The US Postal Service’s main job is to get mail and packages from Point A to Point B for the American people. But as it faces declining mail volumes and increasing competitive pressure in the package space, instead of vowing to improve service, the USPS will slow it.
That applies not only to First Class Mail, as it announced on Monday, but to its fastest Priority Mail offering, known as Express.
On Friday, the USPS announced its intention to change the delivery time for Priority Mail Express to be 6 pm on the committed delivery day. The new single guaranteed delivery time will be the same regardless of package origin and destination.
Currently the Postal Service delivers Priority Mail Express (PME) mail 1 – 2 business days: 10:30 a.m. (in select locations, for an extra fee), noon, or 3 pm.
The USPS justified the move to a later guaranteed delivery time by saying it would “simplify” the delivery time for Priority Mail Express.
However, most companies are open until 5 pm, so the decision to change PME delivery guarantee to 6 pm is incomprehensible unless it’s a deliberate move to discourage companies from using it.
Compare it to FedEx, for example. The only cases where FedEx offers guarantees for express service later than 5 pm is for residential deliveries, when people are expected to be home in the evening.
The price of using PME as a shipping option will not change. The current price for PME flat rate envelope starts at $26.35. But the USPS said Monday it would be raising rates in the coming weeks, though it provided no details on which rates would be rising.
The Postal Regulatory Commission (PRC) will review the changes before they are scheduled to take effect, though it’s our understanding the PRC has no control over the decision.
The changes to Priority Mail Express will take effect “no earlier than May 23, 2021.”
The USPS also filed notice with the PRC on Friday seeking to transfer Bound Printed Matter (BPM) Parcels to the Competitive Product list, which would allow it greater control over rate increases.
Once again DeJoy is making moves to drive business away from the USPS and to its competitors who he just happens to have major investments in. Now we are also looking at a 3rd rate increase since October 2020 and also get the privilege if having the item delivered slower rather than the same or faster. This guy needs to be fired before he completely destroys everything that has been built through out the years in less than 1 year on the job. He never should have been confirmed and the moment it was discovered he had lied about his investments in UPS and FED-EX he should have been fired immediately. The fact that NOBODY is even trying to get rid of him says a lot as far as i am concerned. Although by law the USPS must exist they are doing everything they can to render it useless and completely outdated rather than trying to improve its services so more business could be had.
DeJoy is going to go down as the worst Postmaster General in the history of USPS and is quickly becoming the most hated man in America, especially by business owners. I still have not seen anything having been addressed about lowering the ridiculous prefunded future retirees medical pensions which is now set at $5 billion per year nor have i seen any confirmation that we have raised the rates on postage for items sent from China where we are losing money on every shipment and that was supposed to have changed in July, just when DeLackofJoy took over as the Postmaster General. All he can come up with are ideas to slow things down while charging US Sellers more while ignoring all of the international mail.
The man is nothing more than a huge joke in that office.