Micronesia, Guam impact of USPS slowdown not yet known

Weekender #5 | Quitters, rescues, scratching an itch 🐢

Oct 14

You’re reading The Husk's Friday edition, our Weekender, a countdown/roundup of miscellanea from Micronesia, Guam, and Earth.

This month the U.S. Postal Service implemented planned changes to mail delivery which is expected to result in slower delivery times for the contiguous United States.

CNN reports, that "mail traveling longer distances will take longer to arrive in some cases, due to the USPS increasing transit time."

Of course, for us in Micronesia, including the U.S. territory of Guam, we are very much part of the cohort of folks whose mail travels long distances.

I reached out to USPS spokesman Duke Gonzales to ask what, if any, expected impact the USPS slowdown would have for the people in this region, many of whom rely on USPS. USPS recognizes that they are an important service for people here.

Gonzales said he doesn't have details currently about the new USPS service standards’ impact on Guam and Micronesia.

"What I can say is that we absolutely understand the critical role that USPS plays in the lives of our customers in Guam (and) throughout Micronesia and will make every effort to continue to deliver the mail to those customers as quickly as possible," Gonzales said.

USPS said in a statement that most First Class mail and periodicals nationwide won't be affected by the new changes.

"Standards for single-piece First-Class Mail traveling within a local area will continue to be two days," the statement said. "The Postal Service will increase time‐in‐transit standards by 1 or 2 days for certain mail that are traveling longer distances (e.g. New York to California). By doing so, the Postal Service can entrust its ground network to deliver more First-Class Mail, which will lead to greater consistency, reliability, and efficiency that benefits its customers."¹

It might take some time to figure out how these changes affect us in Micronesia. I'm crossing my fingers that there is no adverse impact, but this is something to keep in mind if you plan on mailing packages this upcoming holiday season.

Although, USPS did say in a statement that the agency is "more prepared than ever to deliver the holidays." USPS is hiring more workers for peak season, redesigning its network to improve package flow, and using state-of-the-art sorting machines.

Have you noticed any changes in USPS delivery as of late? I'd like to know.

Leave a comment

…things from the US

In related mail news, FedEx’s on-time delivery rates were down and the company is grappling with a worker shortage that’s led to increased overtime. Plus, FedEx said it’s feeling the squeeze from supply chain problems resulting in a drop in profit, per the Wall Street Journal.
In a study that's not surprising to any Pacific Islander (lol) researchers looked at longtime practices in Palau. The article from the University of Oregon said a new study “shows that some communities have been conducting sustainable practices for at least a thousand years.”
A lot of Americans are quitting their jobs.²

…things from Guam

Guam is still on this blacklist, per Pacific Island Times
A turtle in Guam under a leaf, linked below for your viewing pleasure

…thing from Micronesia

Two fishermen were rescued this past week after they spent seven days drifting at sea among the Marshall Islands EEZ. (Island Times) The fishermen were from Kiribati, which reminded me of this story from 2011 when two other men from Kiribati were lost at sea for a month but then washed ashore in the Marshall Islands and one of them met up with their uncle who was thought to have drowned when he was lost at sea 50 years earlier. The long-lost uncle ended up on the same atoll and married into the community, according to ABC news.³

Also, tomorrow there will be a virtual storytelling event hosted by Humanities Guåhan.

humanitiesguahan

A post shared by Humanities Guåhan (@humanitiesguahan)

Remember last week when I said people make mistakes? This week, I sent the Micronesian Monday Feature to everyone on Sunday, which set the tone for the rest of the week. Looking forward to the weekend.

Here’s to a great one for us all. Thank you for reading,

1

Here’s the full statement from USPS:

On October 1, the Postal Service implemented new service standards for First-Class Mail and Periodicals. These new service standards will increase delivery reliability, consistency, and efficiency for our customers and across our network.

Most First Class mail (61 percent) and periodicals (93 percent) nationwide will be unaffected by the new service standard changes. Standards for single-piece First-Class Mail traveling within a local area will continue to be two days.

The Postal Service will increase time‐in‐transit standards by 1 or 2 days for certain mail that are traveling longer distances (e.g. New York to California). By doing so, the Postal Service can entrust its ground network to deliver more First-Class Mail, which will lead to greater consistency, reliability, and efficiency that benefits its customers.

To help with clarification, there is a difference between First-Class Mail (FCM) and First-Class Package Service (FCPS). FCM is designed for standard-sized letters and flats; FCPS is primarily designed for shipping small, lightweight packages. Maximum weight and prices differ.

Delivery of both FCM and FCPS are currently the same, but with the new standards being introduced on Oct. 1, FCPS and FCM standards will no longer be identical.

Whether it’s 300 miles or 3,000 miles, the current standard for FCPS requires 3-day service for any destination within the contiguous U.S. with a drive time greater than 6 hours. This is unattainable and forces us to overly rely on air transportation, yielding unreliable service. With this change of offering 2- to 5-day service based on distance, we will improve service reliability and predictability for customers, while also driving efficiencies across the Postal Service network.

This service standard change will also expand our 2-day FCPS reach to better position us in the 1- to 2-day market, a market that is growing as consumer expectations change. For example, while we narrow the 2-day standard for FCM letters and flats from a 6-hour drive time to a 3-hour drive time, we will expand the 6-hour drive time for the 2-day FCPS standard to 8 hours

These changes would position us to leverage more cost-effective means to transport First-Class packages via ground rather than using costly air transportation, which is also less reliable due to weather, flight traffic, availability constraints, competition for space, and the added hand-offs involved.

Customers may still opt to use Priority Mail Express and Priority Mail services to ship packages within the contiguous U.S. with a 1-to-3-day service standard.

The Postal Service is more prepared than ever to deliver the holidays.

We are stabilizing our workforce to improve peak performance.
Hiring more than 40,000 employees nationwide for peak season (go to usps.com/careers for more information)
We are deploying state-of-the-art sorting machines at facilities across the nation.
We are redesigning our processing network to improve mail and package flow.
We are shifting mail movement from third-party air transportation to our more reliable surface transportation network.

2

As someone who quit her job months ago, I can say yeah, quit your job. JK. For legal reasons, that’s a joke. But also we should probably be more patient with people who are in public-facing jobs since they’re likely way overworked at this point.

3

Which while we’re talking about drifting at sea, have you heard Microchild’s song Shipwrecked? It’s a dreamy little tune, perfect weekend vibes.