The busiest shipping and mailing day of the year is upon us, with the U.S. Postal Service expecting to process more than 600 million cards, letters, postcards, periodicals, catalogs, and packages today alone. Gift givers who have already sent off their goodies shouldn’t encounter too many issues with their packages making it on time, but for the rest of us procrastinators, we might want to head to the post office, UPS or FedEx store sooner rather than later.
The cutoff for many shipping services – especially those that won’t break the bank – are fast approaching as the Chicago Tribune points out, with the deadline for standard post service typically used for cards and letters scheduled for tomorrow.
According to the USPS, Dec. 15 is the last day to send off Standard Post Service shipments in order for them to arrive by Dec. 25.
Other USPS delivery deadlines include:
• First-Class Mail Service on Dec. 19
• Priority Mail Service on Dec. 21
• Priority Mail Express Service on Dec. 23
While today’s the busiest shipping day for USPS, the agency says it expects to handle more than 30 million package deliveries on Dec. 21, as known as peak delivery day.
If you prefer other shipping methods, say those from FedEx and UPS, you have a bit more time to get that holiday shopping done, but not much.
Shipping deadlines for FedEx are:
• FedEx Ground and Home Delivery on Dec. 16
• FedEx Express Saver on Dec. 21
• FedEx 2 Day on Dec. 22
• FedEx First Overnight, Priority Overnight and Standard Overnight on Dec. 23
• FedEx Same Day on Dec. 25
Shipping deadlines [PDF] for UPS are:
• UPS 3 Day Select packages on Dec. 18
• UPS 2nd Day Air packages on Dec. 22
• UPS Next Day Air packages on Dec. 23
UPS warns that waiting to ship some packages may need additional time. For example, UPS 2nd Day Air packages shipped December 21 will need an additional day in transit, meaning they’ll be delivered Dec. 24. UPS 3 Day Select packages shipped on Dec. 21 will be delivered after Christmas Day.
by Ashlee Kieler via Consumerist