THINGS MAY GET INTERESTING FROM HERE
A couple of things to keep in mind as you peruse last week’s delivery results:
- The mail included here was delivered in November. Things typically get worse in December.
- While the percentage of First-Class flats delivered on time may not look too terrible, about three fourths of the late flats were more than five days late.
- Last year, both First-Class and Marketing Mail flats got bad in December and generally didn’t come back…sort of…until May.
- Flats are starting from a much worse point this year.
A piece of mail being a day late is not the end of the world. Heck, the Postal Service already has an official (possibly trademarked) name for it. “Performance Plus 1”. If you don’t have that much flexibility built into your efforts, then shame on you. But Performance Plus 5? Performance Plus 10? I hope USPS hasn’t trademarked those…
So, let’s just call last week’s performance a C minus. What happens in the next few weeks is what matters. Will the trend of the last three years continue, with each year worse that the one that preceded it? Or will it stabilize or maybe even – dare I say it? – improve? Ooo. Stay tuned.
