Super-fast Postal Delivery

Believe it or not, that's a side effect of what happens when you selectively shut down some of the regional sorting facilities -- some mail taking certain delivery paths will get delivered much faster!

How many of you remember in the late 1970s through mid-1980s? After they got rid of the domestic airmail rate and most cross-state mail got sent by air, it was not unusual for mail to be delivered next day -- even mail sent half-way across the country.

Then they started introducing the massive regional sorting facilities. Then they started eliminating the special boxes for same/adjacent zip code deliveries. Then they eliminated main sorting facilities, forcing everything to go to the regional sorting facility. They closed the main sorting facility for our city of 2 million+, and take all the mail 50 miles north to the regional facility. From my local post office, it's more than 70 miles away. It takes a day for any mail to get out of that facility, unless the mail gets into that facility by 5AM (then it gets out same day).

Past 20 years saw massive shutdown of main sorting facilities and enlarging of regional sorting facilities. Mail to your next door neighbor could go out a hundred+ miles, come back another hundred+ miles. Rarely was mail ever delivered next day. Even Priority Mail only provided 2-3 day delivery!

Now they are mothballing some of the regional sorting facilities (or bypassing them), some mail is taking a much "straighter" path. And if the mail gets there in time before the next sort batch or the truck leaves, it can get there pretty quickly. Unfortunately, this means for very large first-class mailings, the processing may be slower than going through the regional sorting facilities.

If you hear about some important mail not arriving for weeks/months -- can't un-invent the wheel in one day. If you shut down or down-size a regional sorting facility without properly setting up the more direct delivery routes, stuff is going to get stuck in no-man's land (sometimes for a long time).

The important thing is that it arrived dry and in one piece!