USPS: Service performance is steadily improving – particularly for Marketing Mail

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

Quarter-to-date service performance data for July 1 through August 20 included:

• First-Class Mail: Delivered 88.8 percent of First-Class Mail on time against the USPS service performance standard, an improvement of 1.3 percentage points from the third quarter.
• Marketing Mail: Delivered 92.7 percent of Marketing Mail on time against the USPS service performance standard, an improvement of 1.7 percentage points from the third quarter.
• Periodicals: Delivered 82.1 percent of Periodicals on time against the USPS service standard, an improvement of 2.9 percentage points from the third quarter.

Additionally, for the week of August 14-20, the Postal Service achieved its highest level of service performance recorded for the Marketing Mail category in five years, matching a previous high (93.9%) recorded in August 2016.

Since pandemic lows, the Postal Service’s demand for and delivery of Marketing Mail has experienced a recovery. In the third quarter, revenue for Marketing Mail rose approximately by $1.0 billion, or 42.2 percent, on volume growth of approximately 4.3 billion pieces, or 38.6 percent, versus a year ago. Marketing Mail, which has historically been a resilient marketing channel, has reestablished its value with many U.S. businesses as the economy has continued to recover from last year’s pandemic-triggered downturn and customers have realized benefits from investments in data and technology.

“Service performance is steadily improving – particularly for Marketing Mail, a leading indicator of our performance – and a growing number of our customers are experiencing the benefits,” said CEO and Postmaster General Louis DeJoy.  “Still, we continue to work tirelessly to improve and upgrade our network, invest in and hire more people, and increase the reliability of our service to the American public, as we stay focused on achieving financial sustainability and service excellence.”