USPS no longer sending out packages same day as pick up

[theluckyfin1]

My local office here in Iowa had a change that started this Monday that is a bit unbelievable....

Since we have been shipping in the late 90s, we pack & label every day. We have a 2 pickups each day, appx 10am & 3pm. The packages are picked up normally during our mail delivery. Then taken to the local office, the truck picks them up around 5pm & they head to Des Moines, our closest sort facility. They are processed & nearly all of our packages are headed out of state by midnight. Pretty normal, standard for everyone; I think?

But starting this past Monday, they now pick up packages from me as normal; but the outbound truck does not pickup them up at night. Instead, they sit at the local office until the following morning then head to Des Moines. We've had packages so far thru 3 days not showing as scanned as arrived in Des Moines. Quite the cluster.

We have restarted the SCAN forms, but it's a bit unwieldy here on eBay with needing to use bulk shipping to get it. Additionally, as we sell on 8 different sites it isn't exactly efficient.

Mainly looking to see if anyone else out there is seeing a change like this as well. 

[gator08041971]

@theluckyfin1 

This change may be related more to the size and setup of your local hub than anything else.  My local "hub" is nearly 200 miles away.  My local PO however has a set cutoff time for things to go out the same day.  It has to be on the outgoing truck by 1:15PM every afternoon, and 11AM on Saturday. (Eastern).  Otherwise it goes out the next available day by the same times.  If I stick the packages in my mailbox and its picked up, that usually gets it out the same day as well, if I don't run the package to the PO myself.  (I have to travel into town to do that).

But this is going to be different depending on where you are, the local PO rules and things can change all the time obviously.

So no, not seeing a change myself, but with all the upheaval coming in the next few months at USPS, its going to get messy before it gets better I suspect.

You had better hope that the Buyers will be more patient in the coming months though.

[buyselljack2016]

@theluckyfin1 

This is one more money saving step in the "Save the Post Office" plan, or the "Delivering for America" plan

My PO stopped having Saturday packages leaving on Saturday a while back.

Thousands of Post Offices will be phased into what you are now experiencing. 

It depends upon the distance from the regional hub.

It is called "Regional Transportation Optimization".

ETA:   The initiative will eliminate the end-of-day collection at post offices more than 50 miles from one of the nation's 60 Regional Processing & Distribution Centers. About three-fourths of the country’s post offices will be impacted, and almost half of the country's population will fall within a RTO zone.

[lakefor94]

"This is one more money saving step in the "delivering for America" plan."

If it tempers the rate increases we see, that will work. The extra day won't hurt me too much I don't believe. 

I will have to dig in and see if that is happening here. If I drop off USPS shipments 3.5 miles down the road at the pack-n-ship joint, they go to a distibution center in north Dallas.

If it gets picked up from my mailbox,  they go to a distribution center just west of downtown Dallas.

Curious to see if they are doing next day transports here as well, every day or certain days. 

[chevymontecarlo88]

April 1 they will be implementing changes. 

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USPS Enhancing Service Standards 

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[lakefor94]

I checked all my USPS for March. The two towns that handle my shipments both still get them into a Dallas distribution center, same day, 6 days a week. So no change here, yet. 

[truckflow]

We have daily bulk pickup also. Depending on what time the carrier gets back to the local post office, sometimes it will go out same day. Other times it will be 2-3 days before a scan.  There has also been an uptick in packages sitting at the post office for 2-3 weeks before an initial scan. We used to bag everything  until our carrier refused to take the bags provided to us by USPS. So now it's just a waiting game hoping the carriers do their job.

[carlmarxx]

What about Priority Mail ,are you seeing any delays ?     I been  recommending  sellers to hand the packages over to the USPS employee's hot little hands for the acceptance   scan .  Ebay does let  the buyers open INR  on 3rd day if no acceptance scan per Buyer protection policy   . that is why I don't and never do drop off's  and wait in line  to get them scanned.   

[krazzykats]

We had this for quite a while. 

I have to have my packages to the post office by 3pm, for them to be leave town at 10:30am the next morning. 

If I miss the 3pm cutout, then a package won't leave town for two days.  I have grown used to it, but initially it caught me off guard.

Weekends are the longest wait, if I get an order Saturday night, it will not leave town until Tuesday morning because the Monday cutoff is 1pm Saturday...

Expect a bit slower, I'm averaging about 4 days slower than 4 years ago...I am in a rural area only two blocks from my local post office.

Delivery for Ground Advantage to Florida, 7-9 days.

[worldcoinauctions]

I've been notified this will impact our local PO next month. Instead of 2 trucks a day to the hub only one leaving at 10am.  Won't affect me much since I advertise 2nd business day shipping and usually ship same or next day anyway.

[wirkaholic]

@theluckyfin1  We've noticed the same thing here.  We have daily pickup and our guy always scans every package.  They used to be on their way to the next hub that evening but have recently started going out on the next day to the hub.   We do have a two day handling time just because usps is so messed up right now and it allows for more time.  So it's not just you.  With all the changes taking place we'll just have to keep an eye on deliveries. 

I do wish Ebay would change the shipping estimates for Ground Advantage.  Most of our Ground has a 3 day estimate displayed, which we all know hardly ever happens.  We find even shipments to the next town can take 5 days.  I think if they would put all Ground 5-7 day delivery would help ease the stress on both buyers and sellers.   I've seen packages take 10 days to get to their destination.   It takes a lot to keep customers informed and stay on top of shipments.   We've been lucky so far.  Others not so much.  This year will be a rollercoaster of shipping problems with all the changes coming.  I'm hoping they fix this mess.

[simba6]

I had to switch to three day handling to deal with that.

[buyselljack2016]

"Regional Transportation Optimization".

Sort of a backward thing.

Reducing the # of trips that the contract vehicles make while degrading service.

"Optimization".

[ltldpr]

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@buyselljack2016 wrote:

"Regional Transportation Optimization".

Sort of a backward thing.

Reducing the # of trips that the contract vehicles make while degrading service.

"Optimization".

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Don't forget the rate increases!

Pay more, get less or at least get it a lot more slowly.

[pennpicker]

I switched to 4 day handling for the same reason and it is still barely enough to stave off overly ambitious expectations. 😞