USPS Announces BIG First Class Mail Changes, Idaho Will Be Impacted

📬 The USPS lost $9.5 billion in Fiscal Year 2024

📬 First-Class Mail changes will be phased with Phase 1 happening on April 1 and Phase 2 happening on July 1

📬 Changes may be positive for customers in rural Idaho

Thanks to technology, the way that Idahoans communicate with others or handle things like paying bills has changed dramatically over the past 20 years.

READ MORE: Postal Service Warns Idaho Citizens About Dangerous New 'Vishing' Scam

With the evolution of apps like Venmo, Cash App and Zelle, fewer people are taking a risk by mailing checks as gifts. Likewise, online banking and online bill pay have provided quicker and more secure ways to take care of bills without dropping a check in the mail. 

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We celebrated a birthday last month and can tell you the number of Facebook and text message birthday wishes far exceeded the number of physical birthday cards we received in the mail. 

Today, fewer people are interacting with the United States Postal Service and it seems to be hemorrhaging money. Their year end report for Fiscal Year 2024 revealed that USPS had a net loss of nearly $9.5 billion, up three billion from the year before. They attribute that wild swing to factors like non-cash workers’ compensation and retiree pensions. 

But sometimes relying on the USPS is inevitable. They’re the only delivery service in the country that will reach every single address. Even when you’re not expecting to interact with them, you might. For example, we ordered a handful of clothing items from Amazon a week ago. Three of them were delivered directly to the doorstep by Amazon. The fourth arrived via USPS and was delivered to our mailbox. 

USPS Announces Changes to First Class Mail

On February 26, USPS posted a release titled “U.S. Postal Service Announces Refined Service Standards and Cost Reductions.” They estimate the changes will save $36 billion over the next 10 years. 

To the general public, the release is a little hard to understand so Newsweek digested it for customers who are wondering “how will this affect me?” They explain:

• 75 percent of First-Class Mail will retain its current service standards
• 14 percent of First-Class Mail will see an improvement in delivery times
• 11 percent of First-Class Mail will experience slightly longer delivery times

The current standard for processing First-Class Mail is one to five days. Changes behind the scenes to make this happen include changing a zip code model and reorganizing the operation path of mail, whether that be a letter or package, into three legs. They'll happen in phases on April 1 and July 1.

These Changes May Be a Good Thing for Rural Idaho

While some carriers on a USPS subreddit seem skeptical about the impact of the changes being positive, the organization itself is singing a different tune. We know there’s a significant amount of rural communities in Idaho, so this section of the USPS’s FAQ page stood out to us. They want rural customers to know:

Rural customers will benefit from the expansion of the Leg 2 bands enabling mail and packages to travel farther from the origin plant to more distant destination plants in terms of their receipt of important mail (including checks and medicines) that originate in a ZIP Code not covered by RTO (Regional Transportation Optimization.) 

What Is USPS’s Performance Like in Idaho?

You may not know this, but the USPS has a service performance page where you can see the performance rate of on-time deliveries for mail coming into Idaho and mail leaving Idaho. Here’s a look at some of the recent stats. It’s important to remember things like winter storms can slow delivery performance. 

February 2025

• Inbound Mail On-Time Rate of Mail Delivered: 83.6% (.48% increase from February 2024)
• Inbound Mail Average Days to Deliver: 3.4 (.2 slower than February 2024) 
• Outbound Mail On-Time Rate of Mail Delivered: 73.64% (13.86% decrease from February 2024)
• Outbound Mail Average Days to Deliver: 3.3 (.3 slower than February 2024) 

January 2025

• Inbound Mail On-Time Rate of Mail Delivered: 84.49% (9.03% increase from January 2024)
• Inbound Mail Average Days to Deliver: 3.3 (.2 faster than January 2024) 
• Outbound Mail On-Time Rate of Mail Delivered: 77.34% (2.28% decrease from January 2024)
• Outbound Mail Average Days to Deliver: 3 (.3 faster than January 2024) 

December 2024

• Inbound Mail On-Time Rate of Mail Delivered: 82.37% (1.42% increase from December 2023)
• Inbound Mail Average Days to Deliver: 3.4 (.2 slower than December 2023) 
• Outbound Mail On-Time Rate of Mail Delivered: 74.34% (9.46% decrease from December 2023)
• Outbound Mail Average Days to Deliver: 3.3 (.2 faster than December 2023)