There are many days on which mail will not be delivered, either by couriers or by USPS. The United States Postal Service does not deliver on every day of the year, and you will not get mail on Sundays, or national holidays. There are exceptions to this, however, as some mail services are still run on these days.
Knowing when you should and shouldn’t expect mail is useful, because it lets you know whether you should wait in for a package or not. It also helps you to estimate when packages you have sent should arrive if you know which days USPS does not operate on.
When Does USPS Not Deliver?
In normal circumstances, USPS will not deliver on any of the following days:
- Sundays (throughout the year)
- Christmas Day (25th of December, federal holiday)
- Thanksgiving Day (Fourth Thursday in November, federal holiday)
- New Years Day (1st of January, federal holiday)
- Memorial Day (Fourth Monday of May, federal holiday)
- President’s Day (Third Monday of February, federal holiday)
- Veterans Day (11th of November, federal holiday)
- Columbus Day (Second Monday of October, federal holiday)
- Labor Day (First Monday of September, federal holiday)
- Independence Day (4th of July, federal holiday)
- Martin Luther King, Jr. Day (Third Monday of January, federal holiday)
As some of these holidays will have a moving date, such as Martin Luther King, Jr. Day, it’s important to keep track of when they are if you need to know when mail will be delivered. If you are a seller who offers guaranteed shipping times, make sure that you ship early when these holidays are coming up, and be aware that around Christmas, there are often delays.
USPS will not deliver normal mail, magazines, packages, or almost any other kind of mail on these days. All ordinary mail will be delayed for a day, and this will not count toward the guaranteed or estimated shipping time.
That means if you sent a package with an estimated three to four days for shipping, it will take four to five days if one of the days is a holiday.
It is therefore crucial to familiarize yourself with these non-delivery dates, especially if you send time-sensitive items such as documents via the mail service. The more obscure holidays might trip you up and cause an unwelcome delay if you forget about them, and given that many of the months of the year have at least one, learning them in advance is a good idea.
Which Days Does USPS Deliver on?
USPS delivers from Monday to Saturday in ordinary circumstances, and deliveries are made up until 5 PM. In some situations, deliveries may be made after 5 PM, especially if traffic delays or bad weather has slowed a mail carrier down. When this occurs, you can expect your mail to be later than normal.
Sometimes, this will result in a non-delivery day, because the driver will not be able to finish their normal route. If this happens, the mail will be delivered the following day.
USPS does not operate on the holidays listed above, so there will be no delivery on these days. You may also find that you cannot access customer services, go to your post office, etc. However, you should still be able to access online services as normal. Anything you schedule online will be for the next available working day.
What Kinds Of Mail May Be Delivered On Days That Are Normally Non-Delivery?
Although many kinds of mail are not delivered on a Sunday or federal holiday, there are a couple of exceptions to this rule.
Firstly, Priority Mail Express should be. This is one of the most expensive shipping options, and therefore the sender is paying for the added convenience of having it delivered on a Sunday.
That means that if you are expecting a Priority Mail Express letter or parcel to arrive, you should wait in on a Sunday, rather than assuming it will have to wait until the following day. However, if your item has not been sent by Priority Mail Express, it won’t be delivered until Monday.
It is important to find out how mail is being sent, therefore, because this might change how you approach waiting at home for it.
Secondly, you may get packages that have been sent by certain delivery companies, such as UPS, delivered on a Sunday or a federal holiday, by USPS workers. That might sound confusing, but in recent years, delivery couriers have begun tapping into USPS’s vast network.
This is known as the “last mile delivery” partner program, and it means that although your package will mostly be transported and handled by the courier company that it was mailed with, the last stage of its journey will be completed by USPS employees.
Because delivery companies usually do deliver on Sundays and some of them also deliver on federal holidays, it is necessary for USPS to uphold this standard if this system is to work and attract customers – and therefore USPS workers will deliver packages sent using this service, even when normal mail is not being sent.
If I Get A Last Mile Delivery Package, Will I Get Normal Mail Too?
No, if you receive a “last mile delivery” package that is delivered via USPS, or something that has been sent by Priority Mail Express, you will not also be given your ordinary mail from USPS. It might seem logical for them to deliver everything, but the system is not set up in this way, and the mail carrier will not have your ordinary mail.
Even if they bring other packages to your home, your normal mail will be delivered on the next “working day” that comes. Any other packages will have no effect on this.
Why Are There Days When USPS Doesn’t Deliver?
