Getting your mail delivered on the weekend can be a bit of a hit or miss proposition.
Especially on Sunday.
The USPS (United States Postal Service) has had a long-standing reputation for NOT delivering mail on Sunday.
In fact, the overwhelming majority of people out there are under the impression that the USPS will not deliver anything on Sunday – and may not even deliver mail on Saturday, for that matter.
But is that reality?
Is it true that your mail won’t be delivered on Saturday or Sunday?
Not necessarily.
Below we dig a little deeper into everything you need to know about weekend delivery with USPS.
By the time you’re done with the details below you’ll be a weekend warrior when it comes to sending (or expecting) mail on the weekend, knowing for sure if – and when – your mail is set to arrive on the weekend.
Let’s get right into it!
Does USPS Deliver on Sunday?
To put it simply, the USPS will in fact deliver mail on Sunday – in certain circumstances, anyway.
“Regular” mail is not going to be delivered on Sunday all that often – we are talking about first-class mail, anyway – but the USPS does have a relatively long-standing tradition of making sure that Priority Mail, Priority Mail Express, and all is on packages find their way to addresses on Sundays no matter what.
What does this mean for you?
It’s pretty simple.
If you are looking to send (or receive) mail on a Sunday it’s a good idea to make sure that your either sending it via Priority Mail or Priority Mail Express with USPS – sure that it is going to be sent through Amazon.
Any other type of USPS mail services and you’re probably going to have to wait until Monday morning both around to get your packages, your parcels, and your envelopes.
That’s not necessarily the end of the world, but it is something that you’ll need to be aware of. You don’t want to be watching your mailbox all weekend with zero chance of your mail actually arriving.
What Postal Services Can I Use on the Weekend?
As we just highlighted a moment ago, not all USPS services are going to be available on the weekends.
And we’re not just talking about purposes unavailable on Sunday, either. Plenty of USPS mail delivery options aren’t available on Saturday, too.
No, if you’re hoping for your mail to arrive every single day of the week – without exception – you’re going to need to make sure that you are sending it out via Priority Mail or Priority Mail Express.
These two premium USPS services guarantee that your mail will be delivered on a very tight schedule.
Priority Mail is the lesser expensive option, guaranteeing delivery within 1-3 days (depending on the location of the recipient, of course). This is a great option for those that are sending mail out on a Wednesday or Thursday afternoon that want to be sure that their mail is going to hit its final destination before Monday morning.
Priority Mail Express, on the other hand, is a little bit more expensive than what you’d expect to pay for a First Class piece of mail (for example) but it guarantees that you are going to get one or two day delivery on that envelope, package, or parcel.
This means that you can realistically afford to drop this type of mail at the post office on a Thursday or Friday afternoon and have a pretty decent shot of that mail arriving at its destination before Monday morning, too.
Obviously, the earlier you can get your mail in during the week the faster it’s going to get to its ultimate destination
Aside from those two options, though, it’s important to know that Amazon has a contract with the USPS to deliver their packages seven days a week.
If you have ordered something from Amazon (especially something with Amazon Prime) on a Thursday or Friday the odds are very good that it’s going to arrive on a Saturday or Sunday.
If I Send Two Day Mail on Friday, Will It Be Delivered on Sunday?
All of this tracks back to what we mentioned a moment ago, and that’s that you’ll have to use Priority Mail or Priority Mail Express to get your mail delivered on a Sunday – especially if you are looking for a two day delivery window.
Priority Mail Express is the service that you’ll want to use if you absolutely, positively need your mail to arrive within the next two days.
Most of the time (emphasis on most of the time) you can expect Priority Mail to reach its ultimate destination within two days as well.
But Priority Mail does allow for a third delivery day window, and that means that your mail might get bumped from Sunday to Monday if you send it out on a Friday.
It’s also important to know that you are going to have a difficult time getting ANY mail delivered in two days if you roll into the post office late on Friday afternoon.
If you drop your mail off right before closing on Friday the odds are very slim that it’s going to start moving through the infrastructure of USPS quick enough to get to its ultimate destination by Sunday evening.
Try to get there as early as you can to avoid these issues altogether.
Do Weekend Services Cost Extra?
Weekend delivery services are sometimes charged at a premium price from the USPS, but only if you are taking advantage of Priority Mail or Priority Mail Express.
Standard mail – including first-class mail and USPS Retail Ground – will still be delivered on Saturday depending on how quickly they moved through the USPS logistical backend.
The premium services, though, are going to command a premium price tag.
