SPRINGFIELD, Mo. – The U.S. Postal Service plans to slow down delivery of first class mail on Monday as part of cost-cutting efforts in 2015.
First class mail consists of the bills and cards sent through the mail. As customers send more email and pay more bills online, the volume of first class mail has dropped by 53 percent in the last decade.
“Anything that you might imagine that comes in one day now will be delayed to two or three days,” said Bradley Todd, a Springfield member of the American Postal Workers Union.
Todd said deliveries across the Ozarks, like a letter from Springfield to Lebanon, used to happen overnight, but that will change Monday.
“That letter will be sent to Springfield from Lebanon and processed in a method which would take 2-3 days,” Todd said. “So you’re losing at least one maybe more days depending on the flow of mail.”
In addition to lowering the service standard, the postal service plans to close about 82 processing facilities this year including one in Springfield. Processing centers sift mail by zip code and send it to more than 200 post offices across the Ozarks.
Looks like we want to just do package service and let poor service be the guide for first class mail or should I say 3rd class mail.