Mail and Package Volume Dipped During the 2022 Holiday Season, but USPS Delivered More Quickly

The U.S. Postal Assistance noticed an 11{6932ee47e64f4ce8eedbbd5224581f6531cba18a35225771c06e4f1b3f0d9667} dip in mail and package deal volume in the course of its active vacation year in 2022 in comparison to the past year, but it successfully created its deliveries more rapidly. 

USPS trumpeted the news immediately after also boasting of a profitable election season, saying it sent 54.4 million ballots in the course of the 2022 midterm normal elections and the Georgia runoff. It took the Postal Support significantly less than two times on common to produce ballots from voters to election officers and 99{6932ee47e64f4ce8eedbbd5224581f6531cba18a35225771c06e4f1b3f0d9667} of ballots built it to election places of work in just a few days. All informed, like the primaries, USPS delivered more than 105 million ballots in 2022. 

It right away followed up that do the job with its busiest time of the calendar year: between Nov. 26 and Dec. 30, the mailing agency approved 11.7 billion mailpieces. That marked a reduce from the 13.2 billion letters and offers it took in through the same interval in 2021. It took an regular of 2.7 days to make its deliveries in that interval, nonetheless, in contrast to 2.5 times through the extra modern holiday break season.

USPS attributed its achievement to a far more stable workforce, possessing transformed 41,000 aspect-time employees into career positions in 2022 and much more than 100,000 given that the start of 2021. That permitted the company to use just 20,000 seasonal staff members, just fifty percent the overall in the past 12 months. In early November, Postmaster Standard Louis DeJoy introduced USPS had decreased its seasonal employ the service of focus on from 28,000 to 20,000, a approximately 30{6932ee47e64f4ce8eedbbd5224581f6531cba18a35225771c06e4f1b3f0d9667} lower. The Postal Support has also invested substantially in its infrastructure, together with by boosting its each day package deal processing ability to 60 million through the installation of 249 new sorting equipment. 

Postal officers predicted general on-board personnel would dip by all around 5{6932ee47e64f4ce8eedbbd5224581f6531cba18a35225771c06e4f1b3f0d9667}, or a lot more than 31,000 employees, for the 2022 getaway year, but reported it was nonetheless improved positioned than in yrs past. USPS confronted a crisis in the 2020 holiday getaway season when offer quantity soared by 40{6932ee47e64f4ce8eedbbd5224581f6531cba18a35225771c06e4f1b3f0d9667} and the substantial demand from customers, paired with staff shortages exacerbated by the COVID-19 pandemic, led to unprecedented shipping and delivery delays.

For its election perform, USPS went to terrific lengths to ensure timely supply of ballots. Postal administration agreed to continue on getting the identical amazing steps it experienced in location in 2020 as section of a settlement arrangement with the NAACP and Community Citizen. At article offices, supervisors had been empowered to extend several hours and deploy staff to postmark ballots. Letter carriers were being essential to check each mailbox for outgoing mail, even if they experienced very little to drop off in them. USPS produced collections from blue fall boxes on the Sunday in advance of Election Day, which it generally does not do, and despatched them out by 10 a.m. on Monday. On the subsequent Monday and Tuesday, services were necessary to just take special journeys to neighborhood boards of elections to drop off ballots. Neighborhood postmasters continued coordinating all those drop offs until eventually the last working day just about every point out acknowledged mail ballots.

Postal officers mentioned in the runup to the midterms that they ended up reaping the rewards of their 12 months-round focused election groups, improved interactions with election administrators and other initiatives. Even prior to the extraordinary steps went into result, the Postal Assistance applied trainings for discipline team, everyday “all clears” to assure no ballots are left behind, log sheets for services to observe election mail and a web page for voters and election officers to report any challenges. Its joint election activity force, recognized with associates from postal unions and associations, have ballot monitors and ambassadors who make certain the good actions are becoming adopted and that workers are mindful of their obligations.

Amber McReynolds, a voting advocate and election administration expert who President Biden appointed to the USPS board of governors in 2021, mentioned USPS done at a “very superior level” during the election and said the outcomes spoke for them selves. DeJoy additional the Postal Service mirrored the accomplishment it mainly accomplished in 2020. 

“Once once more, our entire Postal Service workforce has efficiently shipped the nation’s ballots securely and on time,” DeJoy explained. “The American persons can continue on to really feel confident in using the U.S. mail to satisfy their democratic responsibility.”