New Year’s Eve marks the final day of the current calendar year.
It’s a time when big parties happen to bring in the new year.
People make new resolutions and commitments to make the most of the upcoming year.
If you have a package or piece of mail that needs delivery on New Year’s Eve, you may wonder if the USPS is going to be able to handle it.
Here’s a helpful guide on the USPS, what holidays it delivers on, and how you can ensure your mail arrives in time for New Year’s.
Does USPS Deliver On New Year’s Eve?
Yes, the USPS delivers on New Year’s Eve.
New Year’s Eve isn’t an official holiday that’s recognized by the federal government.
As such, the USPS doesn’t take it off.
However, they do take the following day off.
New Year’s Day is an official holiday that the federal government recognizes.
As such, while your mail and packages will arrive on New Year’s Eve per usual, you shouldn’t expect anything on New Year’s Day.
It’s also worth mentioning that if New Year’s Eve falls on a Sunday, then the USPS also won’t deliver mail or packages.
That’s because the USPS has Sundays off.
Otherwise, if it’s a weekday or Saturday and it’s New Year’s Eve, you can expect the USPS to pay a visit to your mailbox.
How Late Does The USPS Deliver Mail On New Year’s Eve?
New Year’s Eve follows the crunch and rush of the holiday season.
Many even see New Year’s as the final holiday in the holiday season.
However, since not that many people exchange gifts on New Year’s Day, it isn’t that busy for the USPS.
As such, the USPS treats New Year’s Eve as a typical work day.
In most cases, that means they work until 5 or 6 PM.
The post office can close anywhere from 4 PM to 6 PM, depending on its location.
Because it’s the day before a holiday, some post offices might even close a bit earlier.
However, in most cases, USPS workers will likely work no later than 8 PM.
That’s because, on a typical work day, they can deliver mail up to 8 PM.
Most workers try to get done around 5 PM, however, since that’s usually when the post office closes.
It’s also unlikely that people check their mailboxes at 8 PM.
As such, on New Year’s Eve, you can expect to receive your mail around the time that you usually do.
Why Is Your Mail Late On New Year’s Eve?
Although you can usually expect your mail to arrive around the same time on New Year’s Eve, there may come a time when it’s late.
This could be a frustrating experience when you’re waiting on a specific piece of mail or package.
Here are some reasons why your mail might be late on New Year’s Eve.
1. Traffic
One of the reasons why your mail might be late in arriving is because of traffic.
Unfortunately, mail carriers are often victims of traffic congestion.
While some mail carriers can walk to their destinations, most end up driving a truck around.
This is a problem on New Year’s Eve because there are usually a lot of events happening.
People are getting ready for big parties that night.
They’re out shopping, getting their hair down, or buying supplies if they’re hosting a party.
There are usually public parties going on, too.
City officials sometimes have streets blocked off because they’re setting up for the event later that night.
They might be building a stage for musical performances or getting a ball ready to drop during the midnight countdown.
Whatever it is that they’re doing, it’s causing traffic problems.
When there are traffic problems, your mail delivery worker is only able to go so fast.
They have to wait just like everyone else for the traffic to clear, so they can proceed with their route.
Besides busy roads, they can also face problems on private roads.
If people are partying early, for example, then residential roads might have tons of cars parked on the street.
This can make it difficult for a mail truck to navigate through since there are likely also cars driving up and down the road.
The whole thing slows the process down which means your mail delivery worker is a bit later to show up with your mail than usual.
2. Post-Holiday Fatigue
The holiday season is one of the busiest times for the USPS.
Because they partner with other carriers, like Amazon, FedEx, and UPS, they find themselves having to deliver packages just like them.
These other carriers often work with USPS to handle “last-mile” deliveries.
In this case, UPS, for example, will bring a package to a local post office.
They’ll then pass the package off to the USPS who then delivers it to the address from there.
Since the USPS helps deliver packages, they become extremely busy during the holiday season.
They have to deliver those packages promptly because everyone wants their package to arrive before Christmas.
This often means that USPS workers push themselves to work long hours to get everyone their packages.
There are always some that arrive late, but the USPS does what it can.
