[Federal Register Volume 90, Number 39 (Friday, February 28, 2025)]
[Rules and Regulations]
[Pages 10857-10872]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: 2025-03168]
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POSTAL SERVICE
39 CFR Part 121
Service Standards for Market-Dominant Mail Products
AGENCY: Postal ServiceTM.
ACTION: Final rule.
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SUMMARY: The United States Postal Service is revising the service
standards for certain market-dominant services, specifically First-
Class Mail[supreg], Periodicals, USPS Marketing Mail, and Package
Services. The new service standards, which will be implemented in two
phases, align with operational initiatives that the Postal Service
plans to implement on a nationwide basis to fundamentally transform its
processing and transportation networks to achieve greater operational
precision and efficiency, significantly reduce costs, and enhance
service pursuant to the Delivering for America strategic plan. The
changes will maintain service at existing levels for most volume, will
upgrade standards for more market-dominant volume than is downgraded,
and will improve service reliability.
DATES: Effective April 1, 2025, except for instruction 4 (revising part
121), which is effective July 1, 2025.
FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: Martha Johnson, Senior Public
Relations Representative, at [email protected] or (202) 268-
2000.
SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION:
Table of Contents
I. Introduction
II. Comments
III. Response to Comments
A. Service Impacts
B. Disparate Impact on Rural Communities and Network
Consolidations
C. Financial Considerations
D. Election Mail
IV. Explanation of Final Rules
A. Service Standards Generally
B. First-Class Mail
C. Periodicals, USPS Marketing Mail, and Package Services
I. Introduction
By adopting this final rule, the Postal Service is amending 39 CFR
part 121 to revise the current service standards for certain market-
dominant products. The Postal Service is restructuring the service
standards for domestic First-Class Mail, such that the service
standards will retain the current day range of 1-5 days (as well as the
current 0-1 days for USPS Connect[supreg] Local), while being
calculated, with certain exceptions, as the sum of delivery days
accruing across three successive operational legs reflecting end-to-end
service from an originating 5-digit ZIP Code to a destinating 5-digit
ZIP Code. The rule also partially adjusts the service standards for
end-to-end Periodicals, USPS Marketing Mail, and Package Services so
that they will be primarily based on the standards for First-Class
Mail, consistent with the Postal Service's implementation of a more
integrated network, thus continuing efforts to eliminate the Postal
Service's legacy network that, due to its poor design, has multiple,
redundant network flows.
These revisions achieve the objectives set forth in 39 U.S.C.
3691(b), taking into account the factors of 39 U.S.C. 3691(c). Overall,
they further the Postal Service's obligations under 39 U.S.C. 101 and
other provisions of Title 39 of the U.S. Code to provide universal
postal services in a prompt, reliable, and efficient manner. The Postal
Service is required by law to provide universal postal services in a
financially self-sufficient manner, through an integrated network for
the delivery of mail and packages at least six days a week. Currently,
the Postal Service is not financially self-sufficient and lacks a
network that is conducive to the logical, efficient, cost-effective,
and reliable movement of mail and packages in an integrated manner from
origin to destination in the modern postal environment, taking into
account the current and projected volume, revenue, costs, and product
mix. The Postal Service network has not been appropriately adjusted to
account for volume, revenue, costs, and mail mix changes, including the
substantial decline in Single-Piece First-Class Mail volume and
increase in package volume, leading to significant inefficiencies.
The new service standards align with operational initiatives that
the Postal Service plans to implement on a nationwide basis to
fundamentally transform its processing and transportation networks to
achieve greater operational precision and efficiency, significantly
reduce costs, and enhance service pursuant to the Postal Service's
Delivering for America strategic plan (DFA Plan). These initiatives
will comprehensively transform the Postal Service's operations to
address problems that exist today and create a network that enables the
integrated movement of mail and packages in a precise and cost-
effective manner consistent with best business practice far into the
future. They should also lead to substantial cost savings
(conservatively estimated at between $3.6 to $3.7 billion annually),
which is critical given the Postal Service's current poor financial
condition, which can be addressed only through comprehensive changes to
reduce costs and increase efficiency (in conjunction with the other
elements of the DFA Plan).
To illustrate, the current service standards require the Postal
Service to conduct separate trips to drop off destinating volume from
the processing network to collection/delivery facilities in the morning
for delivery that day, and then pick-up originating volume from the
collection/delivery facilities to the processing network in the
afternoon, or alternatively pay Highway Contract Route contractors to
layover for multiple hours between the outbound and return legs of
their routes. Many of these trips transport low amounts of volume to
and from collection/delivery facilities that are far from the Postal
Service's processing facilities. The Postal Service's Regional
Transportation Optimization (RTO) initiative will eliminate some of the
costs and inefficiencies associated with these excess trips by allowing
certain mail and packages to be picked up the next day from the Post
Office on the same trip that also dropped off mail at that Post Office
for delivery that day. The
[[Page 10858]]
Postal Service will designate 5-digit ZIP Codes for RTO when a retail/
collection facility servicing that 5-digit ZIP Code is more than 50
miles from the originating Regional Processing and Distribution Center
or Campus (RPDC), though exceptions may apply based on operational or
business considerations. Under the new service standards, which are
needed to implement RTO, most mail and packages would either receive
the same service standard or an accelerated standard so that it is
delivered faster than today, while some mail and packages would have a
service expectation that is one day longer than the current expectation
but still within the current day-ranges. Further details of the changes
appear below.
By implementing the new standards and the operational initiatives
to which they are aligned, the Postal Service will be better able to
achieve the goals of the DFA Plan to create a high-performing,
financially sustainable organization, which is necessary for the Postal
Service to achieve the statutory policies and objectives adopted by
Congress.
The Postal Service will implement the final rule in two phases,
with phase 1 going into effect on April 1, 2025, and phase 2 going into
effect on July 1, 2025. As described further below, during phase 1, the
Postal Service will enable the implementation of RTO by adding one
service expectation day to certain volume in Leg 1 (i.e., from
collection to originating processing facility) for items originating in
ZIP Codes covered by RTO. On July 1, during phase 2, the Postal Service
will implement the proposed rule in its entirety and will therefore
among other changes accelerate the movement of mail in Leg 2 (i.e.,
from originating processing facility to destinating processing
facility) by expanding the drive times for each of the travel bands
that establish the delivery expectation days for First-Class Mail by
four hours. Phase 2 is dependent upon certain efficiencies gained as a
result of RTO and requires significant changes across the Postal
Service's processing, logistics, and delivery networks. By delaying the
service standard changes related to Leg 2 for a brief period of 90
days, the Postal Service will be able to facilitate effective
operational execution and change management by gradually implementing
these changes, reducing the immediate impact on front-line employees
and decreasing the level of change that is implemented at one time. In
addition, during the 90-day period between phase 1 and phase 2, the
Postal Service will gather data on real-world operational conditions
and constraints arising from RTO and use this data to adjust
operational planning regarding Leg 2 operations to the extent
warranted, and therefore help ensure that the Postal Service is well
positioned to implement the Leg 2 service standard changes. To be
clear, the phased approach is to facilitate more effective
implementation of the changes. The rule, as originally proposed and as
repeated below, will be implemented in full on July 1.
On October 4, 2024, the Postal Service requested from the Postal
Regulatory Commission (PRC or Commission) an advisory opinion on the
service standard changes, including those described herein, for market-
dominant and competitive products, together with a comprehensive
strategy of network modernization, in accordance with 39 U.S.C.
3661(b). The PRC then initiated Docket No. N2024-1, in which the PRC's
Presiding Officer, its appointed Public Representative, and a number of
intervenors actively participated, including issuing extensive
discovery requests. The PRC also conducted a formal hearing with
testimony on the record. The Postal Service's proffered evidence
demonstrates significant benefits to implementing these operational
initiatives and corresponding service standards consistent with the
policies enumerated in Title 39 of the United States Code: the same or
accelerated standards for a majority of market-dominant volume within
the current day ranges; user-friendly service standards formulated at
the 5-digit Zip Code level; significant cost savings from productivity
enhancements, consolidated local transportation trips, streamlined
transportation between facilities within the redesigned network, an air
network reoriented around RPDCs, lease terminations, and facility
closures, all of which are critically important to achieving long-term
financial sustainability; and ultimately, more reliable, predictable,
sustainable, and consistent service. The proceeding culminated in an
advisory opinion issued by the PRC on January 31, 2024.
The PRC's advisory opinion acknowledges the necessity of change,
agreeing that the Postal Service must improve its financial standing,
modernize its operations, and ensure the continuing provision of
universal service. Of the specific changes proposed by the Postal
Service, and whether they are consistent with the policies of the Title
39 of the United States Code, the PRC declines to make a definitive
statement. Yet the PRC is highly critical of the Postal Service's
plans, faulting the Postal Service's network modeling and operational
preparedness to implement the changes, minimizing the projected cost
savings as being ``meager'' and hence not material to achieving
financial sustainability, and voicing concern over impacts to rural
customers, among other criticisms. The PRC therefore suggests that the
Postal Service reconsider whether to implement this proposal. In lieu
of a fair and comprehensive assessment, however, the PRC's advisory
opinion presents a one-sided narrative that mischaracterizes the Postal
Service's proposal, ignores the benefits it can be reasonably expected
to yield, baselessly magnifies its alleged downsides, downplays the
necessity of financial self-help, and makes unrealistic demands that
would, if heeded, impede urgently needed progress.
The Postal Service has responded in depth to the PRC's opinion and
recommendations at https://about.usps.com/newsroom/national-releases/2025/0220-usps-responds-to-prc-advisory-opinion-on-service-standard-changes.htm. There, the Postal Service disputes the PRC's overall
assessment of the proposed changes and rebuts the faulty reasoning,
factual misapprehensions and tendentious arguments informing that
assessment. The Postal Service also provides a response to each of the
PRC's recommendations. This Notice cannot replicate, and is not
intended to replace, that more substantive response. It is, however,
appropriate to address at a high level of generality three topics
emphasized by the PRC: the Postal Service's cost savings projections,
the Postal Service's network modelling efforts, and the impacts of the
Postal Service's plans on rural communities.
The Postal Service conservatively estimates yearly savings of
approximately $4 billion. As noted, the PRC dismisses this sum as a
``meager'' reduction in overall expenses. Such criticisms betray a
thorough-going lack of concern for the Postal Service's financial
viability under the current business model. No entity in the private or
public sector would disregard (much less forego) annual cost savings
totaling in the billions. To avert service deterioration and
insolvency, the Postal Service must become financially self-sustaining;
to become financially self-sustaining, it must reduce costs within the
constraints of its service mission--and this proposal will reduce costs
by addressing clear deficiencies in the Postal Service's current
network while also ensuring that all customers continue to receive
prompt and reliable service.
