Five-Day Delivery

Business customer planning guide: What you need to know about five-day mail delivery operations

The Postal Service intends to implement five-day delivery of mail, but to maintain six-day delivery of packages, during the week of Aug. 5, 2013, as a cost-cutting measure in response to declining mail volume caused by increased use of the Internet and the economic recession. Eliminating Saturday delivery of mail to street addresses will result in cost savings of approximately $2 billion annually. Five-day delivery of mail will help the Postal Service bring costs in line with declining revenues. We will continue to deliver packages six days a week as that is an area of continuing revenue growth for us.

The Postal Service also plans to provide business and household customers with a variety of options to send and receive mail on Saturdays.

  1. P.O. Boxes will receive Saturday delivery.
  2. Express Mail service will not be affected – Express Mail will continue to be delivered seven days a week, 365 days a year.
  3. Packages and Priority Mail will continue to be delivered on Saturday.
  4. Post Offices will remain open Saturday and additional alternative retail channels will be available.
  5. The Postal Service website, usps.com is available 24 hours a day, seven days a week.

The Postal Service has developed an operational plan that provides important details about how five-day mail delivery will be implemented, and this information will be available at usps.com. Customers will receive multiple advance notices and information about changes in mailing services concerning the elimination of Saturday mail delivery to street addresses. Notices and information will be sent to customers in the mail, and will be posted at usps.com, on collection boxes and in Post Offices. The information also will be reported in news media.

Under five-day operations, the following would occur:

Single-piece mail

  • There will be no mail delivery to street addresses on Saturday, no collection of mail from blue collection boxes or pickup of mail from homes and businesses.
  • The general elimination of Saturday collection, processing and delivery of single-piece mail will add a delivery day to this mail that is deposited on Saturday. The same will be true for single-piece mail delivered to street addresses that is currently expected on Saturday. For single-piece First-Class Mail, the following can be expected to be delivered Monday to street addresses: mail with an overnight service standard deposited before critical entry time Friday, mail with a two-day service standard deposited before critical entry time Thursday and mail with a three-day service standard deposited before critical entry time Wednesday. If Monday is a holiday, this mail can be expected to be delivered Tuesday.
  • Mail addressed to a P.O. Box will still be delivered Saturday. Local firm holdout mail that is not P.O. Box-addressed will not be delivered Saturday.
  • First-Class Mail, Express Mail and Priority Mail deposited in a blue collection box after the last collection Friday will be collected for processing Monday.
  • There will be no cancellation of single-piece First-Class Mail on Saturday. However, circular hand-stamped postmarks will still be provided on request at Post Offices on Saturdays.
  • Express Mail deposited at a Post Office will be processed Saturday. Express Mail deposited in a dedicated Express Mail collection box Saturday will be collected and processed Saturday, if the box is scheduled for collection.
  • Mail, except Express Mail, deposited at a Post Office on Saturday will be processed Monday, or Tuesday if Monday is a holiday.
  • Mail will not be collected or delivered to street addresses over a three-day holiday weekend.
  • There will be no package pickup, scheduled pickup or on-demand pickup of Express Mail or Priority Mail Saturday.
  • Priority Mail, Package Services and other parcel items will be delivered Saturdays, and enhanced service may be delivered on the two to three Saturdays before Christmas, if volume warrants, to increase the likelihood of delivery before Christmas.

Bulk mail acceptance — origin entry

Business mail entry units (BMEUs) currently open on Saturday and/or Sunday will remain open and accept bulk mail. Bulk mail accepted Saturday and/or Sunday at a BMEU will have a service performance measurement start-the-clock of Monday, with the exception of local turnaround mail as follows:

First-Class Mail (subject to Domestic Mail Manual (DMM) revision)

Intra-sectional center facility (SCF) (using a L005 labeling list) accepted at a BMEU co-located with a SCF plant will have a start-the-clock of Saturday with the following conditions:

  • Mail must be separated, pre-sorted and entered prior to the critical acceptance time.
  • Local turnaround mail must be documented in PostalOne! or Postal Wizard.
  • Letter mail must be provided in full tray equivalent of 90-100 percent utilized.
  • Overflow letter mail must be provided in a separate tray.

