May 17, 2021 

VICE PRESIDENTS, AREA RETAIL AND DELIVERY OPERATIONS
VICE PRESIDENTS, REGIONAL PROCESSING OPERATIONS

SUBJECT:  Operations Policy for the Memorial Day Holiday, 
                    Monday, May 31, 2021

This memorandum provides general operating policy and holiday planning guidance for the upcoming 2021 Memorial Day Holiday (observed on Monday, May 31st).  Service levels for this holiday are displayed in Exhibit 125.22 of the Postal Operations Manual (POM).

Delivery Operations

All offices should carefully review their staffing plans for this holiday and make adjustments as necessary to meet the needs of their communities. 

•	For planning purposes, Post Offices should use recent mail volumes, and adjust for local circumstances.
•	Make arrangements for dispatch of packages received through lobby deposit points, including Self Service Kiosks (SSKs). 

Saturday, May 29:  

•	Normal (Saturday) service levels will be provided in delivery and collection operations.  All delivery units should take action prior to this date to assure that units are in a current status.
  
Sunday, May 30:  

•	Normal (Sunday) service levels will be provided in delivery and collection operations including Sunday/Holiday Priority Mail Express and Sunday/Holiday Same Day Package Delivery (hub and spoke structure).  
•	Area and District offices should verify compliance to the Sunday Staffing SOP and utilize their LOCs and HCUs to manage hub offices.  
•	EAS must use Delivery Management Systems (DMS), when available, to confirm proper scanning and delivery of Sunday parcels has been completed at all hub locations.  
•	All delivery units should take action prior to this date to confirm that units are in a current status.

Memorial Day Holiday, “Widely Observed,” Monday, May 31:
 
•	There will be no regular delivery service except for Holiday Premium Priority Mail Express, Sunday/Holiday Same Day Package Delivery (hub and spoke structure).  
•	Area and District offices should use Sunday Staffing SOP on this Holiday and utilize LOCs and HCUs to manage hub offices.  
•	EAS must use Delivery Management Systems (DMS) to ensure proper scanning and delivery of Same Day parcels has been completed at all hub locations.  
•	Sunday eligible Night Owls should be staffed Sunday night into Monday for holiday delivery.  Any additional Night Owl sites will be detailed, and a list will be sent out once confirmed by our customers.

Tuesday, June 1:
  
•	Return to normal service levels.  
•	Delivery managers and supervisors should plan for additional mail volume and packages for delivery after the holiday.  
•	Review past performance and work with In-Plant Support and Networks on transportation to ensure offices are staffed appropriately to have carriers leave and return on time.  

Retail Operations

•	Review staffing plans and adjust accordingly to meet demands of community.

•	Ensure Self Service Kiosks (SSK’s) are fully stocked and mailing supplies (Priority Mailboxes, labels, etc.) are available.

•	Ensure current holiday closing “door cling” signage is displayed

Saturday, May 29:  

•	Normal (Saturday) service levels will be adhered to in retail operations.  Retail staffing should be adjusted based on projected workload.  

Sunday, May 30:  

•	Normal service levels in offices regularly open on Sunday

Memorial Day Holiday, Monday, May 31: 

•	Retail services will be not available, except in those facilities normally open on this holiday. Each Area should provide Director, Retail Operations with a list of locations that have approval to be open.  Please reference Postal Operations Manual (POM) 125.22 “National Holidays”.  
  
Tuesday, June 1:  

•	Return to normal service levels.  Retail staffing should be adjusted based on recent sales trend and projected workload.

