Allow more days for in home mail delivery

Stop assuming that the USPS will deliver your bulk mailing within a week. It’s not happening with regularity, especially on nationwide mailings.

Postal Service standards for delivery are three to ten days nationwide for Standard Mail. The three business day delivery standard is for in state and local mail delivery. The ten business day standard is for coast to coast mail. The reality is you should be allowing 5 to 15 business days for delivery. If your mailing is extremely time sensitive, add another week.

Here’s why. The postal service now delivers to over 148 million addresses six days a week. That number increases every year as new homes and businesses are being built. In the last five years they’ve reduced their workforce by 12%. Automation is supposed to replace the people. But machines do breakdown and the logistics of moving mail to their 37,000 post office locations is enormous. Some mail inevitably gets delayed. Don’t let it be your mailpiece for a dated event.

The Government Accountability Office (GAO) issued a report that assessed the performance standards for timely mail delivery. The GAO recommended that the USPS take action to modernize its delivery standards. The report stated that current delivery standards impede mailers from obtaining information to make informed decisions.

The USPS is in the process of implementing the Intelligent Barcode system. This will eventually track mail. Until that system is fully in place and better delivery statistics become available…you need to allow more days for in home mail delivery!