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November 14, 2019

MANAGERS, OPERATIONS SUPPORT (AREA)

SUBJECT: Operations Policy for the Thanksgiving Day Holiday, Thursday, November 28, 2019

This memorandum provides general operating policy and holiday planning guidance for the upcoming 2019 Thanksgiving Day Holiday. Service levels for this holiday are displayed in Exhibit
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.

Wednesday, November 27:
Normal (Wednesday) 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. Post­ holiday scheduling should be reviewed to ensure delivery operations is prepared for peak holiday parcel volumes following Thanksgiving including but not limited to:

Review scheduling of static AM and PM parcel runs as needed.
Delivery territory is properly configured in PDAT.
Parcel Overflow Routes should be configured for Friday routes.
Supervisors have access, are trained and prepared to run dynamic/static software programs.
Newly hired CCA's, RCA's and ARC's understand proper scanning procedures.
Delivery Unit is prepared for holiday transportation including early parcel volumes including drop shipments and other package mailers.

Thanksgiving Day Holiday, "Widely Observed," Thursday, November 28:
There will be no regular delivery service except for Holiday Premium/Priority Mail Express.

There will be Amazon Thanksgiving Drops to identified DDU's.
o	These will be between 4-8 am
o	These are drop sites only
o	Delivery of Amazon and Priority volume is at the discretion of the District and Area leadership
There will be no Night Owl drops Wednesday night into Thursday morning. o	Regular Night Owl drops resume for Thursday into Friday morning

Friday, November 29:
Delivery managers and supervisors should plan for additional mail volume and packages for delivery after the holiday.

475 L'Enfant Plaza SW Washington, DC 20260

Supervisors must monitor PVS/HCR/Drop Shipment arrival times and clerk productivities to ensure timely completion of distribution operations.
Parcel Overflow Routing must be in place for AM/PM parcel runs where volume necessitates.
Parcel routes must be ready upon carrier arrival to eliminate costly waiting time.
Supervisors must review carrier loading for efficiencies and provide guidance for craft personnel as needed.
Area and District LOC Operations should be staffed to cover your expected hours of delivery and be utilized to assist managers with performance and communication.

Retail Operations

Post Offices should use recent retail sales trend information and mail volumes, and adjust for local circumstances.

Please ensure that Self Service Kiosks (SSKs) are fully stocked and that mailing supplies (boxes, Priority Mail labels, etc.) are available for customers. Make arrangements for dispatch of packages received through lobby deposit points, including SSKs. Facilities with staffing on this holiday should accommodate requests for drop shipment appointments.

Offices should ensure that the current holiday closing "door cling" signage is properly displayed. Offices with glass doors should center the door cling inside the main customer entrance door at eye level. Offices with wooden doors should affix the door cling on the exterior. Additional door cling signage can be ordered by contacting the Point of Purchase Hotline at 1-800-332-0317.

Many Contract Postal Units (CPUs) may be open on the holiday. Post Offices should, therefore, advise customers (to the extent possible) of the locations and hours of operation for CPUs, and where retail services will be available.

Wednesday, November 27:
Normal (Wednesday) service levels will be provided in retail operations.

Thanksgiving Day Holiday, "Widely Observed," Thursday, November 28:
No retail service will be available, except from those facilities normally open on this holiday.

Friday, November 29:
Return to normal service levels. Retail managers and supervisors should use recent sales trend information and adjust for local circumstances.

Processing Operations

This Thanksgiving 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 as much Violet & Yellow Marketing mail for Wednesday delivery as possible.
Sites cancelling on Thursday will be determined locally/by Area as well as decisions for Friday 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 Wednesday afternoon/evening. Finalization will be Thursday prior to Second Pass (919).

Sites are encouraged to.use holiday DPS sort programs to extract PO Box volume for CRRT process and dispatch to delivery units on Thursday.
Ensure only one DPS run on Friday (no double runs of DPS).
Ensure all mail retrieved from freight house and processed for on time delivery on Friday.
Utilize an RPG model for DPS processing on Wednesday and Thursday that ensures an early DPS dispatch for Friday delivery.
Evaluate the processing of Outgoing Priority on the day of the holiday to avoid late clearance on Friday. (Sites not processing Priority on the holiday must create an early collection plan to start outgoing operations earlier.)
Assign SWYB to avoid VAP issues to THS.
Plan for recovery of committed volumes arriving on CAIR and FedEx on Friday due for Saturday Delivery.