Standard Mail (subject to DMM revision)

Local network distribution center (NDC) mail for the NDC service area (using a L601 labeling list) accepted at a BMEU associated with the NDC will have a start-the-clock of Saturday or Sunday with the following conditions:

  • Mail must be separated and pre-sorted to the local NDC service area (using a L601 labeling list).
  • Mail must be entered prior to the critical acceptance time.
  • Local turnaround mail must be documented in PostalOne! or Postal Wizard.
  • Letter mail must be provided in full tray equivalent of 90-100 percent utilized.
  • Overflow letter mail must be provided in a separate tray.

Intra-SCF (using a L005 labeling list) accepted at a BMEU co-located with the SCF plant will have a start-the-clock of Saturday with the following conditions:

  • Mail must be separated, pre-sorted and entered prior to the critical acceptance time.
  • Local turnaround mail must be documented in PostalOne! or Postal Wizard.
  • Letter mail must be provided in full tray equivalent of 90-100 percent utilized.
  • Overflow letter mail must be provided in a separate tray.

Package Services mail (subject to DMM revision)

Local NDC mail for the NDC service area (using a L601 labeling list) accepted at a BMEU co-located with the NDC will have a start-the-clock of Saturday or Sunday with the following conditions:

  • Mail must be separated and pre-sorted to the local NDC service area (using a L601 labeling list).
  • Mail must be entered prior to the critical acceptance time.
  • Local NDC mail must be documented in PostalOne! or Postal Wizard.

Intra-SCF (using L005 labeling list) accepted at a BMEU co-located with a SCF plant will have a start-the-clock of Saturday with the following conditions:

  • Mail must be separated, pre-sorted and entered prior to the critical acceptance time.
  • Local turnaround mail must be documented in PostalOne! or Postal Wizard.

Periodicals mail (subject to DMM revision)

Intra-SCF (using a L005 labeling list) accepted at a BMEU co-located with a SCF plant will have a start-the-clock of Saturday or Sunday (based on day of acceptance) with the following conditions:

  • Mail separated, pre-sorted and entered prior to the critical acceptance time.
  • Local turnaround mail must be documented in PostalOne! or Postal Wizard.
  • Letter mail must be provided in full tray equivalent of 90-100 percent utilized.
  • Overflow letter mail must be provided in a separate tray.

Post Offices will remain open Saturday. Post Offices will continue to accept bulk mail Saturday and/or Sunday.

  • All mail classes (with the exception of Express Mail) accepted at a Post Office Saturday and/or Sunday will have service performance measurement rules for the start-the-clock of Monday.
  • Express Mail accepted on Saturday will have a start-the-clock of Saturday.

Bulk mail acceptance — destination entry

Standard mail

Facilities will continue to accept destinating drop shipments on Saturday and/or Sunday. However, the appointment times when drop shipments can be made may be reduced. The start-the-clock event will be as follows for drop-ship entry on Saturday and/or Sunday at:

Destinating network distribution center and auxiliary service facility (DNDC/ASF).

  • Start-the-clock of Saturday if mail is accepted Saturday at the appropriate DNDC facility.
  • Start-the-clock of Sunday if mail is accepted Sunday at the appropriate DNDC facility.

Destination sectional center facility (DSCF)

  • Start-the-clock of Saturday if mail is entered Saturday at the appropriate DSCF facility.
  • Start-the-clock of Sunday if mail is entered Sunday at the appropriate DSCF facility.

Destination delivery unit (DDU)

  • Start-the-clock of Saturday if the mail is entered Saturday at the appropriate DDU facility.
  • Start-the-clock of Sunday if the mail is entered Sunday at the appropriate DDU facility.

Periodicals mail

Facilities will continue to accept destinating drop shipments Saturday and/or Sunday. However, the appointment times when drop shipments can be made may be reduced. The service performance measurement rules for the start-the-clock event will be as follows for drop-ship entry on Saturday and/or Sunday at:

Destinating network distribution center and auxiliary service facility (DNDC/ASF).