Processing Operations

This Labor Day holiday presents an opportunity to consolidate and compress plant operations to generate savings while maintaining service performance levels.  In order to take advantage of the savings opportunity, please adhere to the following guidelines:
•	Do Not Combine First Class with Priority
•	Use the variance tools and the Run Plan Generator (RPG) for staffing operations.  
•	Advance Blue & Orange Marketing Mail for Saturday delivery.
•	Sites cancelling on Monday will be determined locally / by Area as well as decisions for Tuesday early collection plans.  (See below instructions relative to processing and dispatching Commercial Mailings).
•	Inhibit Delivery Point Sequence (DPS) sort program regeneration prior to the holiday and re-establish afterwards.
•	Recommend processing First Pass (918) on Saturday afternoon/evening.  Finalization will be Monday prior to Second Pass (919). 
•	Ensure only one DPS run on Tuesday morning (no double runs of DPS on Tuesday).  
•	Utilize a RPG model for DPS processing on Saturday night, Sunday and Monday that ensures an early DPS dispatch for Tuesday delivery.
•	Ensure on-time or early clearance of FC SPRs on Friday & Saturday to avoid surface volume rolling over to Monday and Tuesday.
•	Evaluate the processing of Outgoing Priority on the day of the holiday to avoid late clearance on Tuesday.  (Sites not processing Priority on the holiday must create an early collection plan to start outgoing operations earlier)
•	Assign Scan Where You Band (SWYB) to avoid VAP issues to THS.

Processing and Dispatch of Commercial Mailings

Specific planning activities should include:

•	Coordination with Business Mail Entry Unit (BMEU) Managers
•	Coordination with Detached Mail Units
•	Coordination with Business Service Network Managers
•	Notifying Commercial Mailers of BMEU holiday hours and assurance that mail which is entered will be processed and dispatched
•	Adjusting Operating Plans and RPGs to include the anticipated Commercial Mail volumes
•	Ensuring that all processed mail is dispatched on scheduled transportation on Saturday night and Monday morning
•	Ensure communication to field of FedEx and Dispatch Plan

Plant managers must commit that Parcel Return Service (PRS-569xx) operations will be staffed and all returns sorted and available to PRS partners as agreed.

Plant managers must ensure that Integrated Operating Plans (IOPs) between the BMEUs and Operations are updated to ensure timely induction, processing and dispatch of mail presented to the BMEU prior to and on holidays.  BMEU managers must ensure that all staff at both the BMEUs and the Detached Mail Units are familiar with and execute their operations in accordance with the IOP.  Local collection and cancellation plans must be coordinated with associate offices and must support achievement of 24-hour clock indicators.  Managers and supervisors must plan for anticipated increased volumes after the holiday.  It is vital to ensure all mail is finalized, prepared for assignment, and dispatched on the appropriate transportation network.  

Plants must make plans to assure that destinating two and three-day volumes are processed to meet service goals before and after the holiday.  All missorted, missent, return-to-sender and Postal Automated Redirection System (PARS) and Flat PARS volumes must be identified, finalized, prepared for assignment and dispatched on the appropriate transportation network on Saturday.  The 24-hour clock indicators for the Managed Mail Program on hand will be useful in monitoring the success of this plan. 
 
Reductions in FAST holiday constraints or facility closures will not be approved; every site must maintain appointment availability.  Plants need to ensure timely acceptance of drop shipments.  Please ensure that the local FAST facility coordinator contact information is current.  The FAST Help Desk will be authorized to contact local Plant Managers directly to resolve urgent acceptance issues.

Network Distribution Centers (NDCs) also have an opportunity to consolidate and compress operations to generate savings while maintaining service performance levels.  NDCs must utilize the RPG tool to staff operations.  Tier 2 NDCs must ensure that all outgoing volume from Friday
and Saturday retail receipts are finalized and dispatched on the appropriate network transportation on the following day.  

All NDCs must ensure destinating parcel volume received between 16:00 Friday and 16:00 Monday is available for delivery Tuesday morning.  NDCs must schedule drop shipment acceptance hours to ensure timely induction, processing and dispatch of mail.

If there is a need to deviate from this guidance, please work through the appropriate office for an exception.

Maintenance Operations

The Maintenance Technical Support Center (MTSC) will assist mail processing sites with planned power outages in accordance with the following knowledge base (KB) article.

Facility Planned Power Outages
MTSC KB0012715

Refer to the Mail Processing Emergency Response Checklists for critical actions and tasks.

Additional Information

•	For all power outages, create a ticket on the MTSC Web Ticket Portal for the affected site and provide all relevant information about the outage.
•	For planned power outages, sites must submit a Change Request (CR) form to FAP_Power_Outage_Notification@usps.gov.  The CR form is available in the MTSC KB.

