USPS hopes for more Sunday package deliveries

Washington Postal Scene — By Bill McAllister

Starting Nov. 26, the United States Postal Service hopes to have more of its trucks making Sunday package deliveries, and their packages won’t just be coming from Amazon.

Walmart told the Associated Press Nov. 1 it is one of several retailers considering using the Sunday delivery program.

Seattle-based retailing giant Amazon has been the mainstay of the USPS Sunday package delivery program.

Kim Frum, a spokeswoman for USPS, declined to offer details of the new program, which was mentioned in an Oct. 25 news release.

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The Postal Service said then it was hoping to expand Sunday deliveries “to locations with high package volumes” and noted that has been making Sunday package deliveries “in most major cities.”

The Postal Service expects to deliver more than six million packages each Sunday in December and noted some deliveries will occur on Christmas Day.

The AP reported that the program will be available in 20 cities and will allow customers to place merchandise orders online before a Saturday cutoff time. Postal workers will then pick up the merchandise for delivery Sunday.

The package business has been a bright spot for the Postal Service in recent months, growing by double digits while first-class letter volume continues to drop.

Postmaster General Megan J. Brennan was quoted in the Oct. 25 news release as predicting that packages during the coming holiday mailing season will increase to 850 million, or “more than 10 percent” over last year’s numbers.

The package business involves higher costs than letter deliveries.

Financial officials have said packages are not growing fast enough to overcome deficit of dollars that used to come from letters.