace.” “That’s a step backwards at a time when people would expect communications to be fast and not slow. “We’ve gone from the days of air mail in the early part of the 20th century, or optional air mail, to air mail for all long-distance mail starting in the 1970s to no air mail,” said Doug Carlson, an advocate for better postal services who cross-examined postal service officials during a June hearing before the United States Postal Regulatory Commission. The 10-year, comprehensive plan also includes “a combination of investments in technology, training, Post Offices and a new vehicle fleet modernizing the Postal Service’s processing network adopting best-in-class logistics practices across delivery and transportation operations creating new revenue-generating offerings in the rapidly expanding e-commerce marketplace and pricing changes as authorized by the Postal Regulatory Commission,” according to Dhalai.Įxperts caution that the delivery changes will cause mail disruptions, and are a sign of regression that would mean a boost in costs to consumers. with a 1-to-3-day service standard, she said. ![]() Those changes would position USPS to leverage more cost-effective means to transport First-Class packages via ground rather than using costly air transportation, which is also less reliable due to weather, flight traffic, availability constraints, competition for space, and the added hand-offs involved, Dhalai said.Ĭustomers may still opt to use Priority Mail Express and Priority Mail services to ship packages within the contiguous U.S. “For example, while we narrow the 2-day standard for FCM letters and flats from a 6-hour drive time to a 3-hour drive time, we will expand the 6-hour drive time for the 2-day FCPS standard to 8 hours,” she said. The service standard change also expands USPS’ 2-day FCPS reach to better position it in the 1- to 2-day market, a market that is growing as consumer expectations change, Dhalai said. ![]() With this change of offering 2- to 5-day service based on distance, we will improve service reliability and predictability for customers, while also driving efficiencies across the Postal Service network.” “This is unattainable and forces us to overly rely on air transportation, yielding unreliable service. with a drive time greater than 6 hours,” Dhalai said. “Whether it’s 300 miles or 3,000 miles, the current standard for FCPS requires 3-day service for any destination within the contiguous U.S. FCPS is designed for standard sized letters and flats and FCM is primarily designed for shipping small, lightweight packages. With the new standards introduced last Friday, standards for First-Class Mail and First-Class Package Service are no longer identical. ![]()
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