Postal Service Maintains Service Performance Improvements Ahead of Peak Season

The U.S. Postal Service reported updated fiscal fourth quarter service delivery performance that showed maintained improvements versus the third quarter ended June 30 for all First-Class, Marketing and Periodical mail categories.

Quarter-to-date service performance data for July 1 through Sept. 24 included:
*First-Class Mail: Delivered 88.1 percent of First-Class Mail on time against the USPS service standard, an improvement of 0.6 percentage points from the third quarter.
*Marketing Mail: Delivered 92.5 percent of Marketing Mail on time against the USPS service standard, an improvement of 1.5 percentage points from the third quarter.
*Periodicals: Delivered 82.2 percent of Periodicals on time against the USPS service standard, an improvement of 3 percentage points from the third quarter.

Delivering for America, the Postal Service’s 10-year plan for financial sustainability and service excellence, seeks to meet or exceed its goal of 95 percent on-time service performance for all mail and shipping product delivery based on standards as all elements of the plan are implemented.

Service performance is defined by the Postal Service from the acceptance of a mail piece into our system through delivery, measured against published service standards.

The Postal Service continued preparations for the higher delivery demands of the 2021 holiday peak season this week. Ongoing efforts have included a national drive to hire delivery and plant personnel that is expected to result in an additional 40,000 seasonal hires by year-end, the leasing of 7.5 million square feet of additional space across more than 40 multiyear annexes where we are experiencing year-round space constraints due to parcel growth, and the installation of new processing equipment to accommodate higher volumes reflecting customers’ delivery needs. Since April, the Postal Service has installed 70 of 112 new package sorting machines, reflecting the Delivering for America plan’s $40 billion of planned investment over ten years. Additionally, more than 50 package systems capable of sorting large packages are expected to be deployed prior to December. 4.5 million additional packages can be sorted each day utilizing newly deployed package sortation equipment.

Recent machine installations have occurred in Scranton (PA), Pennwood Place (PA), Seminole (FL), Las Vegas (NV), Cincinnati (OH), Richmond (VA), Dallas (TX), Little Rock (AR), Pittsburgh (PA), Syracuse (NY), Ybor City (FL), Kansas City (MO), Harrisburg (PA), Little Rock (AR), Santa Barbara (CA), Jacksonville (FL), Chicago (IL), Lehigh Valley (PA) and Anchorage (AK).

New Service Standards for First-Class Mail and Periodicals Beginning Oct. 1
On October 1, the Postal Service will implement new service standards for First-Class Mail and Periodicals. These new service standards will increase delivery reliability, consistency, and efficiency for our customers and across our network.

Most First-Class Mail (61 percent) and Periodicals (93 percent) will be unaffected by the new service standard changes. Standards for single-piece First-Class Mail traveling within a local area will continue to be two days.

The Postal Service will increase time‐in‐transit standards by 1 or 2 days for certain mail that are traveling longer distances. By doing so, the Postal Service can entrust its ground network to deliver more First-Class Mail, which will lead to greater consistency, reliability, and efficiency that benefits its customers.

The service standard changes are part of our balanced and comprehensive Delivering for America Strategic Plan and will improve service reliability and predictability for customers and enhance the efficiency of the Postal Service network. The service standard changes that we have determined to implement are a necessary step towards achieving our goal of consistently meeting 95 percent service performance.
https://about.usps.com/newsroom/national-releases/2021/0930-usps-service-performance-improvements-continue.htm

Related Posts

Where Are Mass Market Paperbacks Headed? (Publishersweekly.com)

No matter which way you look at it, sales of mass market paperbacks have been in steady decline since 2017. NPD BookScan data shows that unit sales fell 31.5% in 2021 compared to 2017, while the Association of American Publishers put the decline in dollar sales at a more disturbing 42.7% in 2020. Both data sets show more declines occurring in 2022. To be sure, the mass market paperback format has experienced ups and downs in the past. The last time PW wrote about the prospects for mass market paperbacks, in October 2014, the format was trying to recover from the shock it suffered due to the explosion of cheap e-books, especially in such important areas as romance and science fiction and fantasy. (Asked last week, during the DOJ’s trial to prevent PRH from acquiring S&S, whether he had made reductions in title output following the Random House–Penguin merger in 2013, PRH CEO Markus Dohle pointed to adjusting the number of mass market paperbacks published by Berkley/NAL in response to the flood of 99¢ and $1.99 self-published e-books that hit the market, luring away readers of genre fiction.)

Gap Inc. Reports Second Quarter Fiscal 2023 Results

*Net sales of $3.55 billion, down 8% compared to last year, inclusive of an estimated 1-point foreign exchange headwind and 2 percentage points of negative impact from the sale of Gap China. - Comparable sales were down 6%. *Gross margin of 37.6% increased 310 basis points versus last year's reported gross margin and increased 160 basis points versus last year's adjusted gross margin which excluded $58 million in inventory impairment charges. *Reported operating income was $106 million; reported operating margin of 3.0%. *The effective tax rate was negative 8.3%. During the quarter, the company recorded a tax benefit as a result of a transfer pricing settlement related to its sourcing activities. *Reported net income of $117 million; reported diluted earnings per share of $0.32.
Back To Top
×Close search
Search