Despite the urgent need for meaningful change, the PRC would
perpetuate the status quo by
[[Page 10859]]
recommending that before self-help initiatives are implemented, the
Postal Service embark on a dilatory, burdensome, seemingly open-ended
chain of ex ante ``modelling'' exercises that would add no discernible
value. The Postal Service's plans are, in fact, based on robust
deliberation and analysis, and are supported by industry-standard
models, software, and analytical protocols. They also acknowledge
certain basic realities: the Postal Service runs a highly complex
organization, works within a vast embedded infrastructure, and must
serve the American public even as it transforms its processing and
transportation networks. The Postal Service has accordingly proposed a
framework for network modernization, based on well-designed operating
strategies and principles, which will be implemented through a
systematic, iterative, region-by-region implementation approach that
enables the Postal Service to address what is necessary to most
efficiently transport and process mail and packages within each region,
while also ensuring that the network as a whole is structured in a
standardized, effective, and integrated manner. Though the PRC
criticizes the Postal Service for its alleged overreliance on
``business judgment,'' the need for pragmatic decision-making--informed
by fact-gathering and operational expertise--will inevitably arise over
the course of any complex endeavor, not excluding this one. As the
Postal Service proceeds to implement its plans, responsiveness to on-
the-ground feedback will be beneficial; rigid adherence to all-
encompassing ``models'' that ignore complex and shifting realities will
not.
The changes that are the subject of this rulemaking retain or
accelerate service standards for most market-dominant volume--a fact
that garners little recognition from the PRC. Instead, the PRC accuses
the Postal Service of not sufficiently considering the revised
standards' impact on rural ZIP Codes. This is baseless: the Postal
Service considered rural impacts in depth when designing this proposal
and has thoroughly explained why it believes the balance that has been
struck regarding the statutory policies is appropriate, given the
operational benefits and overall impact on service. In this regard, the
Postal Service considered the fact that (1) the changes would add one
day within the existing service standard day ranges to the First-Class
Mail service standards for mail originating in areas far from the
processing network (with some very minor exceptions), which encompasses
both rural and non-rural areas; (2) the current day ranges for First-
Class Mail would stay the same, and be shortened for other end-to-end
mail products, (3) the changes would benefit the speed of service
within Leg 2 overall (and hence would improve the delivery of mail to
rural communities), and (4) the changes would improve service
reliability overall. The PRC sidesteps the steep and irreversible
declines in Single Piece First-Class Mail use--declines to which the
proposed RTO initiative and accompanying ``Leg 1'' service standard
changes respond. Nor does the PRC acknowledge a key fact about First-
Class Mail as a whole (i.e., including Presort First-Class Mail):
namely, that customers receive on average far more mail than they send.
In this regard, the revised standards provide inbound network benefits,
with the same or upgraded service over an expanded area, for the
critical goods and services that most customers, including rural
customers, receive. The PRC also fails to recognize that local
turnaround service from RPDCs and some LPCs will provide 2-3-day
service standards for mail destined within the same service area.
Ultimately, the Postal Service gave serious consideration to rural
impacts, and with the service standard changes described below, has
appropriately balanced its competing obligations under Title 39 of the
United States Code.
Despite the flaws in the PRC's analysis, the Postal Service agrees
with many of the PRC's recommendations, many of which are already part
of the planned implementation process or would otherwise occur in the
course of business. Many of these recommendations concern building out
the implementation plan and are generally consistent with the thorough
planning, transparent customer communication, robust mitigation
efforts, and swift execution adjustments that are at the core of the
Postal Service's implementation strategy. The Postal Service will
balance planning with continuous evaluation of performance during
implementation and will improve processes and make broader adjustments
as appropriate. Based on reasonable business judgement and experience,
the Postal Service believes this is the best, and fastest, way to
ensure successful implementation not only of the service standard
change, but of the plan generally.
The PRC also made several recommendations that were inextricably
linked to its flawed analysis with which, as noted above, the Postal
Service disagrees. To the extent that a recommendation is based on the
PRC's flawed understanding of the Postal Service's proposal or the
false premise that the Postal Service lacked highly rigorous methods or
models when developing its proposal, the Postal Service disagrees.
Finally, the Postal Service has thoroughly considered its obligations
under title 39, including 39 U.S.C. 101(a) and (e), and has
appropriately balanced the various statutory considerations and
requirements, and therefore the Postal Service does not agree with the
PRC's recommendation to reconsider those matters.
II. Comments
On November 15, 2024, the Postal Service published proposed
revisions to market-dominant service standards in the Federal Register
and sought public comment (Proposed Rule). Service Standards for
Market-Dominant Mail Products, 89 FR 90241 (Nov. 15, 2024). The comment
period for the Proposed Rule closed on December 31, 2024. Although
exempt from the document and comment requirements of the Administrative
Procedure Act (5 U.S.C. 553(b), (c)) regarding rulemaking by 39 U.S.C.
410(a), nonetheless the Postal Service requested comments on all
aspects of the Proposed Rule. In particular, the Postal Service
solicited comments on the effects that the Proposed Rule could have on
senders and recipients of the affected market-dominant mail classes, as
well as comments on the nature and extent of costs or savings they
might experience as a result of the changes described in this document,
and on any additional possible costs or benefits they foresaw, such as
increased reliability and predictability. The Postal Service encouraged
the provision of any empirical data supporting any cost-benefit
analysis. The Postal Service further requested mail users' views
regarding the application of the policies and requirements of Title 39
of the U.S. Code, particularly sections 101, 403, 404, and 3691, to the
Proposed Rule.
The Postal Service received approximately 17,500 comments in
response to the Proposed Rule. The vast majority (nearly all) of the
comments received were form letters, which raised concerns that the
proposed changes would slow down the delivery of critical items, such
as bills, checks, and medicines.
The Postal Service received only a few dozen comments that were not
form letters, including a submission from a congressperson and a few
comments from advocacy groups. Several such comments expressed concerns
that the
[[Page 10860]]
changes would harm rural communities, vulnerable populations, and small
businesses. Others objected to the use of cost-savings as a
consideration when establishing service standards, and/or questioned
whether the Postal Service's projected efficiencies and cost-savings
are reliable. A number of residents of Wyoming and other states
objected to the closure, perceived downgrading, and/or consolidation of
processing facilities, as well as the processing of intrastate mail,
including election mail, in other states.
Several comments included complaints and opinions regarding matters
unrelated to the proposed market-dominant service standard changes.
Such topics include, but are not limited to, the privatization of the
Postal Service, the tenure of the Postmaster General, past price
increases, electric vehicles, and new business opportunities. The
Postal Service is not responding to comments that fall outside the
scope of this rulemaking. Separately, a number of individuals raised
concerns that the changes would delay the delivery of medicines,
merchandise, and other goods that are typically sent using competitive
package services, including Priority Mail[supreg] and USPS Ground
Advantage[supreg]. The impact on competitive products was addressed in
the advisory opinion case described above, but is not addressed in this
rulemaking, which impacts market-dominant products only.
One comment submitted was a copy of a statement of position that
had been filed in the PRC advisory opinion proceeding, re-submitted to
the Postal Service as comments for this rulemaking. The Postal Service
likewise incorporates by reference its Initial Brief and Reply Brief as
filed publicly in the PRC proceeding. Initial Brief of the United
States Postal Service, PRC Docket No. N2024-1 (December 18, 2024),
https://prc.arkcase.com/portal/filings/134330; Reply Brief of the
United States Postal Service, PRC Docket No. N2024-1 (December 26,
2021), https://prc.arkcase.com/portal/filings/134602.
The comments received and the Postal Service's responses thereto
are addressed in greater detail below. With respect to individuals who
doubted whether their comments would be read, the Postal Service indeed
reviewed and considered each comment received.
III. Response to Comments
A. Service Impacts
Most of the commenters noted that they are opposed to the revised
service standards because they assert that the changes would
significantly slow down the delivery of critical items, such as bills,
checks, letters, medicines, election mail, business supplies, and other
time-sensitive deliveries. Many of these individuals stated that their
mail is already slower and less reliable, and they worried that the
changes would further slow down delivery. A few individuals objected to
the Proposed Rule based on a false understanding of the changes
involved. For example, one person worried the changes would extend mail
times ``by 1 day for every 50 miles from the new mail processing
center,'' when in actuality the Proposed Rule adds one day at most to
impacted mail (a very small amount of volume--approximately 1% of
Single-Piece First Class Mail--would have two days added). As an
additional example, one person thought Priority Mail would become a 7-
9-day service. Neither the Proposed Rule nor the Postal Service's
broader DFA Plan will convert Priority Mail to a 7-9-day service.
Several commenters feared that slower delivery speeds could cause
people to lose trust in the Postal Service and/or turn to private
carriers instead.
In addition to general concerns about delivery speed, many comments
noted that timely postal services are particularly important to rural
communities, who may be unable to easily access public services due to
their remote location. For example, one advocacy group objected to the
plan because of the service standard impacts of the proposal on Single-
Piece First-Class Mail volume in rural areas. Similarly, some
commenters noted that elderly and disabled populations may be
particularly harmed by service delays, as such communities tend to rely
heavily on postal services due to accessibility constraints. A few
small business owners indicated that they use the Postal Service to
obtain critical supplies, parts, and information, and/or to deliver
goods to their customers. One such individual noted that his business
often mails orders at the end of the day and so the elimination of
afternoon pickup, could cause his shipments to be delayed, making it
harder to compete with businesses that can offer faster delivery.
Apart from concerns regarding the service standard changes, several
people raised concerns regarding performance issues. Many people shared
anecdotal stories of prior deliveries that were delayed, implying that
the proposed changes will exacerbate performance failures. One
customer, for example, claimed to have incurred overdue fees due to
payments being delayed. Another individual questioned whether the
Postal Service's decision to lower its performance targets for FY25
means that the Postal Service ``is anticipating worsening service in
the coming year once it resumes the rollout of these changes.'' This
commenter further noted that certain locations where the Postal Service
implemented its RPDC and Local Transportation Optimization (LTO)
initiatives, including Richmond and Atlanta, experienced a decline in
service performance, suggesting that similar declines could occur when
the Postal Service rolls out further RPDCs and RTO.
In addition to focusing on the proposed rulemaking, a few
individuals claimed that the elimination of Sundays and holidays as
transit days for measurement for mail and packages that enter the
Postal Service's network on a Saturday or the day before a holiday
would further delay mail deliveries.
As an initial matter, these comments overstate the impact of the
service standard changes on customers. In order to understand the
impact, it is important to examine what is changing and how the changes
will affect the various items customers send and receive. Under the
Proposed Rule, one service expectation day will be added to certain
volume in Leg 1 (i.e., from collection to originating processing
facility) for items originating in ZIP Codes covered by RTO. However,
RTO will remove the dependency between collections and transportation,
thereby allowing the Postal Service to correct the significant
deficiencies that currently exist in its local and regional
transportation networks and enabling improved volume arrival profiles
at processing facilities. As a result, the Postal Service will be able
to accelerate the movement of mail in Leg 2 (i.e., from originating
processing facility to destinating processing facility) by expanding
the drive times for each of the travel bands that establish the
delivery expectation days for First-Class Mail by four hours.
