Quite a bounce for USPS – an excellent week!
Wow. After a very troubling downward trend in the last few weeks, the Postal Service showed a dramatic recovery in the week between the holidays. Of course, the odd combination of holidays may have had an influence, as only time will tell, But until we see anything to the contrary – wow.
First-Class Letters were on time 87.62% of the time based on previous delivery service standards, an improvement of more than 17 points from the prior week, returning to summer delivery norms – and that is against the old standards. Against the new standards, First-Class letters were on time 94.83% of the time. First-Class flats were the darkest spot on an otherwise glowing week with on-time deliveries 78.87% of the time, vs the old standards, and 80.35% vs the new standards. A lot of the flats we saw were more than five days late. The sample of flats was a little small, so there may be some irregularities to shake out.
Marketing Mail Letters were on time 96.20% of the time, the best since early September, and coming off the year’s worst week. Marketing Mail Flats were delivered on time 94.13% of the time, the best we’ve seen since May.
Average Intra-SCF delivery time was 1.90 days for Marketing Mail letters, 1.86 days for Marketing Mail flats. Big sample, lots of pieces. They did a great job.
Slowest SCFs for Intra-SCF letters, delivery week of 12/27: (10,000 pieces minimum)
- Mid-Island, NY: 8.09 days
- Southeastern, PA: 6.22 days
- Albany, NY: 5.02 days
The fastest:
- McAllen, TX: 0.73 days
- Norfolk, VA: 1.21 days
- Rochester, NY: 1.25 days
A letter from California to Maryland, on average, took:
· First-Class: 2.73 days
· Marketing Mail: 6.86 days
Again, wow. Let’s hope this kind of service holds up. It’s very encouraging!
Chart of the week:
This is on-time percentages of First-Class Letters. Nice!
!