USPS: National delivery time strong as postal service focuses on operational improvements to deliver reliable service for local communities

The United States Postal Service reported new delivery performance metrics showing strong performance across all mail categories for the first five weeks of the fiscal third quarter.

For the week ending May 6, First-Class Mail on-time delivery performance remained above 94 percent and Marketing Mail on-time delivery performance remained above 95 percent. While national service performance continues improve, the Postal Service is focused on operational effectiveness and improvements across the network to deliver reliable service for local communities.

Through the first five weeks of the third quarter, the average time for delivery of mail and packages across the postal network remained just 2.4 days.

Third quarter service performance scores covering April 1 through May 6 included:

• First-Class Mail: 93.5 percent of First-Class Mail delivered on time against the USPS service standard, an increase of 5.6 percentage points from the fiscal second quarter.
• Marketing Mail: 95.0 percent of Marketing Mail delivered on time against the USPS service standard, an increase of 2.9 percentage points from the fiscal second quarter.
• Periodicals: 86.8 percent of Periodicals delivered on time against the USPS service standard, an improvement of 5.3 percentage points from the fiscal second quarter.

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.