The overall impact of these changes is that most market-dominant
volume, including First-Class Mail, will have the same or better
service standard than it does under the current standards and service
overall will be more consistent and reliable. While certain Single
Piece First-Class Mail items that are mailed by customers in a ZIP Code
subject to RTO may have a service expectation that is one day longer
than it is today, all First-Class Mail items will still fall within the
existing 1-5-day service standard range (excluding USPS Connect[supreg]
Local, which has a 0-1-day standard). Further, Single Piece First-Class
Mail items originating and destinating within the same RPDC service
area or the same Local Processing Center (LPC) service area for
[[Page 10861]]
qualifying LPCs (turnaround volume) will have a 2-3-day service
standard. Items sent using Presort First-Class Mail and destination
entry rates will not be impacted by RTO and should enjoy faster service
in Leg 2. End-to-end Periodical pieces originating and destinating
within the contiguous 48 states will have a 3-6-day service standard,
which is overall faster than the current 3-9-day standard. End-to-end
USPS Marketing Mail and Package Services originating and destinating
within the contiguous 48 states will have a 4-7-day service standard
instead of the current 3-10-day standard for USPS Marketing Mail and a
2-8-day standard for Package Services.
For further context, the volume of mail collected through the
Postal Service's retail facilities (including mail collected on carrier
routes and entered at Post Offices) has declined substantially in
recent decades: for instance, in FY 1997 there were 57 billion pieces
of Single-Piece First-Class Mail, which by FY 2023 had declined by 80
percent to 12 billion pieces. Single-Piece First-Class Mail is also
just one product among many. For example, in the fourth quarter of
FY2024, Single-Piece First-Class Mail represented 26 percent of overall
all First-Class Mail and 12 percent of all Market Dominant volume.
However, the current service standards only take Leg 2 operations into
account, and therefore have not been adjusted to reflect Leg 1
operations even though the volume of Single-Piece First-Class Mail
being handled in Leg 1 has declined precipitously. This means that the
Postal Service is running a large number of transportation trips in Leg
1 with largely empty trucks, adding limited value to service while also
producing excess costs and carbon emissions, in order to meet the
current service standards.
Since letters, mail-in ballots, payments, and other letter-sized
items that customers send are typically sent using Single Piece First-
Class Mail, most of these items will have a service standard that is
the same or faster than the current standard, though some will have
standard that is slightly longer, but all still within the current day
ranges. Government checks and communications, utility bills, ballots,
and other letter-sized items that customers receive are often sent
using Presort First-Class Mail, which will not be impacted by RTO and
may experience accelerated service in Leg 2 once phase 2 is
implemented. Medicines, merchandise, and other goods are typically sent
using competitive package services, and therefore, generally fall
outside the scope of this rulemaking (though most packages will also
receive the same or accelerated service under the new standards). In
addition, since most customers receive more mail than they send and the
majority of mail volume originates in locations that will not be
subject to RTO, most customers will see the same or faster speeds, with
improved service overall, regardless of where they live. Finally,
service reliability will improve for all volume, as the Postal
Service's transformed network will enable more precise operations.
To be sure, these changes reflect a tradeoff with certain mail
experiencing a slightly longer delivery time. However, as described
elsewhere, given the steady and irreversible decline of Single Piece
First-Class Mail, these changes are reasonable and appropriately
tailored to achieve significant cost savings and improve operational
efficiency and precision, which is critical if the Postal Service is to
achieve its statutory obligation to be financially self-sufficient, all
while maintaining service within the current service standard day
ranges for most items. Indeed, a few commenters agreed with the Postal
Service's decision to eliminate certain low-volume truck runs, and/or
suggested that the Postal Service struck the right balance in expanding
certain delivery standards by one day in order to avoid these
inefficient trips.
Further, comments regarding concerns about service performance,
including concerns that the changes will exacerbate past failures,
overlook that the service standard changes and related operational
initiatives will result in service standards being more precise and
reliable. The Postal Service's current First-Class Mail standards are
predicated solely on plant-to-plant driving distances, meaning they are
based on 3-digit to 3-digit ZIP Code pairs. The new standards are based
on more precise 5-digit to 5-digit ZIP Code pairs, which more
accurately and logically reflect the three operational legs applicable
to the movement of mail and packages: collection to origin processing
(Leg 1), origin processing to destination processing (Leg 2), and
destination processing to delivery (Leg 3). This move will provide
customers with more detailed and logical information about the service
they can expect. In addition, performance failures are often largely
due to the fact that the Postal Service's legacy network is ill-
designed to meet current market realities. The service standard changes
and related operational initiatives are designed to create an
efficient, reliable, and precise network, with achievable service
standards that are appropriately aligned to that network. In other
words, these changes are structured to address, not exacerbate, past
performance issues.
The concern that the Postal Service's performance targets for FY25
reflect that the Postal Service is anticipating worsening service once
RTO is implemented, ignores that the targets are higher than FY2024
performance, so the targets say nothing of the sort. The targets
reflect operational reality and the magnitude of the transformational
task ahead of the Postal Service; they reflect the transitions which
will unfold during the coming year, but in no way do they belie the
improvements the Postal Service expects the modernized network to
achieve over the long term. The Postal Service seeks to build a cost-
effective network in which its long-term service excellence goal can be
achieved in a financially and operationally sustainable manner, in
contrast to prioritizing higher short-term performance at the expense
of building a cost-effective network. What the Postal Service learned
from improved service performance in FY 2022, and again in FY 2023
where service performance for several products reached 95 percent, was
that achieving such a level of service performance within the existing
network could only come at an unacceptable cost that the Postal Service
is simply no longer able to bear, given its legal obligation to be
financially self-sufficient.
The Postal Service acknowledges that the implementation of some of
the DFA Plan initiatives has led to temporary service performance
issues in certain areas, due to issues with initial execution. The
results initially seen in Atlanta and Richmond were unacceptable, and
recovery in those initial regions took too long. Richmond was the first
RPDC region, and Atlanta was a particularly complex activation that
involved a brand-new facility and the consolidation of a large number
of separate facilities. These issues were temporary, and the Postal
Service has seen significant service improvements in those regions. In
addition, other regions, such as Portland, did not experience a
significant decrease in service performance when its RPDC was
implemented. Finally, the Postal Service has and will continue to
leverage the experience from these early implementations to subsequent
RPDCs.
Moreover, with respect to service performance at the LTO pilot
locations, the Postal Service utilized the pilots to assess the
operational and service implications of the initiative and to determine
how it might be modified or
[[Page 10862]]
enhanced to achieve its strategic goals of providing high-quality,
reliable, and efficient service in a financially sustainable manner.
The Postal Service determined that it is not possible to effectively
optimize transportation and to be financially sustainable within the
constraints of the current service standards. This is why the Postal
Service is revising the standards to explicitly accommodate the fact
that mail and packages entered the prior day would be picked-up on the
next day's transportation route for certain ZIP Codes, to enable
transportation optimization while also providing customers with precise
and reliable service expectations.
In addition to the service standard changes, the Postal Service is
also proposing to exclude Sundays and holidays as transit days for
measurement for mail and packages that enter the Postal Service's
network on Saturday or the day before a holiday. Certain commenters
shared concerns that this change would further delay the delivery of
mail and packages. In reality, this change affects only a small amount
of mail volume. By removing this constraint, as most of the Postal
Service's competitors and other foreign postal operators have done, the
Postal Service will be able to achieve additional operational
efficiencies and costs savings with minimal impact on volume, including
building density, creating higher throughputs, and staffing with more
flexibility.
Currently, because Sundays and holidays count as transit days, the
Postal Service is forced to process volume that was entered at delivery
or retail on Saturdays (or immediately before holidays) for immediate
dispatch into the network on Sunday mornings (or on holiday mornings).
Excluding Sundays and holidays as transit days for measurement for mail
and packages entered on Saturday or the day before a holiday will
further establish more precise and achievable service expectations.
This ensures consistent service standards across all Post Offices and
product categories and would avoid complications with implementing
different measurement standards for different locations and would
provide predictable service levels nationwide.
Finally, the Postal Service notes that the abovementioned comments
focus almost exclusively on delivery speed. In their view, even the
modest (one day) increase in service standards for a small minority of
volume, within the current day ranges, is unreasonable and
disqualifying. However, when establishing service standards, the Postal
Service must balance competing policies, with delivery speed serving as
just one consideration. As described further below, the new service
standards and related operational initiatives appropriately balance
competing priorities, as they will revitalize and modernize the Postal
Service's network and significantly reduce costs, promote financial
sustainability, provide the same or enhanced service standards for most
volume, and deliver greater service reliability overall. These changes
will help to ensure that the Postal Service is able to provide
universal postal services into the future. There is little value to
customers in prioritizing speed at any cost in the short term if that
means that the Postal Service is unable to adjust to changing market
dynamics, falls further into financial insolvency, and becomes unable
to provide universal postal services in years to come. Accordingly,
having considered the abovementioned comments, the Postal Service has
determined that they do not necessitate any revisions to the Proposed
Rule.
B. Disparate Impact on Rural Communities and Network Consolidations
A few commenters claimed that the service standard changes as
designed will impact rural customers more than urban customers, and
that this impact is inappropriate. For example, one commenter stated,
``Given that most post offices outside the 50-mile boundary are in
rural communities, these areas will disproportionately see their
service downgraded.'' She also claimed that not one community within
Wyoming, South Dakota, or Vermont falls within a 50-mile radius of an
RPDC, and therefore, these entire states would be subject to RTO
without any upside. Similarly, many individuals shared concerns
regarding the closure, perceived downgrading, and/or consolidation of
processing facilities, particularly in rural areas, including in the
state of Wyoming. They argued that it is inefficient and time consuming
to send mail, particularly intrastate mail, out of state for
processing.
Neither RTO nor the revised service standards single out rural
areas; they are instead predicated on a uniform rule that applies
equally across urban and rural areas and that affects more urban volume
than rural volume overall. Rural and urban areas alike will receive a
mix of service standard upgrades and downgrades. Further, even
customers who may experience a service downgrade for mail they are
sending will benefit from the increased efficiencies that will be
gained, particularly for mail they are receiving. As noted above, the
majority of mail and package volume, including mail and package volume
destined to rural communities, originates in ZIP Codes that are within
50 miles of an RPDC. This volume will not be impacted by RTO and can be
processed more quickly, as it will no longer need to wait for volume
arriving from outlying areas.
