RTO Dashboard
In October 2023, the Postal Service began implementing an initiative called Regional Transportation Optimization. Under the RTO, mail is no longer collected from post offices at the end of the day for transport to a processing center. Instead, collection occurs the following morning, when the day’s mail is dropped over for delivery. Postmarks are applied when the mail is scanned at the processing center, so ending the evening collection not only slows down the mail, it also delays the postmark.
As of June 1, 2026, RTO had been implemented at over 15,000 post offices. By November, it may be implemented at several hundred more.
Because the RTO slows down the mail, the Postal Service was required to request an advisory opinion from the Postal Regulatory Commission. The Advisory Opinion was issued on January 31, 2025.
Source: USPS OIG
The RTO eliminates the end-of-day collection at post offices more than 50 miles from one of the nation's 60 Regional Processing & Distribution Centers. About three-fourths of the country’s post offices will be impacted, and almost half of the country's population will fall within a RTO zone.
For the latest news about the initiative, see "The Postal Service slows down the mail again" (Sept. 17, 2024) and "The Postal Service introduces new service standards: What it means for your ZIP code" (Oct. 22, 2024).
RTO Activations
| 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 |
The RTO Status Checker shows if a particular place is subject to the RTO. Just type in the ZIP Code or city, state, and hit enter on your keypad. If the location has been activated for RTO, the status checker shows the date of activation. If the location is subject to RTO but hasn't been activated yet, the checker shows RTO TBA. If the location is more than 50 miles from a RPDC and ineligible for RTO, the checker will show Not RTO. The status checker is up-to-date as of May 1, 2026.
Below is a list shared with the PRC, along with additional information about the post office addresses, etc. The original list is on the PRC website here; our enhanced list is on Google docs here. There's more about the activation process in this post and this post. xxx
Here's a map showing the implementations as of August 3, 2026, with blue indicating areas where RTO has been implemented, yellow where it will be, and orange where RTO does not apply.
The Postal Service introduces new service standards: What it means for your ZIP code
October 22, 2024
The Postal Service has filed a proposal with the Postal Regulatory Commission to revise the service standards for First Class Mail and other market-dominant products.
Under a new initiative called Regional Transportation Optimization (RTO), the mail at any post office more than 50 miles from one of the country’s 59 Regional Processing and Distribution Centers (RPDCs) will no longer be collected at the end of the day. It will instead be collected the next morning, when the mail is dropped off at the post office for carrier delivery. In most cases, that will add a day to the current service standard.
More than 24,300 of the country's 33,700 post offices will be subject to the RTO initiative. Almost half the country's population live in areas that will be impacted by RTO. Most of those areas are rural, as discussed in this previous post.
Under the proposal, delivery times for presort mail, as well as single-piece mail sent from within 50 miles of a RPDC, will remain the same or, in some cases, improve by a day.
The Postal Service will eventually make available an online lookup tool that allows one to find the service standard for any origin ZIP code to destination ZIP code. That may be months away, however. In the meantime, one can find the proposed service standard for First Class mail for any 5-digit ZIP code and 3-digit destination using this Service Standard Finder. It's definitely not official, but it's based on data shared by the USPS with the PRC a couple of weeks ago.
Finding the service standard takes two steps. First, enter the origin 5-digit ZIP in the search box (and hit "enter" or "return" on your computer). The Finder will indicate if it's an RTO office or not, and it will provide the first three digits for the RPDC.
Second, enter the RPDC ZIP3 and the 3-digit ZIP for the destination in the form 000-000. (The Finder will only show results if the first ZIP in the pair is for an RPDC; don't use the ZIP3 for the origin post office.)
The Finder will show the service standard for both non-RTO post offices and RTO offices. The non-RTO standard applies to all presort First Class Mail sent within the RPDC region and to single-piece sent from within 50 miles of an RPDC. The RTO standard applies to all single-piece mail sent from outside 50 miles of the RPDC.
Note that there are some RTO post offices for which local mail will take 2 days rather than 3, as explained in this post (see Exceptions).
Read more about the proposed changes in this post.
Service Standard Finder
| ZIP | RTO | RPDC |
|---|---|---|
| 01001 | NO | 011 |
| oRPDC-dZIP3 | Current SS | New SS RTO NO | New SS RTO YES |
|---|---|---|---|
| 871-813 | 2 | 2 | 3 |
The Advisory Opinion Docket
The docket for N2024-1 includes about 300 filings: the Request for an Advisory Opinion, five USPS testimonies, two rebuttal testimonies (a third from the APWU was withdrawn due to errors), thirteen briefs and statements of opinion, a letter from members of Congress, the transcript of the proceedings (which includes the hearing), innumerable interrogatories and responses to interrogatories, motions and orders, library references of spreadsheets, and so on. All of the filings can be found here. Below are links to some of the main documents:
Testimonies:
- Postal Service witnesses
- Rebuttal Testimonies
Briefs and Statements of Position:
- APWU
- Association for Postal Commerce
- Joel A. Black
- Douglas F. Carlson
- Greeting Card Association
- Steve Hutkins
- National Postal Policy Council
- National Rural Electric Cooperative Association (NRECA)
- News/Media Alliance
- Package Shippers Association
- Initial Brief of the United States Postal Service
- PRC Public Representative
- Virginia, Maryland & Delaware Association of Electric Cooperatives
- Letter from Members of Congress to Chairman Kubayanda on United States Postal Service (USPS) Delivering for America (DFA) Plan
- Reply Brief of the United States Postal Service
- Reply Brief of the Public Representative
Advisory Opinion Additional Documents
The PRC docket containing material about the proposed changes under review for an advisory opinion is N2024-1, and the filings can be found here.
Implementation of the Postal Service’s RTO slowed in February
Postal Service Implements Nationwide Changes to Mail Service
Understanding the new USPS service standards and how they apply to your ZIP Code
Postal Service to implement RTO and new service standards despite PRC recommendations
USPS Responds to PRC Advisory Opinion on Delivering for America
USPS Pre-filing conference & webinar on RTO and service standard changes (Sept. 5, 2024)
The Optimization plan as discussed in the PRC’s Public Inquiry Docket
Postal Service to hold webinar about proposal to end evening collections and relax service standards (again)
Other Government Documents
Mapping the changes
The map below is from the USPS pre-filing conference on Sept. 5, 2024; the more detailed maps are based on USPS filings with the PRC for the advisory opinion N2024-1. For more details, see "The Postal Service slows down the mail again" (Sept. 17, 2024) and "The Postal Service introduces new service standards: What it means for your ZIP code" (Oct. 22, 2024). Interactive versions of these maps can be found here.
Source: USPS webinar (9/5/2024)