  • Start-the-clock of Saturday if mail is entered Saturday at the appropriate DNDC facility.
  • Start-the-clock of Sunday if mail is entered Sunday at the appropriate DNDC facility.

Destination area distribution center (DADC)

  • Start-the-clock of Saturday if mail is entered Saturday at the appropriate DADC facility.
  • Start-the-clock of Sunday if mail is entered Sunday at the appropriate DADC facility.

Destination sectional center facility (DSCF)

  • Start-the-clock of Saturday if mail is entered Saturday at the appropriate DSCF facility.
  • Start-the-clock of Sunday if mail is entered Sunday at the appropriate DSCF facility.

Destination delivery unit (DDU)

  • Start-the-clock of Saturday if the mail is entered at the appropriate DDU facility.
  • Start-the-clock of Sunday if the mail is entered on Sunday at the appropriate DDU facility.

Package Services Mail

Facilities will continue to accept destinating drop shipments Saturday and/or Sunday. However, the appointment times when drop shipments can be made may be reduced. The service performance measurement rules for the start-the-clock event will be as follows for drop-ship entry Saturday and/or Sunday at:

Destination network distribution center and auxiliary service facility (DNDC/ASF).

  • Start-the-clock of Saturday if mail is accepted Saturday at the appropriate DNDC/ASF facility.
  • Start-the-clock of Sunday if mail is accepted Sunday at the appropriate DNDC/ASF facility.

Destination sectional center facility (DSCF)

  • Start-the-clock of Saturday if mail is entered Saturday at the appropriate DSCF facility.
  • Start-the-clock of Sunday if mail is entered Sunday at the appropriate DSCF facility.

Destination delivery unit (DDU)

  • Start-the-clock of Saturday if mail is dropped Saturday at the appropriate DDU facility.
  • Start-the-clock of Sunday if mail is dropped Sunday at the appropriate DDU facility.

Live animals and perishables

The Domestic Mail Manual will be changed to require that live animals and perishables arrive at DDUs Monday through Friday by the critical entry time.

Detached mail units

Detached mail units currently open Saturday and/or Sunday will remain open. The mail makeup requirements and start-the-clock event will continue to be governed by the applicable customer/supplier agreement.

Under the five-day mail delivery operations plan, the following will remain the same:

  • Mail will continue to be delivered to P.O. Box addresses, which includes caller service and national firm holdout mail, Monday through Saturday.
  • Remittance mail addressed to a P.O. Box that is now available for pickup at a processing and distribution center on Saturday and/or Sunday will continue to be available for pickup on those days.
  • Express Mail will continue to be collected from dedicated Express Mail collection boxes and Post Offices on Saturday and delivered seven days a week.
  • Post Offices will remain open Saturday and additional alternative retail channels will be available.
  • The Postal Service will continue to accept commercial bulk First-Class Mail, Standard Mail, Periodicals Mail and Package Services Mail Saturday and Sunday at detached mail units, business mail entry units, retail Post Offices and carrier annexes that are open Saturday and Sunday, although hours of operation may change.
  • Appointments will continue to be made using FAST for drop shipments of destinating entry of bulk, commercial mail at national distribution centers , P&DCs, destination delivery units and carrier annexes on Saturday and Sunday.
  • Packages will continue to be delivered on Saturday.

How your business will be affected by implementation of a five-day mail delivery schedule

The Postal Service will work with its business customers to ensure that the full details of the final implementation plan are understood well in advance of implementation of five-day mail delivery operations and associated operational and service changes. Different industries use the mail in different ways, and will be affected by a five-day mail delivery schedule differently. The Postal Service will provide guidance for its business customers depending on customer-specific needs. Packages will continue to be delivered on Saturday.

Some of these industry-specific issues are addressed in the following Frequently Asked Questions, which are divided into the following industry segments:

  • Small businesses
  • Package shippers
  • Bulk mailers
  • Advertisers
  • Remittance mailers and processors
  • Financial institutions
  • Retailers, mail order and eTailers
  • Publishers
  • Government (federal, state and local)
  • Election mail ballots
  • Periodicals (newspapers and magazines)