Fans of the SnailWorks US Mail Traffic Report know that service performance has been shaky at times this year. As the USPS Delivering for America plan has been implemented, some mail is taking longer to be delivered, this is a troubling downward trend. Is it safe to mail today? Will your mail be delivered in a reasonable time frame? As I am fond of saying:
It depends.
Service performance can vary a great deal from time to time and place to place. That’s why I nag so much about tracking your mail – that’s the only really effective way to know exactly what is happening with your deliveries. That said, let’s look at the trends and issues we are seeing, as well as the best ways to deal with them.
Where does mail get hung up?
The Postal Service is excellent at the “last mile” of delivery. Once a piece of mail reaches the destination SCF facility, it is consistently delivered within two to three days, regardless of class or mail piece type – letter or flat. In terms of getting consistent predictable delivery, there is probably nothing more important than inducting mail close to where it is being delivered. Most Marketing Mail is deposited close to the delivery point because there is a postal discount for doing so. That is why it always appears that Marketing Mail is faster than First-Class Mail in our traffic report – it rarely needs to travel as far. So, generally speaking, marketing mail does not get hung up at delivery.
First-Class Mail is most often entered at an origin facility close to the mailer. There is no discount for transporting the mail, so it is rarely cost effective to drop ship. How First-Class letters or flats are managed varies tremendously.
First-Class letters go through a highly automated process where virtually all pieces are processed by high-speed sorting equipment and dispatched reliably. While First-Class letters have slowed down by about a day since 2021, a lot of that may be attributable to a deliberate shift from air to ground transportation. So, First-Class letters are a touch slower but not disastrous – in most cases. We’ll discuss terrifying exceptions in a minute.
First-Class flats (and origin-entered Marketing Mail flats as well) are more problematic. The Postal Service has spent the last couple of years decommissioning FSS (Flat Sequencing System) equipment across the country because it was woefully inefficient. Unfortunately, there seems to be a gap as to how origin-entered flats would be processed without that equipment. The result is not pretty. The delivery of these flats has become extremely unpredictable. It seems that some facilities simply don’t have a good method of processing them without the FSS equipment. The delivery times seem to vary largely based on where the mail is entered. First-Class flats entered at certain facilities (Indianapolis, for example) deliver largely on time. Similar mail entered at other facilities (sorry, Tulsa) is very unreliable, seemingly getting delayed in the facility for days. The destination facility doesn’t seem to matter nearly as much as the origin. Approach First-Class flats very cautiously.
Localized delivery problems need to be monitored.
Regardless of overall performance, problems can pop up at facilities that impact mail delivering there. Atlanta, Houston, and Richmond, VA will live on in infamy in the hearts of many mailers. In Atlanta in particular, enormous delays resulted as new facilities were stood up. In some cases, mail was delayed by weeks. As the USPS network update continues, similar delays may happen again.
So, is it safe to mail?
Well, I guess we’ll see. Tremendous volume is expected in September and October with political mail and holiday mail hitting at similar times. It is reasonable to expect some delays, but mailers are wise to keep a close eye on how delivery is going. Here are a few suggestions:
- If you’re a SnailWorks customer, learn how to use the built-in analytics tools and use them. You can select the size and class of mail, and where you will be entering the mail. It is updated weekly on Sundays.
- Whenever possible, enter mail as close to the delivery point as possible. Origin processing and transportation is where most delays occur – skip them with destination entry.
- If you are mailing political or ballot mail, be sure to use the correct Service Type ID (STID) on your mail pieces. Tag all political and ballot mail appropriately; red tags (Tag 57) for political mail, green tags (Tag 191) for ballot mail. As the election approaches, the Postal Service is likely to be pushing aside regular Marketing Mail and maybe even some First-Class mail to get political and election mail delivered before the election.
- Expect delays. Allow extra time for delivery, regardless of class.
- Read the US Mail Traffic report every Monday morning on the SnailWorks LinkedIn page.
- Please, please, please track your mail! Watch how it’s doing and be proactive.
Of course it is safe to mail. There is no better way to get your message seen and responded to in the media saturation that will be inundating your prospects this fall. Just be smart about it.
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