These claims also ignore the efforts the Postal Service has taken
to mitigate the already limited impact the changes will have on rural
communities. The service standard changes preserve regular and
effective access to postal services in all communities, including those
in rural areas or where Post Offices are not self-sustaining. As noted
above, the changes maintain the existing service standard day ranges
for First-Class Mail, meaning no such mail will have a standard of more
than 5 days, and service within these ranges will be more predictable
and reliable. The changes also include a 2-3-day local turnaround
service within a region and within certain local areas. Due to the
financial and efficiency gains from the operational and service
standard changes, and in recognition of specific concerns raised by
stakeholders that value local turnaround service, the Postal Service
initially identified 16 LPCs that would maintain some originating
processing operations and is announcing additional LPCs that would
likewise maintain some originating processing, including local
cancellation, to facilitate more local turnaround mail. The Postal
Service has recently announced additional LPCs that will include these
originating operations and intends to identify additional qualifying
LPCs as appropriate based on an assessment of operational
considerations. This means that more ZIP Codes will fall within the
service areas for 2-3-day local turnaround. For example, while Vermont,
South Dakota, and Wyoming may not have an RPDC located in the state,
they will now each have at least one LPC with 2-3-day local turnaround
service for Single Piece First-Class Mail originating and destinating
in the local area, and Single Piece First-Class Mail that originates in
Vermont, South Dakota or Wyoming and destinates within the same RPDC
service area will have a 3-day standard. Furthermore, significant
percentages of Presort First-Class Mail (including critical mail like
bills and government communications), First-Class Mail overall, and
other market-dominant products will be upgraded for both rural and
urban ZIP Codes once the final rule is fully effective. Neither access
to, nor the list of services provided at, Post Office locations is
changing.
[[Page 10863]]
With respect to individuals who expressed concerns that facility
closures and consolidations would result in local mail being processed
in another state, the reality is that a majority of the mail collected
locally does and will travel across the Postal Service's wider
transportation and processing network over significant distances to
reach their final destinations. A very high percentage of mail (often
80 to 90 percent) that originates in a specific city or county is
destined for other parts of the state, country, or world. In other
words, almost all mail that is sent in any local area across the
country is bound for another local area, and almost all mail being
delivered in any local area did not originate in that local area. Mail
and packages destined for outside the local area will receive better
service and be more cost effectively distributed, by aggregating them
with mail and packages from other areas going to the same places that
will likewise utilize the wider postal network and be transported
significant distances from where the mail originated. So, making its
first processing stop further away serves to hasten its travel, not
slow it. While this might seem counterintuitive, it is very consistent
with logistics and mail processing reality and practice. One must only
look at analogous express package carriers who operate out of a single
or a handful of U.S. hubs to find evidence of this common practice for
speed and efficiency.
The Postal Service's legacy network consists of hundreds of
facilities that were established without any overarching design or
rationale--they were deployed ad hoc, as needed, and they do not
reflect any systematic placement of where certain functions should take
place for the greatest network efficiency. Right now, the geographic
location of any given processing or sortation operation is not
necessarily the best place for it. This has led to excess truck trips,
half-empty trucks, redundant functionality and equipment, and a large
amount of deferred maintenance, among a host of other illogical and
unsustainable inefficiencies. The Postal Service's DFA Plan involves
determining the most logical, cost-efficient location for a given
operation and implementing infrastructure changes and facility
investments accordingly, all while leveraging a vast embedded
infrastructure to the greatest extent possible. These changes will
position the affected facilities for the most efficient flow of mail
and packages and thus for success and relevance in the current and
future marketplace. The facilities are not being ``downgraded,''
because there is no inherent value in how many different operations a
facility performs. A facility's value comes from its utility to the
overall system, and the changes and investments under the DFA Plan
actually ensure that these facilities have value by adjusting their
roles toward what is needed as part of a more optimal and financially
sustainable network.
As the Proposed Rule carefully balances the need to increase
operational efficiencies and reduce costs, while also continuing to
provide timely and reliable postal services to all communities, and
also includes measures designed to mitigate the effect on impacted
communities, the Postal Service has determined that changes are not
needed to address comments regarding the impact on rural communities or
facility closures/consolidations prior to implementing the final rule.
Though, while it does not necessitate a change to the rule, the Postal
Service does note that more LPCs will provide local turnaround service
than originally planned, as described in more detail above. As
described above, this means that more ZIP Codes will fall within the
service areas for 2-3-day local turnaround.
C. Financial Considerations
A few of the commenters raised cost-related concerns, including a
concern that costs are not a legitimate consideration when setting
service standards. For example, one commenter claimed that prioritizing
financial self-sufficiency over delivery speed is inconsistent with the
statutory framework Congress created. Others questioned whether the
Postal Service's projected efficiencies and cost-savings are reliable
and/or whether they outweigh potential harms. A few commenters
suggested that the Postal Service should, in lieu of the changes,
pursue other business ventures, such as offering banking services or
further incentivizing Presort and Destination Entry volume, as a means
to reduce costs and increase revenues.
As noted in the Postal Service's Reply Brief, financial
sustainability is a legal requirement and a practical necessity. A
central purpose of postal policy since the creation of the Postal
Service in 1970 is the provision of universal services in a financially
self-sufficient manner. The pre-1971 Post Office Department was
dependent on Congressional appropriations to cover its operating
deficits; by contrast, Congress sought in the Postal Reorganization Act
to free the Postal Service from political interference, enable the
achievement of its universal service mission in a more business-like
manner, and eventually to become self-sufficient. Neither in the Postal
Accountability and Enhancement Act nor, subsequently, in the Postal
Service Reform Act did Congress waver in its commitment to this
fundamental policy. A few commenters appeared to be confused about the
Postal Service's status and objected to the proposed changes on the
mistaken understanding that the Postal Service is taxpayer funded.
Other commenters simply ignored this fundamental aspect of the
statutory scheme. For example, one commenter claimed that, because
Title 39 ``does not direct the Commission to consider the Postal
Service's ability to achieve financial self-sufficiency when evaluating
a change to service standards,'' the Commission ``should not defer to
the Postal Service's claimed discretion to balance the directives of
the statute against its perceived financial needs.'' This claim is
clearly inconsistent with the statutory scheme, whose plain text
directs the Postal Service to establish an effective and economical
postal system whose costs are covered through postage rates and fees,
not annual appropriations. 39 U.S.C. 101, 403, 404 (b), 3622(b)(5),
3661(a), 3691. Service standards are important drivers of the structure
of the Postal Service network and hence the costs that the Postal
Service incurs, and it would be impossible to achieve these statutory
obligations if the Postal Service set service standards without regard
for costs, particularly in an environment of yearly sustained losses
and steadily dwindling cash. In fact, the statute explicitly directs
the Postal Service to do so in section 3691(b)(1)(C), which recognizes
the need to balance service considerations against ``reasonable rates
and best business practices,'' a balancing that necessarily requires
effective cost management and adaptations of the postal network to
changing market dynamics. See also 39 U.S.C. 3691(c)(4) and (6)-(8).
This language recognizes that the Postal Service has three choices
under the statute to cover its costs as circumstances change: raise
revenue, cut costs (through improved efficiency or reduced cost of
performance), or both. If the Postal Service does not ensure that
service standards align with an efficient network, its only alternative
under the statutory scheme would be to cover those excess costs through
higher rates, but market-dominant products are statutorily limited by a
price cap.
For as long as the Postal Service is required by law to self-fund,
it is
[[Page 10864]]
incumbent that the Postal Service consider costs while designing
service standards, formulating operational strategies, and identifying
opportunities for improved efficiency. This is not to say that the
Postal Service considered cost alone in structuring the service
standard changes: rather the proposed changes are designed to balance
the multiple competing objectives enshrined in Title 39, including the
need to provide regular and effective levels of service.
While some comments question the reliability of the Postal
Service's projected efficiencies and cost-savings, the Postal Service's
models and decision-making processes are robust. The strategies being
employed are not revolutionary, but instead simply involve the
deployment of modern approaches that any commercial logistics provider
should use. The Postal Service's operational planning and
implementation processes to execute on those strategies are thorough
and systematic, and enable the Postal Service to appropriately design
and execute on meaningful change in the real world of postal
operations. During the advisory opinion proceeding, hundreds of pages
of testimony and evidence were entered into the record and these
materials support that projected annual cost savings under the Postal
Service's proposal is approximately $3.6 to $3.7 billion. Further, in
light of the magnitude of the Postal Service's financial problems, the
projected cost savings outweigh the costs associated with a modest
increase in service standards for a minority of volume, and
appropriately balance statutory policies that require the Postal
Service to achieve financial sustainability, create an integrated
network, and foster reliability in its service. If the Postal Service
is to sustain itself and continue to meet the American public's
delivery needs, transportation must be more efficiently and effectively
routed, and costs must be more efficiently and effectively managed than
they are today.
While certain commenters proposed ways to increase revenue or
reduce costs in lieu of the proposed changes, such as by offering
banking services or incentivizing ``drop entry and workshare
activity,'' these proposals largely dismiss the problems the DFA Plan
is designed to address, offer in its place no clear operational or
financial benefits, and in some cases seem designed to serve the
special interests of the commenter. These suggestions implicate pricing
and product issues that lie outside of the scope of this proceeding,
and in any event provide no reason why the Postal Service should not
pursue a plan to eliminate billions of dollars of costs while improving
efficiency and reliability throughout all stages of its network and
operations.
For the reasons stated above, the Postal Service does not believe
any edits must be made to the Proposed Rule to address the
abovementioned cost-related concerns.
D. Election Mail
A few commenters expressed concerns about the impact that the
service standard changes and network consolidations would have on
election mail, specifically ballots. These commenters expressed
concerns that ballots sent through the mail would no longer be
delivered on time, resulting in the disenfranchisement of voters. Two
of these same commenters also expressed concerns about ballots moving
between states during mail processing, with one commenter arguing that
ballots ``should never leave the state for any reason'' and another
offering an example of voters in southern Utah whose ballots were sent
to Nevada for processing and postmarking, which were postmarked after
the state's deadline and were not counted.
The Postal Service remains committed to the expeditious processing
and delivery of the nation's election mail, particularly ballots. The
Postal Service has a proven track record of timely delivering the
nation's election mail. For example, during the 2024 general election,
it took on average one day for the Postal Service to deliver ballots
from voters to election officials.\1\ The Postal Service provides a
secure, efficient and effective way for citizens to participate when
policymakers decide to use mail as part of their elections and it will
continue to do so following the service standard and operational
changes.
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\1\ https://about.usps.com/newsroom/national-releases/2024/1202-usps-releases-2024-post-election-analysis-report.htm.
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However, it is important to remember that voters are responsible
for understanding their local jurisdiction's rules and requirements. If
they are eligible to vote by mail and choose to do so, they should plan
ahead to give themselves enough time to receive and then complete and
return their ballot by their state's deadlines.
Moreover, ballots routinely leave state boundaries. Election
officials send ballots via mail to voters living out of state so they
can vote absentee, including to military personnel and citizens living
abroad. Many election jurisdictions also rely on mail service providers
in different states to prepare and mail ballots. Restricting mail
processing for ballots within state limits would effectively eliminate
these longstanding practices and would lead to absurd results.
In the case of voters in southern Utah raised by one commenter,
certain ballots were not counted because they had a postmark date after
the state's deadline. As the article cited within the comments
explains, a number of those ballots were put into collection boxes too
late to make the postmark deadline. In other words, this was not the
result of postal operations. The voters did not mail their ballots in a
timely fashion to satisfy their state's requirements.
For those reasons, the Postal Service does not believe that the
comments warrant any changes to the final rule.