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.

Processing and Dispatch of Commercial Mailings

Specific planning activities should include:

Coordination with Business Mail Entry Unit (BMEU) Managerp.
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 Thursday night and Friday morning.
Ensure communication to field of FedEx and Dispatch Plan

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, inclusive of LAMM Friday due for Saturday delivery. All missorted, missent, return-to-sender and Postal Automated Redirection System volumes must be identified, finalized, prepared for assignment and dispatched on the appropriate transportation network on Wednesday. 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 number 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 Wednesday 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 Wednesday and 16:00 Thursday is available for delivery Friday 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.

International Service Center Operations

This non-widely-observed holiday presents an opportunity to maximize processing to take 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 to avoid surface volume rolling over
Ensure processing and dispatch of Priority throughout the holiday weekend to avoid exceeding lift.

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, NOSS, 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

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

Logistics Operations
Air Transportation Network FedEx
FedEx will operate a normal schedule on Wednesday, November 27, 2019. There will be no
FedEx operations on Thursday, November 28, 2019. FedEx will return to a normal schedule on Friday, November 29, 2019.

Lives Acceptance FedEx Network:

2019 FedEx Network Holiday Operations	

FedEx Holidays Highlighted	
UPDATED: 10/17/18 (Subject to Change)	
Holiday	DayofWeekl	Date	IDay(x1)INight(x67)	Comments	
		
Night-turn aircraft will return to destination on Friday morning	
Day before	Wednesday	I11/27/2019
11/28/2019		
Thanksgiving Day	Thursday		No Day/Night-turn on Thanksgiving Day	
Day after	Friday	I11/29/2019			

The last day for Live animal shipments will be Tuesday day - Tuesday night November 26, 2019. Live animal shipments will not be accepted Wednesday, November 27, 2019. Live animal shipments will resume back on Friday, November 29, 2019.

I

UPS

UPS Holiday Highligted

2019 UPS Network Holiday Operations

UPS will operate on Wednesday, November 27, 2019. There will be no UPS operations on Thursday, November 28, 2019 or Friday, November 29, 2019.

Holiday	Tender DayI	Date

Comments

UPDATBl: 01/08/19 Rnal

Day before	Wednesday  I 11/27/2019
Thanksgiving Day	Thursday	11/28/2019 Day after		Friday	11/29/2019

Special Operating Plan all mail due back same day No _tv'lail Tender on Thanksgiving Day
No Mail Tender the day after Thankgiving

Supplemental Networks

There will be no Kalitta (K4), AmeriJet (M6), or Amazon (A1) operations on Thursday, November 28, 2019. Normal operations will resume on Friday, November 29, 2019.

2019 Supplemental Network Holiday Operations	
UPDATED: 10/17/19	
Widely Observed Holidays	
Holiday	Day_ of Week I	Date	I	Kalitta	I	AmeriJet	Amazon	
		
Day before	Wednesday	111/27/2019		
Thanksgivi119 Day_	Thursday	I11/28/2019		
Day after	Friday	I11/29/2019		

CAIR

Commercial air will operate a normal schedule throughout the holiday period. The canine screening operation schedule for the holiday period will be issued via e-mail to each Area Manager, Distribution Networks.

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Please ensure the volume is picked up from the Freight Houses on Thursday 11/28/2019 and processed timely.

Surface Transportation Network

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

http://blue.usps.gov/network operations/stcs.htm http://blue.us ps.gov/network operations/

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 will ensure commercial air capacity is utilized ahead of FedEx.

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

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Robert Cintron Vice President Logistics

oshua D. Colin, P·- 1 ice President
J rocessing & Maintenance Operations (A)

cc: Ms. Brennan
Mr. David Williams
Vice Presidents, Area Operations
Managers, Delivery Programs Support (Area) Managers, In-Plant Support (Area)
Manager, Business Service Network