Earlier this week the Postal Service shared another monthly update on the implementation of Regional Transportation Optimization (RTO), the initiative that ends evening collections at post offices. (The update is on the PRC website here, and on Google Docs here.)
During the month of February, RTO activations were confined to the area of Springfield, Illinois (ZIPs 623, 625-627). About 150 more post offices now no longer get the evening collection.
That number of implementations is down considerably from January, when RTO was activated at about 1.940 post offices. It’s also well below the average of 875 per month over the past year — and that’s including two months, April and December, when there were no activations.
It’s not clear why the implementations slowed down so much last month, but it shouldn’t be taken as an indication that the Postal Service is faltering on its commitment to the RTO initiative. It’s entirely possible that the rate of activations this spring will return to January levels.
In any case, at this point, under the RTO and its pilot, Local Transportation Optimization (LTO), the Postal Service has discontinued the evening collection of mail at about 13,500 post offices. Many of these offices serve more than one ZIP Code, so overall, more than 16,000 ZIP Codes have been impacted.
When the RTO is fully implemented, about 23,000 post offices — three-fourths of the 31,000 USPS-operated post offices in the country — will no longer get an end-of-day collection.
Under the RTO, the mail, packages, and Priority items sit overnight in the back of the office, waiting to be collected the next morning, when the day’s mail is dropped off, as opposed to going out the same day to a processing center. The RTO adds a day to delivery times for most destinations, two or three days in the case of weekends and holidays.
The RTO applies to post offices and ZIP codes more than 50 miles from one of the country’s 56 Regional Processing & Distribution Centers (RPDCs) — the main hubs of in the network redesign being implemented as part of the Delivering for America 10-year plan.
Here’s a map showing the progress of the implementations as of April 1, 2026. The blue represents areas where RTO has been implemented; yellow is where it will eventually be implemented. The orange areas are where RTO will not be activated because they’re within 50 miles of a RPDC. In the search box, you can enter a ZIP Code (follow it with USA) or a city, state, then click enter, and the map will zoom to the location. A larger, full-page version is here. The map has been updated to show activations through April 1 2026.
The Postal Service does not inform customers at the impacted post offices that their mail will not be dispatched to a processing center until the next day.
The Postal Service explained why it doesn’t make the RTO status of your post office more accessible in its recent Federal Register rulemaking about how RTO impacts postmarking:
“While some information may be gleaned from an RTO designation, the Postal Service does not want customers to attach unwarranted significance to that designation.” For example, the Postal Service notes, RTO status is only one of several inputs determining service standards for a particular origin-to-destination mailing. Rather than focusing on RTO status, customers should check with the service standard map.
As for postmarking, while RTO status will almost definitely determine whether a letter will get a same-day or next-day postmark, the Postal Service says that it “has never guaranteed that the postmark date would align with the date of mailing.” So, if you need a same-day postmark, ask for one at the retail window.
| Place, State ZIP | RTO Status | New RTO STATUS | Post Office | PO Address | Campus Site | RPDC |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Agawam, MA 01001 | Not RTO | Not RTO | AGAWAM PO | 600 SUFFIELD ST | SPRINGFIELD MA RPDC |
These lists provide the ZIP Codes of the impacted post office, along with the activation date. Based on these lists, we’ve made an RTO Status Checker that shows if a particular ZIP Code or place (city, state) is subject to the RTO or not. If the location has been activated for RTO, the status checker shows the date of activation The status checker is up-to-date as of April 1, 2026.
The full list shown in the status checker is on Google Docs here. The list on which the map and status checker are based is here. For more about the RTO here, visit our RTO Dashboard.
— Steve Hutkins