With holiday travel likely to be severely curtailed in 2020 by the pandemic, USPS and other carriers are likely to see an even heavier volume of packages this year.
“Beginning the week of Dec. 7, customer traffic is expected to increase, with the week of Dec. 14-21 predicted to be the busiest mailing, shipping and delivery week,” USPS said in a statement. The services “anticipates Dec. 14 will be the Postal Service’s busiest day online with more than 13 million consumers predicted to visit usps.com for help shipping that special holiday gift.”
If you’re planning on sending your gifts by post this year instead of delivering in person, you need to plan ahead not only to ensure the package is under their tree on Christmas morning but also to avoid last-minute premium charges.
Here are the deadlines in 2020 for each of the three major carriers:
Dec. 15: Retail Ground
Dec. 18: First Class
Dec. 19: Priority Mail
Dec. 23: Priority Mail Express
FedEx - Find rates and transit times at www.fedex.com.
Dec. 15: FedEx Ground
Dec. 22: FedEx 2-Day
Dec. 23: FedEx Overnight
UPS - Calculate time and cost at www.ups.com.
Check ups.com for details on UPS Ground.
Dec. 21: UPS 3- Day Select
Dec. 22: UPS 2nd-Day Air
Dec 23: UPS Next Day Air
Dec. 25: UPS is closed, but UPS Express Critical is available.
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