The United States Postal Service will start implementing its new service standards beginning Friday, a move that may result in a delay of mail delivery across the country, according to US media reports.

The new mail delivery system is a part of United States Postmaster General Louis DeJoy‘s decade-long plan for the federal agency. The plan, which was announced earlier this year, will include prolonged first-class mail delivery times and shorten the post office hours, according to reports from CNN.

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In a local area, the standard delivery time for a single piece of first-class mail will continue to be two days, Kim Frum, spokesperson for the United States Postal Service said. The spokesperson added, that the postal services would not be impacted for about 60% of the first-class mail.

However, mail received by the United States Postal Service that needs to be delivered far from the posting point will take longer due to the newly instated increased transit time policy.

Frum said in a statement, “These changes would position us to leverage more cost-effective means to transport First-Class packages via ground rather than using costly air transportation, which is also less reliable due to weather, flight traffic, availability constraints, competition for space, and the added hand-offs involved”, according to reports from CNN.

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United States Postmaster General DeJoy, who has been retained from the previous presidential administration, told reporters earlier this year that it “takes a holistic view of the organization and is meant to elevate our business, competitiveness and our ability to meet the needs of the nation”, CNN reported.

The new postal services policy, which has been tagged as “Delivering for America”, was announced earlier this year in March.

The new plan promises the fleet of the postal services to be more modern and energy friendly.