This year, the work of thousands of letter and packaging delivery personnel at the UPS and UPS could be cut, both hoping to cut costs and streamline operations, which is the impact of President Trump’s ripples of tariffs and digital innovation in the economy.
However, the meaning of this for those who own the package to ship or eagerly wait for important bills or letters may depend on where they live.
Here is what we know so far:
How much work is being cut?
Last week, the CEO of United Parcel Service announced that the company will lay off 20,000 jobs this year, accounting for 4% of its global workforce and plans to close 73 distribution facilities by the end of June.
“We are performing the largest network reconfiguration in UPS history,” the company said in a statement. “This strategic plan will optimize our network’s ability to align with expected quantity levels and increase productivity through additional automation.”
CNN said the closure is part of a long-term plan to modernize operations of its distribution centers, including adding automation in all or part to its 400 facilities. Earlier this year, UPS announced an agreement with its largest client, Amazon, to reduce business-related businesses by more than 50% in the second half of 2026.
UPS CEO Carol Tomésaid on a recent conference call. “The macro environment may be uncertain, but through our actions we will become a stronger and more flexible UPS.”
The union of teams representing thousands of UPS workers said it would fight any cuts that hurt their members.
“United Parcel Services is contractually obliged to create 30,000 teams under our current national agreement,” Teamsters President Sean M. O’Brien said in a statement.
“If UPS wants to continue to reduce the size of the company’s management, then team players won’t get in the way,” he said. “But if the company intends to breach our contract or make any attempt to pursue hard-working, high-paying team work, then UPS will fight.”
In March, General Louis Dejoy, the then-in-chief, announced that the U.S. Postal Service would cut 10,000 positions and cut the Postal Service’s budget with the help of Elon Musk’s so-called government efficiency division, a letter sent to members of Congress showed. Musk’s group is not a government agency.
The move was due to the post office’s losses of nearly $100 billion and expected to lose $200 billion.
As of 2024, USPS has 533,724 employees.
The Postal Service has been working to modernize its operational efficiency, service reliability and financial stability with the U.S. plans offered by the U.S., launched in 2021.
Last year, the 10-year plan was updated to revisit the initial goals, highlight changes and develop plans for future plans. In the updated report, the Post Office noted that the number of mail collected on its routes through its post offices and operators has dropped dramatically over the past decade.
The number of letters and postcards collected fell from 57 billion in 1997 to 12 billion in 2023, a decrease of 80%.
Now, the Postal Service is reconfiguring its collection and shipping process to address that decline. The mail is currently being shipped twice at the processing facility and at the post office, once in the morning and in the afternoon. The report said these delivery will be once a day in the morning.
“This will optimize our regional transportation, cut unnecessary routes and accelerate processing,” the report said.
How will this affect the estimated lead time?
Despite cutting 20,000 jobs and automation efforts in 400 facilities, UPS says changes to its operations will not affect the customer experience.
But for the U.S. Postal Service, some changes should be expected.
The changes will be divided into two phases, the first phase begins on April 1 and the second phase begins on July 1.
Delivery time for top-notch mails, including letters and postcards, will be maintained for one to five days.
Priority delivery time for mail couriers, the service allows customers to ship 70 pounds of packaging to any state, which will now take one to three days. Previously, it was between one and two days, depending on the day the item was deleted.
The end-to-end marketing emails that most people call spam and delivery of magazines and newspapers will be delivered faster, but USPS does not provide specific details.
“As with mail, most competitive shipping products will retain the same service standards, some packages will be faster and some packages will be slightly slower,” the report said.
You can learn more about how long it takes to expect a package to arrive at your destination by visiting your local post office or checking the Service Commitment tool online. The tool requires where and mailing the package to which date and time; it generates an average expected delivery time based on that information.
