Rural sellers – including the entire state of Wyoming – may lose some precious time in getting their packages into the hands of buyers beginning April 1, according to SaveThePostOffice.com.
That’s because under the USPS service standards changes, “any post office that is 50 miles or more from a Regional Processing and Distribution Center will no longer have afternoon mail pickup,” it explained. Earlier this month, Save the Post Office posted a tool for looking up how the USPS RTO part of the Delivering For America plan may apply to mail based on ZIP Code pairs.
This week, the USPS added a tool to its website where sellers can enter a zip code and mailing or shipping service, and see how many days it might take for their letter or package to arrive to customers in other parts of the country.
With many sellers working hard to get items shipped the same day they receive orders, the loss of afternoon pickup sounds impactful. Even if it does not result in delivery delays, any delays in scanning could conceivably harm their performance standards by which marketplaces (and nervous buyers) judge them.
We previously reported on the changes to service standards set to roll out in two phases, the first on April 1st, the second on July 1st. While over 80 percent of market-dominant volume will remain unchanged, some customers will see shorter delivery times and others will see longer delivery times, the Postal Service said.