USPS Makes Changes That Will Impact Montana

The United States Postal Service has announced changes to optimize and modernize mail delivery in the U.S. With the proposed changes the hope is that the postal service will be able to reduce costs by approximately $3 billion annually.

The Postal Service has created an "operational improvement" strategy. The strategy, among other things, is intended to "modernize our ground transportation network to reflect changing customer needs".

The postal service, in their own words, has "operated under a broken business model that amassed more than $87 billion in losses from 2007 through 2020." They are making changes in hopes of speeding up service standards. There are four changes that they are going to be making.

1. Customers will be able to take two ZIP codes and see just how the service works. For example if you want to send a letter from Butte, Montana to Santa Fe, New Mexico, you can see how much and how long that will take.  This will give customers the opportunity to look up any two ZIP codes and understand what it takes for a piece of mail to travel between the areas.
2. Post offices that are far from regional hubs will have pick-up and drop-off primarily in the mornings. This will get mail to bigger distribution centers quicker.
3. Expansion is expected to have mail travel further within the day between processing plants. For example if a piece of mail is in transit for 24 hours and that takes 4 days for delivery, the hope is that same piece of mail can be delivered in 3 days instead of 4.
4. All local mail will receive a 3-day commitment. Meaning if you mail something locally it will be delivered in 3 days. Sometimes as quickly as 2 days.

These changes won't affect 75% of First Class mail, according to the USPS. The changes also won't be implemented until 2025, after the upcoming election and holiday seasons. If you want to read more about the details of the changes you can find the information here.

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One of the big questions that customers in Montana will want to know is "Will these changes slow down mail service?" The postal service is saying that overall, no it will not slow down service. But they do concede that "some end-to-end service will see an additional day". The also say that "no piece of First Class mail will be delivered later than 5 days within the continental United States".