The Postal Service has now implemented Regional Transportation Optimization (RTO) at over 15,000 post offices.
Under RTO, mail is no longer collected at the end of the business day at post offices. Letters are instead bagged and held until the following morning, when letters and packages are collected at the same time the day’s mail is dropped off for delivery. By combining delivery and collection into a single trip, the Postal Service cuts its costs, but this adds a day to delivery times and postmarks.
The latest update shared with the Postal Regulatory Commission on May 8, 2026, showed 15,347 ZIP Codes where the post office has lost the evening collection under RTO.
The list is on the PRC website here. Our expanded version with more information about the post office names, addresses, etc., is on Google docs here. You can check the status of any ZIP code or location using the RTO status checker widget in the sidebar.
The RTO applies to ZIP Codes where the post office is more than 50 miles from one of the country’s 56 Regional Processing & Distribution Centers (RPDC). Post offices within this 50-mile radius are exempt from RTO and continue to get the evening collection.
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