Upon receipt of the MTSC web ticket, the MTSC Network Operations Application Support (NOAS) team will contact Engineering to:

•	Schedule graceful shutdowns of IDS, NDSS, and NGTC for planned outages.
•	Validate functionality after power is restored for all outages.

If a system has issues going online after power is restored, then create a new ticket for the affected system and request NST assistance.

Non-Emergency Project Requests

MTSC will provide phone support 24 hours a day through the holiday, but will curtail all 
non-emergency support activities to ensure sufficient Help Desk coverage during the holiday scheduling period.  Normal projects and supplemental support activities will resume in the week following the holiday.

International Service Center Operations

This widely-observed holiday presents an opportunity to match processing to workload to ensure full advantage of available lift and ensure service expectations are met.  Please adhere to the following guidelines:
•	Use the Run Plan Generator (RPG) for staffing operations.  
•	Clear any delayed volumes and advance mail where possible. 
•	Ensure coordination with Customs & Border Protection (CBP) to provide sufficient staffing to avoid backlogs.
•	Ensure Customs belts are staffed sufficiently to maximize efficiency.
•	Ensure on-time clearance of FC SPRs on Friday and Saturday to avoid surface volume rolling over to Monday and Tuesday.
•	Ensure processing and dispatch of Priority throughout the holiday weekend to avoid exceeding lift on Wednesday.
•	Ensure all tours properly segregate, process and report CBP holds each day.
•	Ensure domestic offload sites return CBP HOLDS that are captured and present them to the USPIS.

Logistics Operations

Air Transportation Network

FedEx will operate a Special Sort operation on Tuesday, June 1, 2021.  Participating Origin airstop information will be provided later in a follow up email. 

Holiday		Day of Week	Date	Day (x1)	Night (x67)	Comments	
	 	
Day before		Sunday	05/30/2021	YES	NO	 	
Memorial Day		Monday	05/31/2021	NO	NO	No Day/Night-turn on Memorial Day	
Day after		Tuesday	06/01/2021	YES	YES	Special Sort 	

UPS will operate in accordance with planned routes in Logistics Order Agreement (LOA) and facilities should verify routes in SAMS. 

Holiday	Tender Day	Date	UPS Operations	Comments	
 	
Day before	Sunday	05/30/2021	NO	 	
Memorial Day	Monday	05/31/2021	NO	No Mail Tender on Memorial Day	
Day after	Tuesday	06/01/2021	NO	No Mail Tender on day after Memorial Day	

Supplemental Networks (Aloha, Amazon, Amerijet, Kalitta, & NAC): Only Amazon will operate over the holiday period (5/30/2021 only).

Holiday	Day of Week	Date	Aloha	Amazon	Amerijet	Kalitta	NAC 	
Day before	Sunday	05/30/2021	NO	YES	NO	NO	NO	
Memorial Day	Monday	05/31/2021	NO	NO	NO	NO	NO	
Day after	Tuesday	06/01/2021	NO	NO	NO	NO	NO	

TSA K9 screening and 3PK9 screening will operate as follows:

International Transportation Plan

Import/Export Plan for the ISC
Holiday	Day of 
Week	Date	JFK 
Export	JFK 
Import	ORD
Export	ORD
Import	MIA
Export	MIA
Import	
Day before	Sunday	5/30/2021	YES	YES	YES	YES	YES	YES	
Memorial Day	Monday	5/31/2021	YES	YES	YES	YES	YES	YES	
Day after	Tuesday	6/1/2020	YES	YES	YES	YES	YES	YES	

Holiday	Day of 
Week	Date	LAX
Export	LAX 
Import	SFO
Export	SFO
Import	
Day before	Sunday	5/30/2021	YES	YES	YES	YES	
Memorial Day	Monday	5/31/2021	YES	YES	YES	YES	
Day after	Tuesday	6/1/2021	YES	YES	YES	YES	

