In a push for holiday business, the U.S. Postal Service said on Oct. 29 that it will expand the hours of more than 1,000 destination delivery units (DDUs) serving 6,000 zip codes. The DDUs, which are the local, final-destination post offices, will accept Parcel Select drop-shipments between 5 a.m. and 7 a.m. and from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m.
The earlier opening of the DDUs “raises the probability of getting packages delivered the same day,” says USPS manager of delivery operations Mike Spates. Currently, Spates says, the USPS gets more than 90% of packages delivered into recipients’ homes the day after they’ve been drop-shipped to the DDUs. With the earlier hours, the USPS’s goal is 100% next-day delivery with some same-day delivery.