IV. Explanation of Final Rule
A. Service Standards Generally
Before describing how the service standards are revised, it is
important to understand how service standards are structured in Postal
Service regulations. Service standards contain two components: (1) a
delivery day range within which mail in a given product is expected to
be delivered; and (2) business rules that determine, within a product's
applicable day range, the specific number of delivery days after
acceptance of a mail piece by which a customer can expect that piece to
be delivered, based on the ZIP Code prefixes associated with the
piece's point of entry into the mail stream and its delivery address.
As noted above, effective July 1, 2025, the Postal Service is
restructuring the service standards for domestic First-Class Mail, with
certain exceptions, as the sum of delivery days accruing across three
successive operational legs reflecting end-to-end service from an
originating 5-digit ZIP Code to a destinating 5-digit ZIP Code. Leg 1
begins with collection and ends with acceptance at the applicable
originating processing facility. Leg 2 begins with acceptance at the
originating processing facility and ends with acceptance at the
applicable destinating processing facility. Leg 3 begins with
acceptance at the destinating processing facility and ends with
delivery.
With respect to Leg 1, the Postal Service intends to redesign
regional transportation (routes between processing facilities, Post
Offices, and delivery units) through the RTO initiative to address the
significant inefficiencies that exist in local and regional
transportation networks and to ensure service reliability and cost
[[Page 10865]]
efficiency. With respect to Leg 2, the Postal Service intends to
systematically redesign and invest in its outmoded processing
facilities to create a network of RPDCs and LPCs, which deploy
standardized and logically sequenced operating plans and schedules for
the movement of mail and packages, more sortation equipment, optimized
transportation routes, and improved operating tactics to increase
throughput, gain productivity, and increase asset utilization across
the country.
The Postal Service is revising service standards for end-to-end
market-dominant products to align with these operational initiatives;
these standards will be more operationally precise and specific for
customers, enable the Postal Service to maintain or upgrade service
standards for a majority of volume, and enhance the ability to reliably
achieve standards. In particular, the Postal Service plans to reimagine
how service standards are established by breaking that service into
segments so that customers have clear, understandable, and logical
information about the service provided to them from a 5-digit to 5-
digit ZIP Code perspective.
For First-Class Mail, the existing day ranges will be preserved,
meaning all mail will continue to be delivered within the existing day
range of 1-5 days (as well as the current range of 0-1 days for USPS
Connect[supreg] Local). For some end-to-end products within the
contiguous 48 states (Periodicals, USPS Marketing Mail, and Package
Services), the maximums for those day ranges will be shortened. (Unless
specified otherwise, references in this document to the ``contiguous
states'' or the ``contiguous 48 states'' include the District of
Columbia.) No destination entry product standards will be changed,
except to reflect the new RPDC/LPC network. Overall, most mail and
packages in the contiguous 48 states will either receive the same
service standard or an accelerated standard so that they are delivered
faster than today, while some mail and packages under the new standards
will have a service expectation that is longer than the current
expectation but still within the current day-ranges.
Specifically, current First-Class Mail standards are predicated
solely on plant-to-plant (3-digit ZIP Code to 3-digit ZIP Code) driving
distances. The rule will transition to 5-digit to 5-digit ZIP Code
service standards that maintain the existing delivery day ranges while,
for inter-RPDC volume, accurately and logically reflecting the three
operational legs applicable to the movement of mail and packages:
collection to origin processing facility (Leg 1), origin processing
facility to destination processing facility (Leg 2), and destination
processing facility to delivery (Leg 3). Distinct rules will apply to
intra-RPDC volume (that is, First-Class Mail volume that originates and
destinates in the same RDPC region), as well as certain intra-LPC
volume.
Because the current standards are predicated on plant-to-plant
driving distances, they do not consider the regional and local
transportation operations necessary to transport mail and packages from
where they are collected to the processing network: that is, within a
particular 3-digit ZIP Code, a mailpiece that originates at a Post
Office that is 300 miles from the processing facility in which the
mailpiece is dispatched to the network has the same standard as a
mailpiece that originates 20 miles from that processing facility (if
they are going to the same destination 3-digit ZIP Code). To meet the
constraints imposed by this current approach to service standards, the
Postal Service must structure its transportation network to ensure that
all originating mail gets to the processing network on the day it is
collected from customers, no matter how far away from the processing
network it is entered. This leads to significant inefficiencies in
regional transportation practices, because the Postal Service must
conduct separate trips to drop-off destinating volume from the
processing network to collection/delivery facilities in the morning (AM
drop-off) and pick-up originating volume from the collection/delivery
facilities to the processing network in the afternoon (PM collections),
or alternatively pay Highway Contract Route (HCR) contractors to
layover for multiple hours between the AM and PM legs of their routes.
While this practice of separating drop-off and pick-up activities
may have made sense in a different era where the volume of Single Piece
First-Class Mail was much greater, it engenders costs and
inefficiencies impossible to justify in today's environment. Overall,
the current practice results in inefficient transportation--
characterized by excessive trips, poor utilization of truck capacity,
and excess carbon emissions. In addition, the current practice reduces
the efficiency and reliability of Leg 2 operations (processing and
network transportation), because the need to wait for the volume from
outlying collection/delivery facilities to arrive at the processing
plant on the PM transportation creates a volume arrival profile which
reduces efficiencies, requires the scheduled dispatch to the network to
be later, and increases the likelihood either for the scheduled
dispatch to leave late in order to wait for all of the mail and
packages to arrive at the plant and be processed, or for mail and
packages to not make the scheduled dispatch at all because it does not
make it to the plant on time to be processed on that day given the
compressed processing window. This impacts not only the efficiency and
velocity of originating operations but can also have substantial
negative downstream effects that reduce service performance for all
volume.
With respect to Leg 1, the Postal Service is implementing RTO, for
mail originating in the contiguous states, to correct for these
inefficiencies. Pursuant to RTO, the Postal Service will have the
ability to structure transportation routes that go to facilities that
are farther from the processing network so that trucks would pick up
originating volume on the same routes that are also used to drop off
destinating volume. The RTO initiative rationalizes the regional
transportation network by eliminating routes and increasing truck
utilization and thereby reduces transportation costs and the amount of
carbon emissions. It also improves the efficiency and velocity of the
processing network by producing volume arrival profiles that are spread
more evenly throughout the day, enabling a more effective use of
network resources and allowing the Postal Service to dispatch volume
that is entered closer to processing plants (which is a majority of
volume) earlier than is the case today. The Postal Service will
designate 5-digit ZIP Codes for RTO when a retail/collection facility
servicing that 5-digit ZIP Code is more than 50 miles from the RPDC
campus. Exceptions to this 50-mile rule may be implemented under
certain circumstances based on operational or business considerations.
The standards will more logically and accurately reflect operations
within Leg 1 and enable the implementation of the RTO initiative,
thereby giving the Postal Service the ability to optimize its regional
and local transportation. Specifically, and as part of the shift from
the 3-digit to 3-digit ZIP Code standards to a more refined service
calculation based on 5-digit ZIP Codes, the service standards will
explicitly accommodate the fact that mail and packages entered the
prior day will under RTO be picked up on the next day's transportation
route for certain ZIP Codes. Effective April 1, 2025, certain
mailpieces entered in ZIP Codes subject to RTO will therefore have one
day assigned for Leg 1 in the service standards; zero days will apply
in Leg
[[Page 10866]]
1 to pieces originating in other 5-digit ZIP Codes not subject to RTO.
Implementing this change is the only way to correct for the significant
deficiencies of the current network, while also ensuring that the
standards set forth achievable, reliable, and understandable service
expectations for customers.
With respect to Leg 2, the standards being implemented as part of
phase 2 reflect the increased efficiency, velocity, and reach of the
processing and network transportation due to the operational benefits
of the RPDC/LPC redesign and RTO. As noted above, the network of RPDCs
and LPCs will deploy standardized and logically sequenced operating
plans and schedules, more sortation equipment, optimized transportation
routes, and improved operating tactics to increase throughput, gain
productivity, and increase asset utilization across the country. In
addition, RTO enables more efficient and accelerated originating
processing operations, therefore allowing volumes to enter the network
earlier. As a result of these benefits, the Postal Service will expand
by four hours each of the existing service standard bands within Leg 2
for First-Class Mail so that such mail can travel farther to plants
that are a greater distance from the originating plant within the Leg 2
bands.
Finally, while the Postal Service is recognizing Leg 3 in the
First-Class Mail standards, no additional days are being added for this
leg, which is the same as the current standards.
These adjustments to the service standards once fully implemented
will lead to a net positive impact for First-Class Mail from a service
standard perspective, and generally faster service for end-to-end USPS
Marketing Mail, Periodicals, and Package Services. The service
standards reflect the fact that the operational changes will enable
volume to be accelerated through Leg 2, due to the benefits of the new
network design and RTO; as a result, the Leg 2 bands for First-Class
Mail will be expanded by four hours compared to the current standards.
All volume will benefit from greater service reliability. Some mail
(constituting a minority of volume) destined to the contiguous states
will experience a service standard that is longer than the current
service standard (although within the current day ranges), primarily
because the Postal Service will assign one day within Leg 1 for all
volume originating in a 5-digit ZIP Code that is subject to the RTO, as
described below. In addition, as a result of the overall changes, a
small volume of mail to and/or from locations outside the contiguous
states will experience a service standard that is longer than the
current service standards, while other volume outside the contiguous
states will experience a service standard that is shorter than the
current service standards. The relative upgrades and downgrades
demonstrate the Postal Service's efforts to maintain high quality
service and mitigate any customer impacts to the extent possible, while
also implementing operational changes necessary to achieve the
critical--and significant--cost savings that are necessary for
financial sustainability.
The service standards are a critical aspect of the DFA Plan's
overall goals to create a financially sustainable and reliable Postal
Service capable of achieving the universal service mission for all
customers for years to come. In this regard, and considering the Postal
Service's statutory obligations, the changes will enable the Postal
Service to achieve a better balance of cost-effectiveness and
reliability, by enabling the Postal Service to undertake critically
necessary operational initiatives and more realistically aligning the
service standards with operational capabilities. The final rule will
result in much more precise and efficient network operations that
better match current and projected mail mix and volumes, and the Postal
Service anticipates that the changes will result in significant cost
savings, in addition to enhancing service reliability and
predictability. This keeps costs at reasonable levels and helps to
ensure affordable rates. Overall, the operational changes and
associated service standards will revitalize and rationalize the postal
network in a way that enables the Postal Service to be a modern and
high-performing organization.
Pursuant to 39 U.S.C. 3661(b), on October 4, 2024, the Postal
Service requested an advisory opinion from the Postal Regulatory
Commission relating to these revisions to 39 CFR part 121; the
Commission considered the request in Docket No. N2024-1. Further
explanation and justification of the operational initiatives and the
service standards, and how they are consistent with 39 U.S.C. 3691 and
other provisions of law, can be found in the materials that the Postal
Service has filed in that docket.
The Postal Service's market-dominant service standards are
contained in 39 CFR part 121. The specific revisions to 39 CFR part 121
appear at the end of this document. The following is a summary of the
revisions.
