Data / Federal rules / 2024-26434

Service Standards for Market-Dominant Mail Products

The Postal Service published this proposed rule in the Federal Register on November 15, 2024. Comments closed on December 31, 2024.

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What the agency says

The United States Postal Service seeks public comment on proposed revisions to the service standards for certain market-dominant mail products. The Postal Service proposes to restructure the service standards, such that service standards for domestic First-Class Mail would 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 proposed rule would also partially adjust the service standards for end-to-end Periodicals, USPS Marketing Mail, and Package Services so that they would all be primarily based on the standards for First-Class Mail, consistent with the Postal Service's implementation of a more integrated network, thus continuing our efforts to eliminate our legacy network that, due to its poor design, has multiple, redundant network flows. In particular, the proposed service standards align with operational initiatives that the Postal Service plans to implement on a nationwide basis to fundamentally transform our 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 ("Plan"). The Postal Service is required by law to provide prompt, reliable, and efficient 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. However, the Postal Service currently is not achieving the requirements of the statute, as we lack a network that enables the integrated movement of mail and packages in a precise, efficient, and cost-effective manner. The Postal Service network has not been appropriately adjusted to account for volume and mail mix changes, including the substantial decline in Single-Piece First-Class Mail and increase in package volume, leading to significant inefficiencies. These initiatives will comprehensively transform these operations to fix the problems that exist today and create a network that enables the integrated movement of mail and packages in a precise and cost-effective manner far into the future. These initiatives would 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. They will also lead to substantial cost savings (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 Plan). Further details of the proposed changes appear below.

Key facts

Document number

2024-26434

Type

Proposed rule

Action

Proposed rule

Agency

Postal Service

Published

November 15, 2024

Comments due

December 31, 2024

Dates

Comments must be received on or before December 31, 2024.

Code of Federal Regulations

39 CFR 121

Topics

Administrative practice and procedure

Pages

9

The document on federalregister.gov PDF

Other documents from the Postal Service

Everything from the Postal Service · Rules on administrative practice and procedure · Published in November 2024

Read from the Federal Register API, last updated 2026-10-23. The document on federalregister.gov is the official record; dates and dockets can change through later corrections. Free to reuse with credit to SpecStream under CC BY 4.0.