Amy Klobuchar is pressing USPS to abandon the Regional Transportation Optimization plan after saying Amy Klobuchar USPS mail delivery is already slowing in rural Minnesota. In a letter to Postmaster General David Steiner, she said the change is affecting residents and businesses across the state.
Klobuchar said the plan removes end-of-day collections at many post offices more than 50 miles from regional processing hubs. She said outgoing mail now stays overnight and is picked up the next day during regular delivery routes, which she said adds at least one day to delivery times in many communities.
Amy Klobuchar and David Steiner
She said the changes hit northeastern Minnesota and other rural parts of the state, with a wider effect across the Northland. Klobuchar said people in those areas depend on the Postal Service for prescriptions, paychecks, bills and local newspapers. She also said some Minnesota newspapers have already reported delivery disruptions as the RTO changes continue to be implemented nationwide.
“What this means is that we will have a day loss because most people are putting their mail in and they expect it’s going to be picked up that day. And that’s not going to happen anymore,” Klobuchar said. She added, “I completely oppose this,” and warned, “When you’re trying to get a prescription that’s been mailed from somewhere, it’s going to be a day late.”
Regional Transportation Optimization
Klobuchar criticized the Postal Service for designating Fargo and the Twin Cities as regional hubs while excluding Duluth and Rochester. She said that leaves many surrounding communities across the Arrowhead region, Iron Range and North Shore outside the 50-mile radius set under the plan.
USPS has said the Regional Transportation Optimization initiative is intended to streamline operations and reduce costs nationwide, with a rollout that aims to save roughly $650 million annually. Klobuchar said the Postal Regulatory Commission raised concerns about the plan’s effectiveness and whether it would produce significant cost savings, and she said the Postal Advisory Board said the experiment did not even save money.
Northland mail delivery
She said public pressure may ultimately be needed to convince USPS to reconsider the policy. For residents in rural Minnesota, the immediate issue is the extra day baked into the new collection schedule: mail placed in a rural post office now waits until the next day’s route instead of moving out the same evening.