Just for your reference moving forward, as of late 2020 Priority Mail deliveries begin at $6.45 with Priority Mail Express deliveries beginning at $22.95.
Those premium price tags may or may not be worth the expedited delivery speeds that they guarantee. Only you are going to be determined whether or not that’s the case.
Are Weekend Delivery Times Different?
Weekend delivery times can be a little different, especially if your post office is operating on a five day work week schedule with the sixth day of delivery picked up by a different mail carrier – something we dig a little bit deeper into in just a moment.
Most of time, though, your average daily mail delivery timeline is going to work on the weekends just the same as it works during the week days.
That means that if your mail is usually delivered in the late afternoon (say 3 PM local time) that you’re likely going to see your mail on the weekend delivered around the same time.
The sole exception here, course, is on Sundays.
Because Sunday deliveries are so sporadic and so rare (aside from Amazon deliveries, anyway) your Sunday delivery timeline can really be all over the place.
Sometimes you might get your Sunday mail delivery bright and early in the morning. Other times you might get it around dinner time (or even later).
Sunday has the widest delivery window of all the days, just because of the unique particularities of this delivery schedule.
Can I Pick Up My Mail at the Post Office on the Weekend?
Most post offices are open for Saturday pickup, though they usually have limited times of operation that you want to be aware of.
Certain post offices will open at say nine in the morning on Saturday and then close at noon or 1 PM, which is a far cry from their “standard operating hours” during the week.
Sometimes you’ll still be able to pop into the post office and get your mail from a parcel locker or from a PO Box even if there isn’t anyone at the desk, but again this is all going to come down to your specific post office and how they operate.
On the flip side of things, though, there are no post offices that are open on Sundays as a general rule.
Some post offices may have workers in during the holiday season to move mail a little more efficiently when they are really slammed, but that doesn’t translate to opening up the retail side of the post office on Sundays.
Will I Have the Same Mail Carrier on the Weekends?
As we mentioned a moment ago, sometimes you will have the same mail carrier on the weekends and other times it will be someone else entirely – perhaps even someone that takes a different route to get your mail to you, changing up your delivery window.
A lot of post offices have mail carriers that work on a five day schedule with a “rotating” mail carrier that handles the sixth day of standard delivery across a variety of different routes.
You may have a regular mail carrier that handles Monday through Friday with the rotating mail carrier handling Saturday and Sunday deliveries.
Your regular mail carrier schedule might also be Tuesday through Saturday for a different five day window, dependent entirely on how your local post office handles these types of things.
At the end of the day, though, generally these kinds of delivery schedules are identical across the board.
Mail carrier share information about how to make their delivery route as efficient as possible, and it’s a good chance that your regular mail carrier has let the “rotating” carrier know how to keep to the same schedule as much as possible.
What Should I Do If I Urgently Need My Mail on the Weekend?
If you need to get your mail urgently on the weekend – and know that you need to pick up your mail or have your mail delivered outside of normal business hours – it’s not a bad idea to reach out to the USPS directly and see if they are able to help.
Sometimes the USPS is going to be able to help you track your package or your parcel as it moves through the delivery infrastructure, either expediting the package (usually have to pay for that privilege) or holding it for you at the post office when it arrives rather than sending it out for delivery.
You were expecting a delivery to happen during the weekend and it didn’t – your Saturday or Sunday delivery just didn’t arrive – it’s important to contact customer service, too.
The odds are good that you paid extra to guarantee weekend delivery in those situations. You’ll want to make sure that you are compensated or reimbursed if your premium purchase didn’t actually end up making much of a difference at all.
US Global Mail – Your Modern Mailbox is Waiting
Of course, if you are looking for a more modern mailbox solution than using a PO Box or a traditional street address it’s not a bad idea to consider everything that US Global Mail brings to the table.
An industry leader in the virtual mailbox world, US Global Mail has built up a fantastic reputation over more than 20 years of providing visuals with more modern mailing options.
As a US Global Mail customer you’re able to take advantage of mail scanning, mail forwarding, and package receiving services that you just won’t be able to advantage of with other companies.
You’ll also be able to take advantage of check depositing services and a whole range of other features that are unique to be US Global Mail experience, too.
You’re interested in learning more about the benefits and advantages of becoming a US Global Mail customer, and want to leverage a more modern solution for managing your mail (all while getting a legitimate street address as opposed to a PO Box address), you’ll want to check out the US Global Mail website today.
You can also reach out to US Global Mail customer service and speak to one of their representatives to have any and all of your questions answered live over the phone, too.
