Ominous USPS Message...
I correspond with an another herbsman, one whom I use almost exclusively now instead of Med Man. On his list serve he wrote, "USPS is changing some things October 1st. I’m not sure how this will affect us. We will have to see what happens."
Now, I don't normally bring gossip to these boards, but this individual is pretty steady and about the opposite of a "sky is falling" type dude. Does anyone know what might be going on?
Comments
There are some changes being made to first class mail.
The "official" word from the USPS:
On October 1, the Postal Service will implement new service standards for First-Class Mail® (FCM) and Periodicals. These new service standards will increase delivery reliability, consistency, and efficiency for our customers and across our network.Most First-Class Mail (61 percent) and Periodicals (93 percent) will be unaffected by the new service standard changes. Standards for single-piece First-Class Mail traveling within a local area will continue to be two days.The Postal Service will increase time-in-transit standards by 1 or 2 days for certain mail that is traveling longer distances. By doing so, the Postal Service can entrust its ground network to deliver more First-Class Mail, which will lead to greater consistency, reliability, and efficiency that benefits its customers.The service standard changes are part of our balanced and comprehensive Delivering for America Strategic Plan and will improve service reliability and predictability for customers and enhance the efficiency of the Postal Service network. The service standard changes that we have determined to implement are a necessary step towards achieving our goal of consistently meeting 95 percent service performance.
MYTH: All FCM and Periodicals will be impacted.
FACT: The majority will NOT be impacted: 61 percent of FCM and 93 percent of Periodicals will keep their current service standards.
Overall, 70% of First-Class Mail volume would receive a standard of 1-3 days
MYTH: 1- to 2-day delivery of FCM will be eliminated.
FACT: FCM traveling locally — within a 3-hour drive between originating and destinating processing facilities — will maintain its current delivery standard of 2 days or less.
MYTH: It is faster and more reliable to move mail by air than by surface transportation. The Postal Service’s insistence on shifting from air to surface transportation will be detrimental to customers.
FACT: We do not own planes and lack control over factors affecting air transportation (e.g. availability of planes, cargo space, weather), but we do have a surface transportation network with a history of higher reliability, excess capacity, and better service performance.
MYTH: The Postal Service wants to cut back on service quality just to save money, which violates their mandated universal service mission.
FACT: These changes will improve service reliability, increase efficiency, and reduce costs while adhering to our universal service mission and moving us closer to our goals of financial sustainability and service excellence.
So....things will take longer for First Class mail? That's all I got from it.
Sounds like it.
Thank you for this @medboy!