USPS Post Office announces festive opening hours

Only Priority Mail Express mail or parcels will be delivered on Christmas Day this year, with many USPS Post Offices closing around lunchtime on Christmas Eve in 2015. On New Year’s Eve the Post Offices will be open on regular hours.

Revised hours will be posted at each Post Office, and business customers are advised to check with their business mail entry units for holiday hours of operation during the festive season. In a statement from USPS, it suggested, “Areas where Post Offices may have different hours from this schedule will issue local media announcements specific to their locations.”

Mail delivery other than the Priority Mail Express mail will not be delivered on Christmas Day this year. In a statement the US national mail operator said, “Blue collection boxes having final collection times before 12 p.m. will not be affected. However, boxes with final collection times scheduled after 12 p.m. may be picked up early.”

This will mean that, “Mail should be deposited into these mailboxes by 12 p.m. for early pickup on Dec. 24 and Dec. 31. Customers requiring postal services later on Christmas Eve are encouraged to contact their local Post Office. Customers also may call 1.800.ASK.USPS for additional information.”

Though there is some commercial pressure for delivery companies to work throughout the festive period, no national operator in any Western nation has moved toward this. Royal Mail will be operating a full day at many of its delivery offices around the UK and will pause on Christmas Day as well. The USPS has a lot of commercial advantage in terms of its size and reach across the US but government is acutely aware that it could have an unfair commercial advantage against its commercial competitors so reigns it in where possible. The newly privatised Royal Mail is not a government body and though it is by far the largest operator in the UK sector is still subject to market forces.

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