IT’S THE POST NEW YEARS BOOST
The Postal Service dug itself out of the depths it had reached on the prior week, and turned in a performance in line with its YTD averages – and that is good news. This is one of the few weeks where the slowest moving mail will get 2 postal holidays to help its score. Less mail was showing up as late, although the pieces that were late were quite late. For First-Class flats, for example, 78% of the mail was on time, but still more than 16% was more than 5 days late. Very late mail is much more impactful on the effectiveness of mail. Former PMG DeJoy was quoted as saying that mail that is one day late is still on time. In terms of the effectiveness of the mail he may have had a point, but would he say the same about mail that is 5 days late? 10 days?
If history is any guide, next week will look much worse, and then we’ll settle into mediocre-to-poor service through the spring. Except for the three weeks before Christmas, spring is the slowest time for mail. The best explanation I’ve heard is that a lot of postal employees take time off with the mailing season behind them.
Anyhoo, good looking week, relatively, so feel free to smile at your favorite postal employee.
