Service Performance Holds Across All Mail Categories As Postal Network Continues To Operate Smoothly With Increased Mail and Package Volume

The United States Postal Service reported new service delivery performance metrics showing service performance holding for First-Class Mail, Marketing Mail and Periodicals through the first ten weeks of the fiscal first quarter. The postal network continues to operate smoothly across the country as an influx of mail and packages enter the mail and shipping stream for holiday delivery.

This is the last week to get holiday gifts and greetings in the mail by the recommended deadlines. Since Dec. 6, customer traffic at Post Office locations has been steadily increasing and this week is expected to be the busiest week of the holiday mailing and shipping season.

The Postal Service anticipates that between 850 million and 950 million packages will be delivered for the holidays. The total number of letters, cards and packages processed and delivered between Thanksgiving and New Year’s Day is estimated to be more than 12 billion. Between Nov. 25 and Dec. 13, the Postal Service accepted 6.5 billion mail and packages for delivery.

First quarter-to-date service performance scores covering the period Oct. 1 through Dec. 10 included:
*First-Class Mail: 90.6 percent of First-Class Mail delivered on time against the USPS service standard, an improvement of 2.1 percentage points from the fourth quarter.
*Marketing Mail: 92.1 percent of Marketing Mail delivered on time against the USPS service standard, consistent with performance from the fourth quarter.
*Periodicals: 82.0 percent of Periodicals delivered on time against the USPS service standard, a slight decrease of .74 percent compared to performance from the fourth quarter.

Overall, average days to deliver a mailpiece across the network was 2.7 days.
more at: https://about.usps.com/newsroom/national-releases/2021/1216-usps-continues-to-operate-smoothly-with-increased-mail-and-package-volume.htm