What do you need to know about potential five-day mail delivery operations?

The Postal Service intends to implement five-day delivery operations as a cost-cutting measure in response to declining use of the mail due to the increased use of the Internet and the economic recession. The Postal Service must file a request for an advisory opinion from the Postal Regulatory Commission. If no Federal law is enacted to prevent it from doing so, the Postal Service plans to implement five-day delivery in fiscal year 2011 (Oct. 1, 2010, to Sept. 30, 2011).

The Postal Service concluded fiscal year 2009 with a $3.8 billion loss, despite Federal legislation that deferred a payment to its future retiree health benefit trust fund by $4 billion. The Postal Service has proposed eliminating Saturday delivery of mail to street addresses to eliminate the operating losses, as it will result in cost savings of about $3 billion annually. Five-day delivery operations will help the Postal Service bring costs in line with declining revenues.

If it receives congressional approval to move forward, the Postal Service plans to provide business and household customers with a variety of options to send and receive mail on Saturdays.

1. P.O. Boxes will receive Saturday delivery.
2. Express Mail service will not be affected – Express Mail will continue to be delivered seven days a week, 365 days a year.
3. Post Offices will remain open on Saturday and additional alternative retail channels will be available.
4. The Postal Service website, usps.com is available 24 hours a day, seven days a week.

The Postal Service has developed an operational plan that will provide important details about how five-day delivery would be implemented, and this information will be available at usps.com. Customers will receive multiple advance notices and information about changes in mailing services if and when the Postal Service eliminates Saturday delivery to street addresses. Customers also will be informed of what they will need to know to ensure seamless implementation. The Postal Service will begin providing notices and information at least six months before implementation. Notices and information will be sent to customers in the mail, and will be posted at usps.com, on collection boxes and in Post Offices. The information also will be reported in news media.

Under five-day operations, the following would occur:

Single Piece Mail

• On Saturday, there will be no delivery to street addresses, collection of mail from blue collection boxes or pickup of mail from homes and businesses.
• The general elimination of Saturday collection, processing and delivery of single-piece mail will generally add a day to the delivery of such mail deposited on Saturday or for which delivery to a street address is currently expected on Saturday. For single-piece First-Class Mail, the following will be expected to be delivered on Monday to street addresses: mail with an overnight service standard deposited before critical entry time on Friday, mail with a two-day service standard deposited before critical entry time on Thursday and mail with a three-day service standard deposited before critical entry time on Wednesday. If Monday is a holiday, such mail will be expected to be delivered on Tuesday.
• Mail addressed to a P.O. Box will still be delivered on Saturday. Local firm holdout mail that is not P.O. Box-addressed will not be delivered on Saturday.

(excerpted from and continued on the USPS website….)