The legislation would convert to-the-door delivery to curbside or clustered drop offs, requiring incremental conversions for businesses. A bill unanimously approved by the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee would take the change a step further. Lawmakers have for years debated the merits of eliminating or reducing door delivery, with the issue proving a key sticking in failed iterations of postal reform efforts.
“Curbside, sidewalk delivery, and door modes are generally not available for new delivery points, with very rare exceptions, as determined by the Postal Service in its sole discretion, on a case-by-case basis,” the agency wrote in its update.ĭave Partenheimer, a USPS spokesman, said the centralized delivery part of the update was not new policy per se, but a "clarification of that fact."
USPS also updated its manual to require addresses that receive curbside delivery to have their mail receptacles “be grouped two to a property line, where possible.” By making centralized delivery its “preferred mode,” USPS is virtually eliminating any other delivery method for new addresses. Clustered boxes in neighborhoods force individuals to deal with safety and weather issues, opponents of the change have said. addresses received to-the-door delivery, most of which were located in large cities. Detractors have argued the shift would unfairly target urban dwellers and reduce the value of mail-based advertising. Having letter carriers deliver mail to a cluster of mailboxes rather than to each individual door allows for more efficient routes that can be completed more quickly.Īdvocates for the change have said the new policy could save the Postal Service billions of dollars annually as it continues to look for ways to reduce its labor costs.
USPS announced the change in a recent update to its Postal Operations Manual, in which it also made “centralized delivery” its preferred method of dropping off mail. The new policy marks a sharp shift as the agency continues to find ways to cut costs and follows through on a proposal for which it has long advocated. Postal Service will no longer deliver mail to the door for new addresses, pushing mail recipients to instead cluster their mailboxes in a centralized area.
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