B. First-Class Mail
Under the rule, the process for collections will not change, nor
will access to Postal Service retail services. Instead, RTO will
eliminate the interdependency between the time mail is collected from
customers and network transportation schedules and plant processing
schedules; eliminating this interdependency between local retail and
collection operations, and network logistics and processing operations,
is critically important to enabling the Postal Service to create a
precise, efficient, and cost-effective network, as discussed in more
detail above. ZIP Codes will be designated for RTO when a retail/
collection facility servicing that 5-digit ZIP Code is more than 50
miles from the RPDC (though exceptions may apply). In situations where
the RPDC is a campus, the 50-mile rule will be based on the location of
the specific facility that performs cancellation operations. The rule
generally will add no day for Leg 1 for ZIP Codes within 50 miles from
the RPDC campus and will add one day to the service standard for ZIP
Codes that are more than 50 miles from the originating RPDC. This will
allow for more efficient and flexible transportation schedules and
improve the arrival profile for mail processing operations, enabling
the Postal Service to more timely dispatch the volume that is collected
closer to the RPDC to the Leg 2 transportation network.
This logic will generally apply to all end-to-end volume across
market-dominant products. Because Leg 1 is the portion of operations
from collection to the originating plant, this rule will not apply to
any products entered at an RPDC, Presort First-Class Mail, or any
destination-entered volume. For operational efficiency, the Postal
Service is considering how to adjust when and where Presort First-Class
Mail volume may be entered to ensure that it is not subject to RTO.
This may result in specification of locations where Presort First-Class
Mail can be entered, or changing the critical entry time (CET) for
Presort First-Class Mail to ensure there is sufficient time for volume
to enter the network. The CET is the latest time on a particular day
that a mail piece can be entered into the postal network and still have
its service standard calculated based on that day (this day is termed
``day-zero''); all of the service standards are contingent upon proper
acceptance before the applicable CET.
RTO will provide flexibility in regional transportation scheduling,
as the standards will accommodate the fact that mail and packages could
under RTO be picked up the next day from the Post Office on the same
trip that also dropped off mail at that Post Office for delivery that
day. Explicitly accounting for this operational practice in the
[[Page 10867]]
service standards enables the Postal Service to achieve the benefits of
RTO, while also providing customers with more precise and reliable
service expectations. Additionally, by no longer requiring all mail to
wait for the volumes collected from the furthest away Post Offices, the
Postal Service will be able to accelerate the mail that is within the
50-mile radius of an RPDC through mail processing, allowing for it to
be dispatched to the network earlier, thus enabling the expansion of
the Leg 2 service standard bands. As such, the addition of a day for
Leg 1 will not necessarily equate to the addition of a day for the
service standard overall for a given mailpiece. Rather, the service
standard for a particular mailpiece will depend on the specific origin
and destination and the cumulative number of days that are applicable
across the operational segments (with no First-Class Mail having a
service standard that exceeds five days).
Under the rule for First-Class Mail, there are several fundamental
changes to the calculation of service standards at Leg 2 to align with
the end-state RPDC network. First, the measured transit path will be
updated. The current network path used for measurement is Origin
Processing and Distribution Center or Facility (OPDC/F) to Area
Distribution Center (ADC) to Sectional Center Facility (SCF). The rule
will instead measure the distance between the Originating RPDC and the
Destination RPDC and then the distance between the Destination RPDC to
the Destination LPC.
Second, because of the improved arrival profiles facilitated by RTO
and the improved efficiencies in the RPDC network, under the rule, each
of the existing service standard bands will expand by four hours for
First-Class Mail effective as of July 1, 2025. For example, under the
current standards, First-Class Mail traveling three hours or less
receives a 2-day standard. Under the changes, First-Class Mail
traveling up to seven hours (i.e., the current three hours, plus four
more hours) will receive a 2-day standard. The bands applicable to the
assignment of 3-day and 4-day standards within Leg 2 will also expand
by four hours each.
Finally, even for pairs of originating and destinating 5-digit ZIP
Codes where the application of the Leg 1 and Leg 2 rules noted above
would otherwise result in a 6-day standard, the standard will
nonetheless be capped at five days for such pairs.
This segment-by-segment approach applies to inter-RDPC volume
(i.e., volume that is moving across the network). Specific rules will
apply to mail and packages originating and destinating within the same
RPDC region (intra-RDPC volume). Specifically, the service standards
will expand the geographic scope of such ``turnaround'' volume, which
is volume originating and destinating within a facility's service area.
Currently, certain intra-SCF volume receives a 2-day standard. Under
the rule, certain intra-LPC and all intra-RPDC First-Class Mail volume
will be subject to a new turnaround rule, which will provide for a 2-
or 3-day standard, depending on the location of the originating mail
volume. Specifically, processing facilities that cancel Single-Piece
First-Class Mail on automated equipment will have a 2-day standard for
turnaround Single-Piece First-Class Mail originating from 5-digit ZIP
Codes within 50 miles of the cancellation location. By contrast, if
certain originating volume is from a 5-digit ZIP Code beyond 50 miles
of the cancellation location, the turnaround standard for Single-Piece
First-Class Mail will be three days. The decision on which LPCs will
maintain cancellation operations for Single-Piece First-Class Mail, and
thus process local turnaround mail without transporting it to an RPDC,
will be based on operational factors, such as distance from the RPDC to
the LPC, and the volume of turnaround mail processed at the LPC. In
situations in which the LPC retains cancellation operations, the 50-
mile rule noted above will be based on the distance from the LPC. In
other situations, the RPDC will have cancellation operations, meaning
the 50-mile rule will be based on the distance from the RPDC.
Currently, a 1-day service standard is applied to intra-SCF
domestic Presort First-Class Mail pieces properly accepted at the SCF
before the day-zero CET. To account for the redesigned network, a 1-day
service standard will instead apply to eligible intra-LPC Presort
First-Class Mail pieces properly accepted at the LPC before the day-
zero CET. On the other hand, for eligible Presort First-Class Mail
within the contiguous 48 states that is not eligible for the intra-LPC
1-day standard, but that nevertheless originates and destinates within
the same RPDC, a 2-day service standard will apply.
RTO will not apply to originating locations outside of the
contiguous 48 states; also, the service standards for domestic First-
Class Mail originating and/or destinating in such locations will not
necessarily depend on the segment-by-segment network path. As a result,
service standards for domestic First-Class Mail originating and/or
destinating in such locations will generally not change; an exception,
for example, will be application of RTO to domestic Single-Piece First-
Class Mail that (1) originates in the contiguous 48 states, (2) is
collected in and dispatched from a 5-digit ZIP Code that is over 50
miles in driving distance from the originating RPDC, and (3) destinates
in the city of Anchorage, Alaska (5-digit ZIP Codes 99501 through
99539), the 968 3-digit ZIP Code area in Hawaii, or the 006, 007, or
009 3-digit ZIP Code areas in Puerto Rico. Nevertheless,
notwithstanding application of RTO generally for domestic First-Class
Mail that meets these conditions, a maximum 5-day service standard will
be applied.
A same-day service standard will continue to apply to USPS
Connect[supreg] Local Mail pieces accepted at participating Destination
Delivery Units (DDUs) before the applicable day-zero CET; for USPS
Connect[supreg] Local Mail, Sorting & Delivery Centers are also
considered DDUs. A 1-day service standard will continue to apply to all
other pieces accepted as USPS Connect[supreg] Local Mail, including
pieces accepted via carrier pick-up.
The rule will also have certain effects on standards for
international mail. As a result of the application of 5-digit to 5-
digit ZIP Code pairs, the service standard for outbound Single-Piece
First-Class Mail International pieces properly accepted before the day-
zero CET will be equivalent to the service standard for domestic First-
Class Mail pieces originating from the same 5-digit ZIP Code area and
destined to the 5-digit ZIP Code area in which the designated
International Service Center is located. Similarly, the service
standard for Inbound Letter Post pieces properly accepted before the
day-zero CET will be equivalent to the service standard for domestic
First-Class Mail pieces destined to the same 5-digit ZIP Code area and
originating from the 5-digit ZIP Code area in which the applicable
International Service Center is located. Because Inbound Parcel Post
(at Universal Postal Union (UPU) rates) includes Inbound Surface Parcel
Post (at UPU rates), and because that product is now competitively
classified, the rule will remove it from these market-dominant service
standards.
C. Periodicals, USPS Marketing Mail, and Package Services
Service standards for end-to-end Periodicals and USPS Marketing
Mail originating and destinating in the contiguous 48 states will
generally flow from the Single-Piece First-Class Mail standards using
the same measured travel path (disregarding standards for USPS
Connect[supreg] Local Mail and for intra-LPC ``turnaround'' service).
For
[[Page 10868]]
Periodicals, the general rule in relation to First-Class Mail will
remain the same--i.e., a 3-6-day range will be applied to Periodicals,
with the standard generally equaling the sum of the applicable First-
Class Mail service standard (disregarding standards for USPS
Connect[supreg] Local Mail and for intra-LPC ``turnaround'' service)
plus one day. For USPS Marketing Mail, the rule will add two days to
the applicable First-Class Mail service standard (disregarding
standards for USPS Connect[supreg] Local Mail and for intra-LPC
``turnaround'' service). This means that the outer-bound for USPS
Marketing Mail in the contiguous states will be seven days, rather than
ten days under the current standards. For end-to-end Package Services
within the contiguous 48 states, the rule will add two days to the
First-Class Mail standards, after 5-9 hours of Leg 2 driving time is
added to the applicable First-Class Mail service band; overall, this
will reduce the outer-bound of the service standards for Package
Services in the contiguous states to seven days, rather than the
current eight days.
With respect to Destination Entry Periodicals, Destination Entry
USPS Marketing Mail, and Destination Entry Package Services, the
service standards generally will not change, except to reflect the new
network. That is, to correspond with the operational network and
infrastructure changes that the Postal Service is implementing, the
LPCs will replace the ADCs and the SCFs in the service standards.
Likewise, the RPDCs will replace the Network Distribution Centers
(NDCs) in the service standards. These changes will allow some
Destination Entry Periodicals to receive an accelerated service
standard, in part because it will no longer matter in this respect
whether Destination ADCs (DADCs) and Destination SCFs (DSCFs) are co-
located, given that they are both being replaced by Destination LPCs
(DLPCs).
