It was bound to come to this. The US postal service is an independent bit of the government that while subject to government rules and regulation is not supported by government funds or tax dollars. For years it has been hurting financially, and is now requesting to be allowed to make some changes to help reduce that debt.
USPS asked the Postal Regulatory Commission for a number of changes that may affect when and how you get your mail.
One of the items for change is the standard delivery service. Currently set at two days, it would be changed to three. This means that mail going to distant locations may see some delays. Even for local destinations, mail that usually arrived overnight, will probably not be that speedy in the future. Currently about 42 percent of first class mail reaches its destination in a single day!
Customers could potentially drop off mail at a processing center by a certain time and still get it delivered overnight but for the average person, this won’t be something they will do.
The USPS currently has 487 processing centers and plans on closing 252 of them. Daily newspapers and other periodicals may suffer, as customers may not want “old news” arriving on their doorstep a day late. The same goes for mail services, such as Netflix.
To cope, you may want to get digital subscriptions and take advantage of streaming video services. Also, you will need to plan ahead when you mail something that is time sensitive, such as bill payments, or take advantage of making payments online.
Priority mail shipments, such as for prescriptions, will not change, so you can be rest assured that these items will arrive on time as they usually do.
The cost of first class mail will go up a little, too, but this should make a significant impact to the average household. To be prepared, stock up on forever stamps, which can be purchased at the current rate and used throughout subsequent rate hikes. The changes are expected to take place in March 2012.
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