UPS, one of the world’s largest shipping couriers, is scaling back services in West Marin as part of a nationwide move to reduce rural service. Drivers will no longer make deliveries two days of the week, with packages spending an extra day in transit.

“We are consolidating deliveries in certain ZIP codes to help our drivers more efficiently serve our customers,” said Matthew Skeen, a communications manager for UPS. “This affects less than 1 percent of our deliveries every day, so the vast majority of our customers will not experience any difference in the service they receive.” 

UPS tracking will reflect the adjusted timeframes for affected ZIP codes. Mr. Skeen, who would not confirm if all West Marin’s ZIP codes fall within the new program, said critical health care deliveries using UPS Premier service—a costlier option than standard shipping—will not be affected.

Delivering packages to less populated areas requires more time and resources than servicing denser urban areas, where drive times between stops are shorter and deliveries more numerous. To offset these costs, rural packages often carry added surcharges that can stress small businesses already operating on the margins. But limiting deliveries to a few days per week will complicate things even further. 

“Without overstating it, it’s a damaging blow,” said Stephen Sparks, owner of Point Reyes Books. His store relies on deliveries Mondays through Fridays and receives a total of 50 to 70 boxes a week. The elimination of deliveries two days a week disrupts a workflow he’s finetuned to handle his inventory. 

“To lose two days of shipments leaves us in a vulnerable position—we’re already often forced to pay ‘convenience fees’ for delivery to a remote area, and now we’ll have even less consistent service,” he said. “At a granular level, this means shipments will bunch up on certain days of the week and we’ll have to figure out just where to stash large boxes of books in a small, crowded space.” 

Ninety percent of the bookstore’s vendors ship via UPS, leaving the Point Reyes Station business with few options. Figuring out how to deal with higher volumes of deliveries on certain days and none on others presents a needless challenge, Mr. Sparks said. 

It remains unclear how long the deferral program will persist, and whether deliveries will be moved to different days in weeks with federal holidays.  

Mr. Sparks received no written notice from UPS alerting him to the shift in frequency, only learning about the change from his driver, who seemed reluctant to tell him about it.   

“I don’t think I’d be speaking out of turn to say that he is not pleased with the change,” Mr. Sparks said.

Besides impacting small businesses, the Rural Deferred Program also disrupts delivery drivers in West Marin, who are taking on different routes on days they aren’t coming out to the coast. Mike Yates, president of Teamsters Local 665, the labor union that represents many delivery drivers in the Bay Area, said the program overlooks the job’s human component. Rural routes are typically held by tenured drivers, many of whom have developed close relationships with their customers.  

“Somebody that’s been driving for UPS for 30 years and has given the majority of their adult life to a company should be given some consideration,” he said. “This is a cost-cutting initiative for UPS.”

UPS’s Rural Deferred Program follows AT&T’s efforts to stop providing traditional landline service in California—a move that would leave thousands of West Marin customers without reliable service. After an administrative judge issued an opinion dismissing AT&T’s request in May, the California Public Utilities Commission will consider taking up his recommendation at a meeting on June 20. 

“Regular postal deliveries are vital for rural communities, providing essential access to communications, goods, and services, including medical prescriptions,” said Mary-Ann Warmerdam, an official from the Rural County Representatives of California. “A reduction in this service is an unfortunate example of another disinvestment in rural communities.”

For Mr. Sparks, who learned of UPS’s plan a week after AT&T raised his phone bill considerably, the timing is especially galling. He sees both moves as an example of large corporations lining shareholders’ coffers at the expense of small businesses.   

“Services not just to rural areas will continue to be eroded, and whatever recourse we have will diminish as these companies desperately cling to the growth mindset,” he said. 

On Tuesday, the first day under UPS’s new program, Mr. Sparks reported seeing two UPS trucks making deliveries in town.  

“So instead of one every day,” he said, “we get two today…”