Despite urgings for consumers to do their holiday shopping early this year, the US Postal Service expects the busiest time of the season to begin 2 weeks before Christmas.
It expects customer traffic at all Post Office locations will steadily increase beginning the week of December 6th, and it anticipates the week of December 13-18 to be the busiest mailing, shipping and delivery week of the season.
The USPS published the following suggested mail-by dates for holiday letters and packages for expected delivery by December 25th:
- Nov. 6: APO, FPO and DPO addresses (all ZIP Codes), USPS Retail Ground service
- Dec. 9: APO, FPO and DPO (all ZIP Codes), Priority Mail and First-Class Mail services
- Dec. 15: USPS Retail Ground Service
- Dec. 16: APO, FPO and DPO addresses (except ZIP Code 093), Priority Mail Express Military service
- Dec. 17: First-Class Mail service, including greeting cards
- Dec. 17: First-Class Mail packages (up to 15.99 ounces)
- Dec. 18: Priority Mail service
- Dec. 23: Priority Mail Express service
Over 12.5 million customers are expected to use usps.com on Dec. 19, making it the Postal Service’s busiest day online this holiday season, and the USPS said nearly 500,000 customers are expected to use the USPS Click-N-Ship feature.
