It’s the holiday season. Compound that with covid-19 worries and various quarantines, many people are opting for sending packages to their loved ones in place of the annual meetings. Be aware that some major shipping services are limiting the number of packages they will receive from a distributor in order to manage customers and employees in a friendly manner. This needs to be taken into consideration for each delivery order. Here is a quick run down of dates to note.
UPS
The last day to ship a package via UPS 3 day Select packages to arrive by Christmas Eve is Monday, December 21, 2020. Tuesday and Wednesday, December 22-23 are open for shipping. However, delivery dates may be adjusted unless additional services, like next day, are paid for. December 24 and 31 is open for shipping only certain packages or possibly pickup orders. Next day air packages picked up on these dates will be delivered on the following Monday- December 28 or January 4. UPS is closed for all employees on Christmas Day and New Year’s Day. Additional details about shipping and receiving can be found here.
FedEx
Fedex has similar guidelines for holiday shipping [1]. Their ground or home deliveries has a final shipping date of December 15. Express shipping, freight, and overnight shipping can be shipped the last few days before Christmas. This is valid in certain locations only. Shipments to Puerto Rico and Canada can ship as late as Christmas eve and still make the destination on time, for a fee. On Christmas Eve, Fedex may have early closings in some areas. Freight is unavailable then. New Year’s Eve has similar restrictions with offices closing by 6:00 p.m. Fedex is closed Christmas Day and New Year’s Day.
USPS
For regular mail service, the USPS recommends shipping your package no later than December 15 [2] in order to receive it by Christmas Eve. The first class mail service deadline is December 18. Priority mail service has a deadline of December 19. For certain areas, the priority mail service deadline is December 23. Alaska shipments closely resemble regular mail service. Hawaii service needs to be moved up a couple days to meet their deadline.
Notes:
- ^https://www.fedex.com/content/dam/fedex/us-united-states/shipping/images/FedEx-Holiday-Schedule.pdf (go back ↩)
- ^https://www.usps.com/holiday/holiday-shipping-dates.htm (go back ↩)
