Dec. 23, 2021
WASHINGTON, DC — The United States Postal Service reported new service delivery performance metrics showing ongoing strong service for First-Class Mail and Marketing Mail, with a slight decline for Periodicals through the first 11 weeks of the fiscal first quarter. Consistent with the rest of the shipping industry, the organization is experiencing delays in both ground and air transportation, which impacted service performance across the network during the week of Dec. 11-17 — the busiest mail and shipping week of the year. However, the Postal Service’s mitigation plans are performing well, enabling the organization to recover quickly and maintain high service performance scores as mail and package volume surged.
Since Thanksgiving, the Postal Service has accepted 8.9 billion pieces of mail and packages for delivery and anticipates it will deliver more than 12 billion by New Year’s Day.
First quarter-to-date service performance scores covering the period Oct. 1 through Dec. 17 included:
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’s preparations for the 2021 holiday peak season included:
The Postal Service generally receives no tax dollars for operating expenses and relies on the sale of postage, products and services to fund its operations.
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