Mail To Slow And Cost More

Get ready for mail to be a little slower…if you send it first class. The U.S. Postal Service finalized a plan on Friday to slow down some first-class mail deliveries starting Oct. 1 as part of efforts to cut costs. The plan will revise the existing one-to three-day service standards to one to five days for first class mail. The post office says that about 7% of periodicals will be affected by the slower delivery times. This is part of a plan revealed in March called “Delivering For America” that is estimated to cut about $160 billion of the predicted losses over the next decade. The slower delivery standards on first class mail comes on the heels of the Postal Service announcing in July an upcoming increase in postal rates. Those new rates will take effect on August 29th…that includes stamps taking a 3 cent jump from 55 cents to 58 cents.