U.S. Postal Service’s Detour Decade: First-Class Mail Plummets, Package Volume Spikes (Infographic)

Even before this summer’s mail delays, first-class mail service had been sharply deteriorating. Today, it takes close to a day longer to deliver a letter than it did in 2012. The key reasons for this are the U.S. Postal Service has twice lowered delivery standards (in 2012 and 2015) while aggressively pursuing packages. The Postal Service needs a fundamental restructuring so that first-class mail service improves and so that costs are better understood and delineated between the separate mail and package services.

The infographic is available as a PDF here. A related report from September 23 is available here.