Customs CBP opening plan and hours at the ISC
Holiday	Day of 
Week	Date	JFK 
CBP open	JFK 
CBP hours	ORD
CBP open	ORD
CBP hours	MIA
CBP open	MIA
CBP hours	
Day before	Sunday	5/30/2021	YES	24/7	YES	24/7	YES	08:00 - 16:00	
Memorial Day	Monday	5/31/2021	YES	24/7	YES	24/7	YES	08:00 - 16:00	
Day after	Tuesday 	6/1/2021	YES	24/7	YES	24/7	YES	08:00 - 16:00	
									
Holiday	Day of 
Week	Date	LAX
CBP open	LAX 
CBP hours	SFO
CBP open	SFO 
CBP hours	
Day before	Sunday	5/30/2021	YES	Normal Closure	YES	07:30 – 15:00	
Memorial Day	Monday	5/31/2021	YES	06:00 - 22:00	YES	07:30 – 15:00	
Day after	Tuesday	6/1/2021	YES 	06:00 - 22:00 	YES	
05:00 - 15:00

Surface Transportation Network

The Surface Transfer Centers will operate on a holiday schedule as shown on the Network Operations “Surface Operations” website at:

https://blue.usps.gov/network-operations/surface/stcs.htm
http://blue.usps.gov/network_operations/

USPS STC HOLIDAY SCHEDULE	
Memorial Day Holiday Schedule	
Origin STC/	Sunday	Monday	Tuesday	
Surface HUB	05/30/21	05/31/21	06/01/21	
Atlanta GA STC/NDC	OPEN	OPEN	OPEN	
Phone (404) 792-3152	24 Hours	24 Hours	24 Hours	
Capital Metro STC/NDC	OPEN	OPEN	OPEN	
Phone (301) 499-7419	24 Hours	24 Hours	24 Hours	
Seminole/Orlando STC	OPEN	OPEN	OPEN	
Phone (689) 205-0965	24 Hours	24 Hours	24 Hours	
Indianapolis IN STC	OPEN	OPEN	OPEN	
Phone (317) 487-4045	24 Hours	24 Hours	24 Hours	
Chicago IL STC	OPEN	OPEN	OPEN	
Phone (630) 536-5275 or 5276	24 Hours	24 Hours	24 Hours	
Kansas City KS STC	OPEN	OPEN	OPEN	
Phone (913) 914-7091 or 7155	24 Hours	24 Hours	24 Hours	
Memphis TN STC	OPEN	OPEN	OPEN	
Phone (901) 370-6860	24 Hours	24 Hours	24 Hours	
New Jersey NJ STC/NDC	OPEN	OPEN	OPEN	
Phone (201) 714-6370	24 Hours	24 Hours	24 Hours	
New England NDC/STC     	OPEN	OPEN	OPEN	
 Phone (413) 785-6552	24 Hours	24 Hours	24 Hours	
Northern CA NDC/STC	OPEN	OPEN	OPEN	
Phone (510) 528-9671	24 Hours	24 Hours	24 Hours	
Southern Area STC	OPEN	OPEN	OPEN	
Phone (469) 284-9352	24 Hours	24 Hours	24 Hours	
Salt Lake City UT STC	OPEN	OPEN	OPEN	
Phone (801) 972-3559 or 3585	24 Hours	24 Hours	24 Hours	
Southern CA NDC/STC	OPEN	OPEN	OPEN	
Phone (323) 729-4242	24 Hours	24 Hours	24 Hours	

Origin Air stops must operate Air to Surface Diversions throughout the weekend.  Air to Surface Diversions should operate on Tuesday where volume warrants a truck and in accordance with the established surface transportation plan to mitigate Air shortfall.  All origins should operate plane air to surface trips on Wednesday.

Dispatch Procedures

To avoid transportation delays, manage mail volume flow before, during, and after the holiday accordingly:

•	Maximize utilization of available surface, commercial air, and FedEx transportation during the holiday period.  Dispatch all mail volume inducted on Sunday and Monday nights into the network on Tuesday to avoid overflow on Wednesday’s network.   
•	Prioritization values established for planned routes ensure commercial air capacity is utilized ahead of FedEx.  There should be no adjustment of capacity thresholds to add or delete mail classes under any circumstances.  Do not edit the active planned route file.

Please disseminate these policies and procedures to the appropriate personnel in your area.  Your immediate attention to these details and dispatch procedures is appreciated.