USPS does not deliver every day of the week for the same reason that other companies also have downtime. They do not pay their workers on Sundays or federal holidays, and instead allow them to take a break.
This is probably because the system has always worked this way, and in general, a delay of one or two days will not be significant enough to cause problems. With the number of citizens in the US who still attend church on Sundays, it makes some sense for businesses to continue observing these customs, but they are really just a leftover tradition.
In order to deliver seven days a week, USPS would need to take on considerably more members of staff, which would come at great cost to the business. It would also be necessary to split the shifts, since many mail carriers work six days a week, but would not want to work seven.
All in all, it would probably be quite problematic for USPS to start ignoring Sundays and federal holidays, and the service would stand to gain little from this, as it probably wouldn’t be a justification for increasing postage prices.
Can I Get Delivery On These Days?
No, you cannot get USPS to deliver on Sundays or federal holidays unless the item is being shipped by a courier that participates in the last mile shipping program, or has been sent using Priority Mail Express.
This is the only way to get around the federal holidays and Sunday delivery times, so if you really need something to be sent urgently, make sure you are utilizing these options.
It’s The Day After A Holiday, And My Mail Still Hasn’t Been Delivered – Why?
If you have waited in the day after a holiday for a package to arrive and it still hasn’t come, you might be pretty puzzled and possibly frustrated. It is worth noting that if a federal holiday falls on a Sunday, the following working day (Monday) will be observed as that holiday instead.
This is so that people who work a regular five day week do not lose out on holidays just due to the way the days of the week fall. Therefore, if a federal holiday falls on a Sunday, don’t expect mail to arrive the following day either.
What Else Can Prevent Delivery From Occurring?
There are a few other things that can lead to you not getting your mail delivered, which are unrelated to either Sundays or federal holidays. If you find your packages and other mail are not arriving as you expect, you should check whether any of the following issues are occurring.
Hazardous Conditions
In some circumstances, you may not receive your mail because the area is not considered safe enough for the mail carrier. This is rare, but may happen if there is some sort of hazard on your street that could be blocking access, such as flooding, sewage problems causing a disruption at street level, traffic accidents, heavy snow, etc.
You may be able to put up a suitable temporary box in a more accessible area or arrange for your mail to be dropped off at another location. You might also be able to collect it from a local post office.
Full Mailbox
If your mailbox is too full for the mail carrier to leave mail in it safely, they may instead leave a notification and form for you to arrange for overflow mail to be delivered or collected. Regularly empty your mailbox to avoid this happening.
Mailbox Inaccessible
Sometimes, mail may not be delivered because something is physically stopping your mail carrier from accessing your box. It is necessary for you to make sure that your box is accessible by clearing obstructions on the sidewalk if necessary, and keeping vehicles out of the way.
You also need to clear snow and ice so that the mail carrier can safely approach the box. Although mail carriers will leave their vehicle and walk to a box when necessary, if they consistently have to do this because of lack of care by the homeowners, your delivery service may be withdrawn.
Property Is Perceived To Be Unsafe
If the mail carrier does not feel safe entering your property, they may cease delivering to you. Often, this will be due to a loose dog or other animals, and you should be notified promptly if it is the case.
You may be asked to keep the animal contained during normal delivery hours so that the mail carrier can feel comfortable accessing your mailbox. It’s important to work with USPS to ensure mail delivery can continue, or your mail will not be delivered.
Any of the above reasons can lead to a delay in normal delivery services, and they will need to be rectified for your service to resume.
What Should I Do If Mail Isn’t Being Delivered?
If you aren’t getting deliveries as you expect and it is not a federal holiday or a Sunday, you might be both puzzled and frustrated. In these instances, the best thing to do is to contact your local post office to ask if there is an issue with delivering to your address.
Hopefully, you will be able to resolve this and restore your deliveries to normal. Of course, some days, mail will not be delivered to you simply because there is nothing due that day, so don’t worry unless you are expecting something.
Conclusion
Trying to work out and remember all the federal holidays and account for days when these get passed on to a Monday can be a serious pain. If you are waiting at home for a package and then realize that you’ve wasted a day because there is no mail being delivered, you probably feel very frustrated.
Fortunately, there’s a simple solution to this, and that is getting a Virtual Mailbox from US Global Mail. This will allow you to get deliveries at any time, on any day, saving you from needing to be at home.
If you get a lot of packages and you struggle to remember which days do and don’t count as holidays, this is the perfect way to simplify your life and ensure that you never miss a delivery again. You can then collect the package whenever it suits you.