US Postal Service To Offer Same Day Delivery Metro Post Service Soon
It’s no secret that the USPS has been struggling financially. Last year, about 3,700 post office around the country faced the threat of closing, and most were eventually be spared by having their operating hours slashed considerably. Even so, there seem to always be rumblings about the USPS dropping Saturday mail delivery.
Further, other delivery services including FedEx and UPS have done strong work, eating into business that the USPS would otherwise get.
Someone over in the USPS headquarters has come up with a plan to become more competitive in the market it created, though. According to a document filed with the Postal Regulatory Commission in Washington, D.C., the USPS will start testing an experimental same-day delivery service called MetroPost on November 12th.
USPS headquarters in Washington, D.C.
Slated to last a year with the option of applying for a second, MetroPost is “a package delivery service offering that will provide customers with same-day delivery from participating locations within a defined metropolitan area”, according to the document.
The idea is to deliver products purchased from e-commerce companies and their associated retailers on the same day the goods are ordered and paid for online or at a retail location--so long as the customer lives within a reasonable distance of the physical location of the product(s) in question.
Cut-off times for purchases will be between 2 and 3pm, package pickups will be after 3pm, and delivery will occur between 4 and 8pm.
The pricing structure for MetroPost is a mystery--that information is redacted in the public version of the filing.
Further, other delivery services including FedEx and UPS have done strong work, eating into business that the USPS would otherwise get.
Someone over in the USPS headquarters has come up with a plan to become more competitive in the market it created, though. According to a document filed with the Postal Regulatory Commission in Washington, D.C., the USPS will start testing an experimental same-day delivery service called MetroPost on November 12th.
USPS headquarters in Washington, D.C.
Slated to last a year with the option of applying for a second, MetroPost is “a package delivery service offering that will provide customers with same-day delivery from participating locations within a defined metropolitan area”, according to the document.
The idea is to deliver products purchased from e-commerce companies and their associated retailers on the same day the goods are ordered and paid for online or at a retail location--so long as the customer lives within a reasonable distance of the physical location of the product(s) in question.
Cut-off times for purchases will be between 2 and 3pm, package pickups will be after 3pm, and delivery will occur between 4 and 8pm.
The pricing structure for MetroPost is a mystery--that information is redacted in the public version of the filing.
