Several changes at the United States Postal Service will impact residents in the Springfield area and could impact residents in the state down the road.

Postmaster General Louis DeJoy has been replaced by David Steiner, a FedEx board member.

Here's a look at what changes are happening and could be happening in the future under Steiner.

Springfield area is seeing changes coming this July

Starting July 14 as part of the “Delivery for America plan", Sangamon County mail will be collected at a slower pace in rural parts.

In places like Athens, mail collection will now only be done once a day when mail is dropped off, as opposed to multiple times a day according to American Postal Workers Union Springfield branch president Johnny Bishop. This means one day delivery will be almost impossible in rural areas.

Another incoming change is Springfield’s processing mill.

After announcing last year all mail from Sangamon County would be processed in St. Louis, Bishop said the new plan calls for mail within the 625 and 626 zip codes to be processed in Springfield while mail outgoing from the state will still be processed in St. Louis. Ballots will not be impacted, however.

“Everything else is staying here,” Bishop said.

In Sangamon County, Bishop estimates 80% of the county is rural, meaning the USPS may be the final leg to walk the mail to doors.

USPS has an interactive map online letting customers see how long it will take to deliver mail from one ZIP code to another.

Steiner's appointment

On May 9, the US Postal Service Board of Governors released a statement Steiner would become the new leader of the postal service.

Steiner will step down from his position on the Board of Directors at FedEx and join the agency in July; his appointment however would create a conflict of interest according to the National Association of Letter Carriers who released a statement on May 6, saying Steiner is an overstep of the current administration handing the agency over to corporate interests.

“As the union representing 295,000 active and retired letter carriers, the NALC strongly condemns the reported selection of David P. Steiner to lead the Postal Service,” ALC President Brian L. Renfroe said in a statement . “Private shippers have been waiting to get USPS out of parcel delivery for years. Steiner’s selection is an open invitation to do just that. During his tenure as Waste Management, Inc.’s CEO, Steiner took a stand against unions. He built his brand on union-busting, slashing jobs, and replacing workers with machines.”

In the May 9 statement, Steiner shared his admiration of the public service and business mission of the USPS, and his belief the branch should be maintained independently.

Under the Trump administration, Steiner will oversee the millions of parcels of mail delivered daily containing life-saving medications to bills and ballots, while doing so without losing money.

Last year, the postal service lost $9.5 billion as private companies like FedEx and UPS outcompete it for some parcel deliveries.

Pending Illinois impact

Unions and lawmakers across the state have voiced their concerns with Steiner's appointment, especially when it comes to a unionized workforce. More than 90 percent of the postal service's workforce.

Congresswoman Nikki Budzinski of Springfield raised her concerns about which direction the postal service may be headed.

“I’ve long fought to strengthen and improve the United States Postal Service for my constituents and have been outspoken against efforts to privatize the Postal Service,” Budzinski said. “Now, we have a new Postmaster General who comes directly from one of the Postal Service’s chief competitors and has a record of opposing the right of workers to join a union.”

Bishop said under Steiner the postal unions are worried about his appointment to the position.

“We're deeply concerned with Mr. Steiner's appointment because as a Union as a whole, we feel it is a conflict of interest, and there's no way he should have been appointed.” Bishop said. “It's somebody that doesn't know our day-to-day operations. And when you bring an outsider in to try to learn that stuff, it's way too difficult. They don't have the people in place to make the decisions and help make the correct decisions.”