The United States Postal Service is confident that your holiday mail will be on time, so long as you get your shopping and shipping done early.

The first deadline, for USPS ground advantage and first-class mail, is December 18. Priority mail and priority mail express should be sent by December 19 and 21, respectively. For Hawaii, Alaska and military or international destinations, consider shipping at least a few days to more than a week earlier. More information on recommended deadline dates can be found on the USPS website.

A string of successes in recent years, since the implementation of the Delivering For America plan, has given the USPS confidence that the postal service has made the necessary adjustments to accommodate rapid changes in how people use mail carriers.

“The way people use the mail today is obviously different than it was 30-40 years ago,” said Stephen Doherty, a USPS communications representative for the Northeast. “There's been a decline in the letter size mail, whereas packages have kind of gone through the roof. So, we've had to adapt to that, retooling our facilities and our transportation networks and adjusting things to suit the new reality. We're in a good position this year and confident that we'll get through the holidays without a glitch.” In 2023, the percentage of on time delivery during the peak holiday season hovered around or above 90%. First class mail saw an on-time delivery percentage increase by 28.5% from 2021, when the USPS received a record volume of 13.2 billion shipments in the midst of the COVID-19 pandemic, to 2023.

“When the pandemic hit, people stopped traveling. A lot of our stuff at the time was flying on commercial airlines, so we’re competing for the [limited] cargo space with other companies,” Doherty said. “So, part of what they're doing with this Delivering For America plan is relying more on ground transportation. It's more reliable. We can get stuff across the country without weather interfering with it as much, and it's more cost effective.”

In New England, the biggest challenge affecting on time deliveries is unexpected weather, according to Doherty. Other challenges, like the need for a rapid influx of seasonal hires, have been mitigated in recent years. A typically low unemployment rate in New England has historically made it difficult to reach seasonal hire numbers, but those quotas have been reduced by higher employee retention and converting seasonal hires to year-round positions.

This year is also the first year that the USPS will be delivering using electronic vehicles around the country.

“In addition to saving on fuel costs, the Postal Service’s use of [electric] vehicles is ideally suited for this,” Doherty said. “Leave the office in the morning, go out, deliver their routes and come back, it's usually over a shorter span of space. So being able to charge them every night and have them ready to go the next day, they kind of work well for us.”

The battery-powered fleet isn’t new to New England, but the expansion is part of efforts to put the postal service in the black. Though it doesn’t receive tax dollars, the USPS is still dedicated to operating as a service, the only mail carrier that reaches every address in America.

To make doubly sure it gets there, Doherty recommended putting the delivery address and return address on a slip of paper inside the package in case it gets separated from the shipping label.

“If you’re sending a package, Julie Andrews might be a big fan of brown paper packages tied up with string, but we really prefer a good solid box with packing tape on it,” Doherty said. “And if there’s any snow coming up on the holidays, don’t forget your letter carrier and clear a path to your home or mailbox so we can make the delivery safe.”