Service Performance Across USPS Network Remains Stable

The United States Postal Service reported new delivery performance metrics for the ninth week of the first quarter for fiscal year 2024. The average time for the Postal Service to deliver a mailpiece or package across the nation was 2.6 days.

FY24 first quarter service performance scores covering October 1 through December 1, included:

• First-Class Mail: 87.1 percent of First-Class Mail delivered on time against the USPS service standard, a decrease of 3.9 percentage points from the fiscal fourth quarter.
• Marketing Mail: 94.0 percent of Marketing Mail delivered on time against the USPS service standard, a decrease of 1.2 percentage points from the fiscal fourth quarter.
• Periodicals: 83.3 percent of Periodicals delivered on time against the USPS service standard, a decrease of 2.8 percentage points from the fiscal fourth quarter.

Operational disruptions within our network, including insourcing of several Surface Transfer Centers after a supplier bankruptcy, and the extended shutdown of a critical St. Louis, MO processing facility due to a mercury leak from an illegally shipped package resulting in a lengthy decontamination period, have and will continue to negatively impact our service performance scores through the end of this month.

Additionally, as anticipated, we have seen and will continue to experience a significant growth in package volume throughout the nation during this peak season time period.

That noted, we have effectively managed these expected increased package volumes along with the unexpected network disruptions outside our control as demonstrated by our continuing ability to deliver mail and packages to 98 percent of the nation’s population in less than three days. In fact, approximately 59 percent of mail and packages are delivered a day in advance of the specified service standard, and approximately 96 percent of all mail and packages are delivered within a day of its specified service standard, which evidences our ability to rapidly adjust to all conditions. The very small percentage of mail that is not delivered within this time frame is often the result of broader staffing and hiring issues within the local economies that we are working aggressively to address.

The American public and American businesses can and should feel confident that their mail and packages will get where they need to be in a timely manner during this busy season.

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.

With the implementation of the Delivering for America plan, the Postal Service continues its focus on improving service reliability for the American public and business customers by modernizing the outmoded and aging postal network across the nation.

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The United States Postal Service is an independent federal establishment, mandated to be self-financing and to serve every American community through the affordable, reliable and secure delivery of mail and packages to 167 million addresses six and often seven days a week. Overseen by a bipartisan Board of Governors, the Postal Service is implementing a 10-year transformation plan, Delivering for America, to modernize the postal network, restore long-term financial sustainability, dramatically improve service across all mail and shipping categories, and maintain the organization as one of America’s most valued and trusted brands.

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.