The U.S. Postal Service has been relatively quiet about its holiday 2013 performance. But last week, the USPS broke its silence, and said it exceeded holiday volume expectations with a higher than projected package volume increase.
According to USPS spokesperson Zy Richardson, the USPS saw a double-digit jump over same period last year.
The week before Christmas, the USPS delivered nearly 90 million packages with a daily average of 10 million per day for the holiday season.
The USPS also handled more than 75,000 packages on Christmas Day. Richardson said that in some cases, these were Priority Mail Express packages scheduled to arrive by Christmas Day. But in most cases, they were Priority Mail packages likely scheduled to be delivered afterward.
“This is something we have done for many years and will continue to do as our carriers work tirelessly to deliver the holidays for our customers,” Richardson said in an email.
After closely monitoring mail volume early in December, the USPS adjusted its network and delivery schedule accordingly and delivered packages on three Sundays in December – Dec. 8, Dec. 15 and Dec. 22 – in high-volume markets.
Richardson told Multichannel Merchant that the adjusted Sunday delivery schedule included packages being delivered as part of a recent agreement with Amazon.
Amazon announced on Nov. 11 that it would partner with the USPS and will begin Sunday delivery for its Amazon Prime members in the Los Angeles and New York metropolitan areas. The service will roll out to a large part of the U.S. population in 2014 including Dallas, Houston, New Orleans and Phoenix.
By developing innovative services to appeal to the growing parcel delivery market, the USPS’s shipping and package services grew to $12.5 billion in fiscal year 2013, representing approximately 19% of its revenues. The USPS said package volume grew by 210 million pieces (6%), and that fiscal year revenues increased $923 million.