WASHINGTON — The United States Postal Service reported new delivery performance metrics for the fourth week of the FY2023 first quarter showing consistent performance for all First-Class, Marketing and Periodical mail categories. Through the month of the first quarter, the average time for delivery of a mailpiece or package across the postal network was 2.5 days.
FY2023 first quarter service performance scores covering Oct. 1 through Oct. 28 included:
- First-Class Mail: 92.4 percent of First-Class Mail delivered on time against the USPS service standard, a slight decrease of 0.7 percentage points from the fiscal fourth quarter.
- Marketing Mail: 94.3 percent of Marketing Mail delivered on time against the USPS service standard, consistent with performance from the fiscal fourth quarter.
- Periodicals: 86.6 percent of Periodicals delivered on time against the USPS service standard, consistent with performance from the fiscal fourth 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.
As service across the network holds steady through the busy fall mailing season, USPS continues preparation for the holiday shipping and mailing season including investments and operational precision improvements made as part of the Delivering for America plan. Initiatives include:
- Stabilizing the USPS permanent workforce by converting 100,000 workers to full time since the beginning of 2021; with more than 41,000 part time workers converted to full time since January 2022.
- Actively hiring an additional 28,000 seasonal employees ahead of the holiday season.
- Installing 137 new package sorting machines across the nation this year. This brings the organization’s total to 249 new processing machines since the launch of the Delivering for America plan. The new equipment combined with increased operational precision will expand daily package processing capacity to 60 million.
Since January, USPS has installed 121 of 137 new package sorting machines ahead of the holiday season. New package sorting machines have recently been installed in Springdale (AR), Columbia (MD), Aurora (CO), Edison (NJ), and Ellicott City (MD).
The Postal Service generally receives no tax dollars for operating expenses and relies on the sale of postage, products and services to fund its operations.