Under the rule, for Destination Entry Periodicals originating and/
or destinating in locations outside of the contiguous 48 states,
service standards will largely remain unchanged, aside from facility
nomenclature updates reflecting the network redesign, with certain
exceptions. A small volume of mail to and/or from locations outside the
contiguous states will experience a service standard that is longer
than the current service standards, while some other volume outside the
contiguous states will experience a service standard that is shorter
than the current service standards. Currently, for example, a 3-day
service standard is applied to Periodicals pieces that qualify for a
DSCF rate and are properly accepted before the day-zero CET at the
designated DSCF, if they are entered at the DSCF in Puerto Rico and
destined to the U.S. Virgin Islands, or destined to the following 3-
digit ZIP Code areas in Alaska (or designated portions thereof): 995
(5-digit ZIP Codes 99540 through 99599), 996, 997, 998, and 999; on the
other hand, currently a 4-day service standard is applied to
Periodicals pieces that qualify for a DADC rate and are properly
accepted before the day-zero CET at the designated DADC, if they are
entered at the DADC in Puerto Rico and destined to the U.S. Virgin
Islands, or if they are destined to the following 3-digit ZIP Code
areas in Alaska (or designated portions thereof): 995 (5- ZIP Codes
99540 through 99599), 996, 997, 998, and 999. Since LPCs will replace
ADCs, and since DLPC service standards will largely track those
currently applied to DSCF volume, for such mail, the shorter of the two
service standards (i.e., 3-day) will apply to Periodicals pieces that
qualify for a DLPC rate and are properly accepted before the day-zero
CET at the designated DLPC, if they are entered at the DLPC in Puerto
Rico and destined to the U.S. Virgin Islands, or destined to the
following 3-digit ZIP Code areas in Alaska (or designated portions
thereof): 995 (5-digit ZIP Codes 99540 through 99599), 996, 997, 998,
and 999.
Furthermore, a 3-day service standard is currently applied to
Periodicals pieces that qualify for a DSCF rate and are properly
accepted before the day-zero CET at the designated DSCF, if they are
entered at the DSCF in Hawaii and are destined to American Samoa; on
the other hand, currently a 4-day standard applies to Periodicals
pieces that qualify for a DADC rate, are properly accepted before the
day-zero CET at the designated DADC, and are destined to American
Samoa. For reasons of operational feasibility, under the rule, a 4-day
service standard will be applied to Periodicals pieces that qualify for
a DLPC rate and are properly accepted before the day-zero CET at the
designated DLPC, if they are destined to American Samoa.
Finally, as the service standards themselves have been simplified,
the tables depicting day-ranges for non-contiguous states and
territories at the end of Part 121 (Tables 2 and 4) likewise have been
streamlined. Table 2 reflects the general standards for end-to-end day-
ranges for the non-contiguous states and territories, including
exceptions for some intermodal transportation. Table 4 reflects the
general standards for destination entry day-ranges for the non-
contiguous states and territories, including consolidated day-ranges
resulting from LPCs and RPDCs superseding SCFs, ADCs, and NDCs.
List of Subjects in 39 CFR Part 121
Administrative practice and procedure, Postal Service.
Accordingly, for the reasons stated, the Postal Service adopts the
following revisions to 39 CFR part 121:
PART 121--SERVICE STANDARDS FOR MARKET-DOMINANT MAIL PRODUCTS
0
1. The authority citation for part 121 continues to read as follows:
Authority: 39 U.S.C. 101, 401, 403, 404, 1001, 3691.
0
2. Amend Sec. 121.1 by adding paragraph (i) to read as follows:
Sec. 121.1 First-Class Mail.
* * * * *
(i) Notwithstanding paragraphs (a) through (h) of this section, and
unless an exception applies due to operational or business
considerations, with respect to First-Class Mail that originates in the
contiguous 48 states and falls within one of the service standards set
forth in paragraphs (c)(1), (c)(2), (d), (e)(1), or (e)(2) of this
section, as well as for Outbound Single-Piece First-Class Mail
International pieces that originate in the contiguous 48 states and
pursuant to paragraph (g) of this section are based on one of the
service standards set forth in paragraphs (c)(1), (c)(2), (d), (e)(1),
or (e)(2) of this section:
(1) One service expectation day is added to the applicable service
standard for pieces (excluding eligible Presort First-Class Mail
pieces) originating in a 5-digit ZIP Code when a facility from which
mail is dispatched for the originating 5-digit ZIP Code is over 50
miles in driving distance from the originating Regional Processing and
Distribution Center or Campus (RPDC); and
(2) Zero service expectation days are added to the applicable
service standard for pieces originating in a 5-digit ZIP Code when no
facility from which mail is dispatched for the originating 5-digit ZIP
Code is over 50 miles in driving distance from the originating RPDC,
and including eligible Presort First-Class Mail.
0
3. Amend Sec. 121.2 by revising paragraph (a)(1) to read as follows:
Sec. 121.2 Periodicals.
(a) * * *
(1) a 3- to 6-day service standard is applied to Periodicals pieces
properly accepted before the day-zero Critical Entry Time (CET) and
merged with
[[Page 10869]]
First-Class Mail pieces for surface transportation (as per the Domestic
Mail Manual (DMM)), with the standard specifically equaling the sum of
1 day plus the applicable First-Class Mail service standard as
calculated consistent with Sec. 121.1(i).
* * * * *
0
4. Effective July 1, 2025, revise part 121 to read as follows:
PART 121--SERVICE STANDARDS FOR MARKET-DOMINANT MAIL PRODUCTS
Sec. 121.0 Market-Dominant Product Service Standards.
Sec. 121.1 First-Class Mail.
Sec. 121.2 Periodicals.
Sec. 121.3 USPS Marketing Mail.
Sec. 121.4 Package Services.
Appendix A to Part 121--Tables Depicting Service Standard Day Ranges
PART 121--SERVICE STANDARDS FOR MARKET-DOMINANT MAIL PRODUCTS
Sec. 121.0 Market-Dominant Product Service Standards.
Service standards in this part are contingent upon proper
acceptance before the applicable day-zero Critical Entry Time (CET).
Applying the service standards appearing in this part, effective
service standards for combinations of 5-digit originating ZIP Codes and
5-digit destinating ZIP Codes can be found in a lookup table at
www.usps.com.
Sec. 121.1 First-Class Mail.
(a) Service Standards Based on Delivery Legs Within the Contiguous
48 States. Except as specified in paragraph (b) of this section,
service standards for domestic First-Class Mail, whose origin and
destination are within the contiguous 48 states, are calculated as the
sum of service expectation days between 5-digit ZIP Code pairs,
accruing across three successive legs as follows:
(1) Leg 1. Unless an exception applies due to operational or
business considerations, for this leg:
(i) One service expectation day is added to First-Class Mail
(excluding eligible Presort First-Class Mail) originating in a 5-digit
ZIP Code when a facility from which mail is dispatched for the
originating 5-digit ZIP Code is over 50 miles in driving distance from
the originating Regional Processing and Distribution Center or Campus
(RPDC); and
(ii) Zero service expectation days are added for all other First-
Class Mail, including Single-Piece First-Class Mail when no facility
from which mail is dispatched for the originating 5-digit ZIP Code is
over 50 miles in driving distance from the originating RPDC, and
including eligible Presort First-Class Mail.
(2) Leg 2. (i) Two service expectation days are added to First-
Class Mail if the combined drive time between the originating RPDC, the
destinating RPDC, and the destinating Local Processing Center (LPC) is
7 hours or less;
(ii) Three service expectation days are added to First-Class Mail
if the combined drive time between the originating RPDC, the
destinating RPDC, and the destinating LPC is more than 7 hours and not
more than 24 hours;
(iii) Four service expectation days are added to First-Class Mail
pieces if the combined drive time between the originating RPDC, the
destinating RPDC, and the destinating LPC is more than 24 hours and not
more than 45 hours; and
(iv) Five service expectation days are added to all remaining
First-Class Mail pieces, except that four days are added to any such
First-Class Mail for which a day is added under Leg 1.
(3) Leg 3. No service expectation days are added in Leg 3.
(b) Exceptions to Service Standards Based on Delivery Legs Within
the Contiguous 48 States. (1) A same-day service standard applies to
USPS Connect[supreg] Local Mail pieces accepted at participating
Destination Delivery Units, and a one-day service standard applies to
all other pieces accepted as USPS Connect[supreg] Local Mail.
(2) A one-day service standard applies to eligible intra-LPC
Presort First-Class Mail pieces accepted at the LPC.
(3) For First-Class Mail that is not USPS Connect[supreg] Local
Mail, with respect to ``turnaround'' service for pieces originating and
destinating within the same RPDC service area or within the same LPC
service area for certain qualifying LPCs (designated by the Postal
Service based on operational considerations such as an LPC's distance
from its servicing RPDC and volume processed at the LPC):
(i) A two-day service standard applies to:
(A) Eligible Presort First-Class Mail that is not eligible for a
one-day service standard under paragraph (b)(2) of this section and
that originates and destinates in the same RPDC service area; and
(B) Single-Piece First-Class Mail originating in a 5-digit ZIP Code
when no facility from which mail is dispatched for the originating 5-
digit ZIP Code is over 50 miles in driving distance of the originating
RPDC or qualifying LPC and destinates within the same RPDC's or
qualifying LPC's service area.
(ii) A three-day service standard applies to Single-Piece First-
Class Mail originating in a 5-digit ZIP Code when a facility from which
mail is dispatched for the originating 5-digit ZIP Code is over 50
miles in driving distance of the originating RPDC or qualifying LPC and
destinates within the same RPDC's or qualifying LPC's service area.
(c) Service Standards for Domestic First-Class Mail Originating
and/or Destinating in Locations Outside of the Contiguous 48 States.
(1) A same-day service standard applies to USPS Connect[supreg] Local
Mail pieces accepted at participating Destination Delivery Units.
(2) Except as provided in paragraph (c)(3) of this section, a one-
day service standard applies to:
(i) Eligible intra-LPC Presort First-Class Mail pieces accepted at
the LPC, whose origin and destination are outside the contiguous 48
states; and
(ii) All other pieces accepted as USPS Connect[supreg] Local Mail.
(3) A two-day service standard applies to:
(i) Eligible Presort First-Class Mail that originates in Puerto
Rico and destinates in the U.S. Virgin Islands, or vice versa;
(ii) Eligible intra-LPC Presort First-Class Mail with an origin or
destination that is in American Samoa or one of the following 3-digit
ZIP Code areas in Alaska (or designated portions thereof): 995 (5-digit
ZIP Codes 99540 through 99599), 996, 997, 998, and 999; and
(iii) Other intra-LPC First-Class Mail pieces whose origin and
destination are outside the contiguous 48 states, including any other
intra-LPC Presort pieces that are not eligible for a one-day service
standard.
(4) A four-day service standard applies to First-Class Mail pieces
if the same-day, one-day, or two-day service standards do not apply
and:
(i) The origin is in the 006, 007, or 009 3-digit ZIP Code areas in
Puerto Rico, and the destination is in the contiguous 48 states;
(ii) The origin is in Hawai[revaps]i, and the destination is in
Guam, or vice versa;
(iii) The origin is in Hawai[revaps]i, and the destination is in
American Samoa, or vice versa;
(iv) Both the origin and destination are within Alaska; or
(v) Such mail originates in a 5-digit ZIP Code where no facility
from which mail is dispatched for that 5-digit ZIP Code is over 50
miles of driving distance from its originating RPDC, and the origin is
in the contiguous 48 states and the destination is in the city of
Anchorage, Alaska (5-digit ZIP Codes 99501 through 99539), the 968 3-
digit ZIP Code area in Hawai[revaps]i, or the 006,
[[Page 10870]]
007, or 009 3-digit ZIP Code areas in Puerto Rico.
