Proposed First Class Mail Delivery Changes

The USPS has recently announced proposed changes to its First Class service standards. This is just the beginning of a multi-step process. First, the USPS is gathering public opinion on the proposed changes. After that, the Postal Regulatory Commission (PRC) will review them, followed by a final filing with the Federal Register. The changes are expected to go into effect sometime in Q1 of 2025, but only after these steps are completed.

This isn’t the first time USPS has adjusted its First-Class mail delivery standards. In 2021, the Postal Service extended the First Class mail delivery window from 1–5 days. They also added 1–2 days to the “time in transit” for mail traveling longer distances. At the time, Production Solutions didn’t observe significant operational impacts due to these adjustments, with delivery rates largely aligning with previous First Class mail performance.

As we move closer to potential changes in 2025, we’ll continue monitoring the situation to ensure our clients are well-prepared and informed of any new impacts these adjustments may bring to their mailing operations.

WHAT is Changing: The post office is eliminating evening mail collections at certain locations across the US, meaning mail dropped off then would sit at the office overnight before starting to be processed.

• In this case, the affected areas are those outside a 50-mile radius to the 60 RPDC’s (Regional Processing Distribution Center) and NDC’s (National Distribution Center). This means that most of the country will be affected by this change.
• ONLY AFFECTS First class mail and should only affect sorted mail moving from one postal facility to another. This means any drop shipped mail (i.e. commingled mail or Presort FC mail) should not be affected.
• Effectively adds a day to delivery for this type of single-piece FC mail

WHY the Change: The USPS cites the Delivering for America 10-year plan as the main impetus, along with the 80% decline in the above types of retail FC mail since 1997. Their stated intent is to make the network more efficient by holding mail until they can realize greater container density while remaining within their 5-day delivery promise for FC mail. One good consequence of this change is that mail should actually speed up within the 50-mile radius of an RPDC.

We are not anticipating a huge impact on mail delivery based on this change – however, we will continue keeping an eye on delivery times on behalf of our clients.