DeJoy: We are ready and positioned to have a successful peak season
As the busiest mailing and shipping season begins, the United States Postal Service reported new service delivery performance metrics showing strong service performance for First-Class Mail (91.4 %) and Marketing Mail (92.4 %). Service performance for Periodicals continued to trend above 82% for the first seven weeks of the fiscal first quarter.
“We are ready and positioned to have a successful peak season,” said Postmaster General Louis DeJoy. “Americans should feel confident sending their holiday cards, mail and packages with the Postal Service. There is a spirit of excitement throughout the organization and our entire team is ready to deliver the holidays for the nation.”
First quarter-to-date service performance scores covering the period Oct. 1 through Nov. 19 included:
- First-Class Mail: 91.4 percent of First-Class Mail delivered on time against the USPS service standard, an improvement of 2.6 percentage points from the fourth quarter.
- Marketing Mail: 92.4 percent of Marketing Mail delivered on time against the USPS service standard, consistent with performance from the fourth quarter.
- Periodicals: 83.2 percent of Periodicals delivered on time against the USPS service standard, an improvement of .5 percentage points from the fourth quarter.
One of the goals of Delivering for America, the Postal Service’s 10-year plan for achieving financial sustainability and service excellence, is to meet or exceed 95 percent on-time service performance for all mail and shipping products once all elements of the plan are implemented. Service performance is defined by the Postal Service as the time it takes to deliver a mailpiece or package from its acceptance into our system through its delivery, as measured against published service standards.
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.