Silk Road forums

Discussion => Shipping => Topic started by: jackstraw on December 04, 2011, 11:50 pm

Title: FACT***US Mail Delivery to get slower starting next year***
Post by: jackstraw on December 04, 2011, 11:50 pm
WASHINGTON (AP) — Facing bankruptcy, the U.S. Postal Service is pushing ahead with unprecedented cuts to first-class mail next spring that will slow delivery and, for the first time in 40 years, eliminate the chance for stamped letters to arrive the next day.
The estimated $3 billion in reductions, to be announced in broader detail on Monday, are part of a wide-ranging effort by the cash-strapped Postal Service to quickly trim costs, seeing no immediate help from Congress.
The cuts, now being finalized, would close roughly 250 of the nearly 500 mail processing centers across the country as early as next March. Because the consolidations typically would lengthen the distance mail travels from post office to processing center, the agency also would lower delivery standards for first-class mail that have been in place since 1971.

Currently, first-class mail is supposed to be delivered to homes and businesses within the continental U.S. in one day to three days. That will lengthen to two days to three days, meaning mailers no longer could expect next-day delivery in surrounding communities. Periodicals could take between two days and nine days.

About 42 percent of first-class mail is now delivered the following day. An additional 27 percent arrives in two days, about 31 percent in three days and less than 1 percent in four days to five days. Following the change next spring, about 51 percent of all first-class mail is expected to arrive in two days, with most of the remainder delivered in three days.

Title: Re: FACT***US Mail Delivery to get slower starting next year***
Post by: Rocker on December 05, 2011, 07:23 am
Oh, I will be shedding tears as the USPS begins its process of slow degradation, I'd love to believe it'd be around forever, but lately I just don't know.

Universal postal service is necessary infrastructure even still I think for society. But I guess this is just more evidence of the harsh realities we face as a country.

Nonetheless, I will continue to do my part to increase the volume of the mail stream :P

<3 you USPS,

Rocker

Title: Re: FACT***US Mail Delivery to get slower starting next year***
Post by: Tendril on December 08, 2011, 05:23 am
Will they be changing the name to second-class mail?
Title: Re: FACT***US Mail Delivery to get slower starting next year***
Post by: bsalt on December 09, 2011, 10:19 pm
I think its only a matter of time until it goes private. Like all shipping is done by private carriers like fed ex and ups.