How the United States Postal Service Has Prepared for the 2024 Holiday Season
The holiday shopping season is always a busy time for postal and courier services due to the high volume of shipments with gifts and care packages. To deliver everything on time, carriers begin preparations for the peak seasons well in advance. In October 2024, the USPS revealed its plans for managing the upcoming holiday season, aiming to reassure customers that their cards, letters and packages would be delivered on schedule. How exactly has the USPS prepared for the 2024 holiday season?
The United States Postal Service handles and delivers billions of cards, letters, and packages each holiday season. For instance, in 2022, the USPS processed over 11.7 billion deliveries during the peak season. To ensure that most of these mailpieces and packages reach their recipients within the expected time frame, the USPS begins preparing for the annual surge in shipments well in advance. Here is a brief list of the key changes the USPS has implemented to manage the increased demand during the 2024 peak holiday season.
Expanded daily package processing capacity. Ahead of the 2024 holiday season, the USPS has increased its daily processing capacity to approximately 60 million, enabling packages to move more swiftly through its postal network. Since 2020, the Postal Service’s daily package processing capacity has nearly tripled, allowing it to handle the surge in holiday shipment volume more effectively.
Planned to hire 7,500 seasonal employees. Thanks to stabilizing its workforce by moving pre-career workers into permanent positions, as well as improving operating processes, the Postal Service will hire only 7,500 seasonal stuff this holiday season, which is 2,500 fewer than last year.
Revamped its delivery and processing network. The USPS has allocated over $17 billion from its Delivering for American Plan – a $40 billion self-funded investment to revitalize the national postal network – to finance the revamping of the Postal Service’s delivery and processing network for more efficient delivery.
Enhanced its postal delivery fleet. The USPS is introducing significant upgrades to its fleet by adding 106,000 new, more reliable vehicles, including 66,000 zero-emission electric vehicles that reflect the Postal Service’s environmental responsibility and commitment to sustainability while ensuring dependable service.
Other improvements introduced by the USPS ahead of the 2024 holiday season include prioritizing morning parcel delivery, improving scanning technology to minimize delays, and extending retail and pick-up delivery hours at the most popular Post Office locations. The new services introduced over the past couple of years, USPS Ground Advantage and USPS Connect, also help the USPS deliver more efficiently during the peak season.
Last year, the United States Postal Service did not introduce peak season surcharges during the holiday season. However, this year the USPS temporarily increased retail and commercial prices for certain package services starting on October 6, 2024. The services that have been affected by peak season surcharges include USPS Ground Advantage, Priority Mail, and Priority Mail Express. The price increase depends on the shipping zone (1-4 or 5-9) and type of customer (retail or commercial). The temporary rates will remain in place until January 19, 2025.
It should be noted that, despite carriers’ best efforts to ensure timely deliveries during the busiest season of the year, occasional delays and mishaps can still occur. Therefore, we strongly recommend planning your holiday shipping in advance and keeping holiday shipping deadlines in mind.