(5) A five-day service standard applies to all remaining domestic
First-Class Mail pieces originating and/or destinating outside the
contiguous 48 states.
(d) Service Standards for International First-Class Mail. (1) The
service standard for Outbound Single-Piece First-Class Mail
International[supreg] pieces is equivalent to the service standard for
domestic Single-Piece First-Class Mail pieces originating from the same
5-digit ZIP Code area and destined to the 5-digit ZIP Code area in
which the designated International Service Center, or its functional
equivalent, is located.
(2) The service standard for Inbound Letter Post pieces from the
first USPS scan is equivalent to the service standard for domestic
Single-Piece First-Class Mail pieces destined to the same 5-digit ZIP
Code area and originating from the 5-digit ZIP Code area in which the
applicable International Service Center, or its functional equivalent,
is located.
Sec. 121.2 Periodicals.
(a) End-to-End. (1) Except as provided in paragraph (a)(2) of this
section, a 3- to 6-day service standard applies to end-to-end
Periodicals pieces, with the standard generally equaling the sum of one
day plus the applicable Single-Piece First-Class Mail (FCM) service
standard (disregarding standards for USPS Connect[supreg] Local FCM and
for intra-Local Processing Center ``turnaround'' service).
(2) For certain end-to-end Periodicals pieces originating and/or
destinating outside the contiguous 48 states, a 10- to 27-day service
standard applies, with the standard generally equaling the sum of 3 to
6 days plus the number of additional days (from 7 to 21) for which
certain intermodal (e.g., highway, boat, air-taxi) transportation is
utilized.
(b) Destination Entry--(1) Destination Delivery Unit (DDU) Entered
Mail. A 1-day (overnight) service standard applies to Periodicals
pieces that qualify for a DDU rate.
(2) Destination Local Processing Center (DLPC) Entered Mail. (i) A
1-day (overnight) service standard applies to Periodicals pieces that
qualify for a DLPC (or analogous legacy) rate, except for mail entered
in Puerto Rico and destined to the U.S. Virgin Islands, mail destined
to American Samoa, and mail destined to the following 3-digit ZIP Code
areas in Alaska (or designated portions thereof): 995 (5-digit ZIP
Codes 99540 through 99599), 996, 997, 998, and 999;
(ii) A 3-day service standard applies to Periodicals pieces that
qualify for a DLPC (or analogous legacy) rate, if they are entered in
Puerto Rico and destined to the U.S. Virgin Islands, or if they are
destined to the following 3-digit ZIP Code areas in Alaska (or
designated portions thereof): 995 (5-digit ZIP Codes 99540 through
99599), 996, 997, 998, and 999.
(iii) A 4-day service standard applies to Periodicals pieces that
qualify for a DLPC (or analogous legacy) rate if they are destined to
American Samoa.
(3) Destination Regional Processing and Distribution Center or
Campus (DRPDC) Entered Mail. (i) A 2-day service standard applies to
Periodicals pieces that qualify for a DRPDC (or analogous legacy) rate,
are entered in the contiguous 48 states, and are destined within the
contiguous 48 states; and
(ii) An 8- to 10-day service standard applies to Periodicals pieces
that qualify for a DRPDC (or analogous legacy) rate, are entered in the
contiguous 48 states, and are destined outside the contiguous 48
states, with the specific standard being based on the number of days
required for transportation outside the contiguous 48 states.
Sec. 121.3 USPS Marketing Mail.
(a) End-to-End. (1) Except as provided in paragraph (a)(2) of this
section, a 4- to 7-day service standard applies to end-to-end USPS
Marketing Mail pieces, with the standard generally equaling the sum of
2 days plus the applicable Single-Piece First-Class Mail (FCM) service
standard (disregarding standards for USPS Connect[supreg] Local FCM and
for intra-Local Processing Center (LPC) ``turnaround'' service).
(2) For certain end-to-end USPS Marketing Mail pieces originating
and/or destinating outside the contiguous 48 states, an 11- to 28-day
service standard applies, with the standard generally equaling the sum
of 4 to 7 days plus the number of additional days (from 7 to 21) for
which certain intermodal (e.g., highway, boat, air-taxi) transportation
is utilized.
(b) Destination Entry. (1) USPS Marketing Mail pieces that qualify
for a Destination Delivery Unit (DDU) rate have a 2-day service
standard.
(2) USPS Marketing Mail pieces that qualify for a Destination Local
Processing Center (DLPC) (or analogous legacy) rate have a 3-day
service standard when accepted on Sunday through Thursday and a 4-day
service standard when accepted on Friday or Saturday, except for mail
dropped at the LPC in the territory of Puerto Rico and destined to the
territory of the U.S. Virgin Islands, or mail destined to American
Samoa.
(3) USPS Marketing Mail pieces that qualify for a DLPC (or
analogous legacy) rate and that are entered in the territory of Puerto
Rico and destined to the territory of the U.S. Virgin Islands, or that
are destined to American Samoa, have a 4-day service standard when
accepted on Sunday through Thursday and a 5-day service standard when
accepted on Friday or Saturday.
(4) USPS Marketing Mail pieces that qualify for a Destination
Regional Processing and Distribution Center or Campus (DRPDC) (or
analogous legacy) rate have a 5-day service standard, if both the
origin and the destination are in the contiguous 48 states.
(5) USPS Marketing Mail pieces that qualify for a DRPDC (or
analogous legacy) rate, and that are entered in the contiguous 48
states for delivery to addresses in the states of Alaska or Hawaii or
the territories of Guam, American Samoa, Puerto Rico, or the U.S.
Virgin Islands, have a service standard of 12-14 days, depending on the
3-digit origin-destination ZIP Code pair. For each such pair, the
applicable day within the range is based on the number of days required
for transportation outside the contiguous 48 states.
Sec. 121.4 Package Services.
(a) End-to-End. (1) Except as provided in paragraph (a)(2) of this
section, a 4- to 7-day service standard applies to end-to-end Package
Services pieces, with the standard generally equaling the sum of 2 days
plus the applicable Single-Piece First-Class Mail (FCM) service
standard (disregarding standards for USPS Connect[supreg] Local FCM and
for intra-Local Processing Center ``turnaround'' service) after adding
5-9 hours to the applicable driving time bands of Leg 2 for FCM, as
applied to specific 5-digit origin-destination pairs in the table cited
in section 121.0.
(2) For certain end-to-end Package Services pieces originating and/
or destinating outside the contiguous 48 states, an 11- to 29-day
service standard applies, with the standard generally equaling the sum
of 4 to 7 days plus the number of additional days (from 7 to 22) for
which certain intermodal (e.g., highway, boat, air-taxi) transportation
is utilized.
(b) Destination Entry. (1) Package Services mail that qualifies for
a Destination Delivery Unit (DDU) rate has a 1-day (overnight) service
standard.
(2) Package Services mail that qualifies for a Destination Local
Processing Center (DLPC) (or analogous legacy) rate has a 2-day service
[[Page 10871]]
standard, except for mail that is destined to either American Samoa or
the U.S. Virgin Islands.
(3) Package Services mail that qualifies for a DLPC rate, and that
is destined to either American Samoa or the U.S. Virgin Islands, has a
3-day service standard.
(4) Package Services mail that qualifies for a Destination Regional
Processing and Distribution Center or Campus (DRPDC) (or analogous
legacy) rate, and that originates and destinates in the contiguous 48
states, has a 3-day service standard.
(5) Package Services mail that qualifies for a DRPDC (or analogous
legacy) rate, and that is entered in the contiguous 48 states for
delivery to addresses in the states of Alaska or Hawaii, or the
territories of Guam, American Samoa, Puerto Rico, or the U.S. Virgin
Islands, has a service standard of either 11 or 12 days, depending on
the 3-digit ZIP Code origin-destination pair. For each such pair, the
applicable day within the range is based on the number of days required
for transportation outside the contiguous 48 states.
Appendix A to Part 121--Tables Depicting Service Standard Day Ranges
The following tables reflect the service standard day ranges
resulting from the application of the business rules applicable to
the market-dominant mail products referenced in Sec. Sec. 121.0
through 121.4 (for purposes of part 121, references to the
contiguous states or the contiguous 48 states also include the
District of Columbia):
Table 1. End-to-end service standard day ranges for mail
originating and destinating within the contiguous 48 states and the
District of Columbia.
Table 1--End-to-End Service Within Contiguous States
------------------------------------------------------------------------
End-to-end
Mail class range
(days)
------------------------------------------------------------------------
First-Class Mail........................................... 0-5
Periodicals................................................ 3-6
USPS Marketing Mail........................................ 4-7
Package Services........................................... 4-7
------------------------------------------------------------------------
Table 2. End-to-end service standard day ranges for mail
originating and/or destinating in non-contiguous states and
territories.
Table 2--End-to-End Service to and/or From Non-Contiguous States and Territories
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
End-to-end range (days)
Mail class -------------------------------------------------
Intra-state/territory Inter-state/territory
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
First-Class Mail.............................................. 0-5 2-5
Periodicals................................................... 3-6 3-27
USPS Marketing Mail........................................... 4-7 4-28
Package Services.............................................. * 4-7 4-29
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
* Excluding bypass mail.
Table 3. Destination-entry service standard day ranges for mail
to the contiguous 48 states and the District of Columbia.
Table 3--Destination Entry Service to Contiguous States
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Contiguous states
-----------------------------------------------------
Destination entry (at appropriate facility) range
Mail class (days)
-----------------------------------------------------
* DDU * DLPC * DRPDC
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Periodicals............................................... 1 1 2
USPS Marketing Mail....................................... 2 3-4 5
Package Services.......................................... 1 2 3
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
* DDU = Destination Delivery Unit; DLPC = Destination Local Processing Center; DRPDC = Destination Regional
Processing and Distribution Center or Campus.
Table 4. Destination entry service standard day ranges for mail
to non-contiguous states and territories.
Table 4--Destination Entry Service to Non-Contiguous States and Territories
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Destination entry (at appropriate facility)
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
* DLPC range (days) * DRPDC range (days)
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Mail class * DDU range **
(days) Hawai[revaps]i, ** PR & Hawai[revaps]i,
Alaska Guam, NMI, & USVI Alaska Guam, NMI, & PR & USVI
AS AS
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Periodicals....................................... 1 1-3 1-4 1-3 10-11 10 8-10
USPS Marketing Mail............................... 2 3-4 3-5 3-5 14 13 12
Package Services.................................. 1 2 2-3 2-3 12 11 11
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
* DDU = Destination Delivery Unit; DLPC = Destination Local Processing Center; DRPDC = Destination Regional Processing and Distribution Center or
Campus.
** AS = American Samoa; NMI = Northern Mariana Islands; PR = Puerto Rico; USVI = United States Virgin Islands.
[[Page 10872]]
Colleen Hibbert-Kapler,
Attorney, Ethics & Legal Compliance.
[FR Doc. 2025-03168 Filed 2-26-25; 11:15 am]
BILLING CODE 7710-12-P