USPS Maintains High Service Performance Scores During Busiest Mailing and Shipping Week of the Year

The United States Postal Service reported new delivery performance metrics for the 11th week of the first quarter for fiscal year 2023. The average time to deliver a mailpiece or package across the postal network was 2.5 days for the eighth consecutive week even as mailing and shipping traffic increased.

FY23 first quarter service performance scores covering Oct. 1 through Dec. 16 included:

• First-Class Mail: 91.6% of First-Class Mail delivered on time against the USPS service standard, a decrease of 1.6 percentage points from the fiscal fourth quarter. The current data reflects a year over year increase of 1.5 percentage points compared to the same period in the FY22 peak holiday season.
• Marketing Mail: 94.1% of Marketing Mail delivered on time against the USPS service standard, a slight decrease of 0.7 percentage points from the fiscal fourth quarter. The current data reflects a year over year increase of 2.3 percentage points compared to the same period in the FY22 peak holiday season.
• Periodicals: 85.3% of Periodicals delivered on time against the USPS service standard, a decrease of 1.6 percentage points from the fiscal fourth quarter. The current data reflects a year over year increase of 4.1 percentage points compared to the same period in the FY22 peak holiday season.

The Postal Service’s preparedness for the holiday season reflects strategic investments and operational precision improvements made as part of the Delivering for America plan over the past two years. In November, the organization completed the installation of 137 new package sorting machines across its network in which expanded daily package processing capacity to 60 million. USPS installed a total of 249 new processing machines since the launch of the Delivering for America plan in March 2021, part of a $40 billion investment in the postal network.

Additional holiday hiring initiatives include stabilizing the USPS permanent workforce by converting more than 100,000 workers to full time roles since the beginning of 2021(with more than 41,000 part time workers converted to full time since January 2022), and successfully hiring an additional 20,000 seasonal employees.

Upcoming 2022 Holiday Shipping Deadlines

The Postal Service recommends the following mailing and shipping deadlines for expected delivery by Dec. 25 to domestic addresses and Air/Army Post Office/Fleet Post Office/Diplomatic Post Office (APO/FPO/DPO) addresses*:

Dec. 23 — Priority Mail Express* service

*Not a guarantee, unless otherwise noted. Dates are for estimated delivery before Dec. 25. Actual delivery date may vary depending on origin, destination, Post Office acceptance date and time and other conditions. Some restrictions apply. For Priority Mail Express shipments mailed Dec. 22 through Dec. 25, the money-back guarantee applies only if the shipment was not delivered, or delivery was not attempted, within two business days.

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