The holiday season is right around the corner. If you have plans to mail presents during the holidays make sure you know all the shipping deadlines.
The U.S. Postal Service recommends the following mailing and shipping deadlines for expected delivery by Dec. 25:
Nov. 6 —USPS Retail Ground® service
Dec. 9 — Priority Mail® and First-Class Mail®
Dec. 11 — Priority Mail and First-Class Mail services
Dec. 14 — USPS Retail Ground service
Dec. 18 — USPS Priority Mail Express® service
Dec. 20 — First-Class Mail service (including greeting cards)
Dec. 20 — First-class packages (up to 15.99 ounces)
Dec. 21 — Priority Mail service
Dec. 23 — Priority Mail Express* service
USPS said the busiest shipping time is the two weeks before Christmas. Customer traffic is expected to start increasing the week of Dec. 9.
The new Click-N-ship feature allows consumers to ship their packages without leaving their homes. The online service allows consumers to order free Priority Mail boxes, prints shipping labels, purchase postage and request free next-day Package Pickup.
There have been some changes made to how you can ship your packages this year. For safety reasons, as of Oct. 1, you can no longer drop off stamped packages – which means using individual stamps as postage – that are more than one-half inch thick and/or weighing more than 10 ounces into blue collection boxes, building mail chutes, or Post Office mail slots.
Instead, you must go to a retail counter or use the self-service kiosk (SSK) to purchase a postage label. If you opt to use the SSK, to buy a postage label, you can drop off your package in the package slot, not the mail slot, at a Post Office
