The new standards would apply only to mail on which the Postal Service holds a monopoly, including first-class mail, like letters and postcards, and such periodicals as newspapers and magazines. вЂњAnd I donвЂ™t think you bind the nation together by saying, вЂWell, if you live on one of the coasts, then youвЂ™re going to get slow service just because youвЂ™re far away from everyone else.вЂ™ вЂќ вЂњItвЂ™s codified in law that the Postal Service is supposed to be binding the nation together,вЂќ said Doug Carlson, a postal advocate who cross-examined agency executives during a June hearing before the PRC. The Postal Service can proceed with the changes regardless of the outcome. For each change, the agency must seek an advisory opinion from the PRC but those rulings are not enforceable. The Postal Service plans to raise prices on certain mail products - pushing the price of a first-class stamp from 55 to 58 cents - while reducing service standards. вЂњOnly once the Postal Service has shown that it can reliably meet its performance targets should it consider whether it is necessary to change its service standards to address long-term trends in the utilization of its products,вЂќ the group wrote. The logistical challenges, for example, of getting a letter from Maine to the Grand Canyon - where the agency famously delivers mail from a sack on a mule - wonвЂ™t change, even if the time allotted to make the deliveries will.Д«ut consumer advocates and the mailing industryвЂ™s largely friendly but competitive stakeholders have panned the new initiative, saying it will harm customers, drive away mail users and further erode the 246-year-old agencyвЂ™s credibility, which has taken a hit after a year of pronounced delivery declines.ДЄttorneys general from 21 states, led by Pennsylvania and New York, in June wrote to the Postal Regulatory Commission (PRC) to oppose the changes, arguing they discriminate against mail consumers based on geography and that the Postal Service was poised to fall back into poor operational decisions that slowed mail service in the run-up to the 2020 elections. And thatвЂ™s really the part that we see thatвЂ™s not sustainable.вЂќ Whether weвЂ™re traversing 300 or 3,000 miles, itвЂ™s the same service standard. ThereвЂ™s that one to two days for the longest distances that we have to achieve, and we have to achieve those today. вЂњTheyвЂ™re going to know what theyвЂ™re going to get. вЂњThis allows, from our perspective, for the customers to plan, to have predictability,вЂќ Robert Cintron, the Postal ServiceвЂ™s vice president of logistics, said in an interview. It estimates that the transportation changes will save as much as $10 billion over that span. Though the Postal Service has significantly outpaced its own financial expectations so far this year, it faces a projected $160 billion deficit over the next decade. Postmaster General Louis DeJoy contends the plan will cut costs, revitalize the agencyвЂ™s network and create more consistency in transportation schedules. In all, at least a third of such letters and parcels addressed to 27 states will arrive more slowly under the new standards. Seventy percent of first-class mail sent to Nevada will take longer to arrive, according to The PostвЂ™s analysis, as will 60 percent of the deliveries to Florida, 58 percent to Washington state, 57 percent to Montana, and 55 percent to Arizona and Oregon. It involves significant reductions in airmail - a Postal Service tradition dating to 1918 - and geographic restrictions on how far a piece of mail can travel within a day. The proposed service standards, or the amount of time the agency says it should take to deliver a piece of first-class mail, represent the biggest slowdown of mail services in more than a generation, experts say. 1, disproportionately affects states west of the Rocky Mountains and the countryвЂ™s mainland extremities, including large swaths of southern Texas and Florida. The new delivery regimen, which takes effect Oct. Postal ServiceвЂ™s strategic restructuring plan, a Washington Post analysis shows. Las Vegas, Seattle, San Diego, Orlando and countless communities in between will see mail service slow by as much as a day under the U.S.

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