It isn’t just the delivery workers that are working extra hours either.
Those in charge of sorting and other functions in the USPS are also pulling long hours.
This problem becomes even worse because the USPS doesn’t always have the largest budget.
Since they have a tight budget, they’re not always able to hire the number of workers that they need to hire.
As such, a bottleneck ends up forming.
They can only get out so many packages because there are only so many workers.
This results in extreme fatigue since the holiday season lasts for a good month, at least.
By the time New Year’s Eve hits, everyone is facing tiredness and exhaustion.
As such, they might not be as efficient as they usually are until they recover and get some rest.
You may find that your mail arrives a little bit later just because of how exhausted the USPS team is.
3. Truck Problems
Another reason why your mail may not arrive on time on New Year’s Eve is that the mail delivery worker might face problems with their truck.
The USPS has a notorious problem with its budgets.
Although they sometimes get emergency funding from the federal government, the bulk of their budget comes from sales.
In particular, they sell things like stamps and packaging materials to customers.
It was a reliable source of income that the USPS used to pay its employees and keep up with vehicle maintenance.
Those days are over.
With chat messaging and smartphones, the need to send personal letters is no more.
With fewer people buying stamps, the USPS lost a major source of its funding.
As a result, they’re unable to pay as many workers as they’d like.
That slows down how much they’re able to deliver each day since they only have so many delivery workers handling the mail.
In particular, it impacts how much they’re able to spend on vehicle maintenance.
The USPS has several vehicles that it uses to deliver mail.
Some are small trucks and vans that handle mail delivery from the office to a person’s door.
Others are large semi-trucks and airplanes that handle long-distance travel.
When something breaks down, it puts a delay on the entire route.
The worker has to wait until a new truck arrives or for someone to come by and take over their route for them.
This can cause a major delay on New Year’s Eve because there might be a delivery worker now handling two routes instead of one.
They’re also handling a route that they’re not familiar with.
Your mail may then not arrive for two days since New Year’s is a holiday that the USPS takes off.
4. Weather Delays
New Year’s Eve is still in the heart of winter.
Although Christmas may be over, the snow tends to linger for several more months.
That can become a problem because it can cause a delay on New Year’s Eve.
Blizzards are one problem that can cause a delay.
When the conditions are so poor that the USPS delivery worker is unable to see, they might have to park somewhere until the blizzard dies down.
It’s simply not safe enough for them to drive or deliver the mail.
If they were to attempt to drive through a blizzard, they might get into an accident which can delay the delivery of your mail even more.
Once the blizzard clears, they might proceed.
Ice storms are another serious problem that can impact whether you get your mail on New Year’s Eve or not.
When the roads become icy, it can become impossible for USPS delivery workers to get to their destinations.
They might slide off the road or get into an accident.
As such, they may need to wait until the snowplows start melting the ice.
Because New Year’s Eve is during the winter, weather delays can also cause problems with the delivery of your mail.
How To Get Your Mail By New Year’s Day
If you have a package or piece of mail that you need before New Year’s Day, you may wonder what you can do to speed up the process.
Since the USPS doesn’t deliver on New Year’s Day, you have until New Year’s Eve to get your hands on your mail.
Here are a few things you can do to try to get your mail before New Year’s Day.
1. Package Intercept
One of the best things you can do is request a Package Intercept from the post office.
When you request a Package Intercept from the post office, you’re able to do a few things with it.
First, you can request that the package returns to the sender.
Second, you can have it delivered elsewhere instead of its current destination.
Finally, you can have them hold it for you at the post office.
You can only use Package Intercept on packages that are not out for delivery.
This helps ensure you get your package before New Year’s day because you’re able to go get the package, yourself, at the post office on New Year’s Eve.
As long as the package is there, you can pick it up and skip waiting for the delivery.
Since there’s always a chance that the USPS delivery worker might not be able to deliver the package on New Year’s Eve, you could end up waiting two days for it to arrive otherwise.
If you go get it yourself, then you don’t have to worry about that.
You’re able to get it immediately.
Keep in mind that you do need to pay extra to request a package intercept.
2. No Signatures
Another way to ensure your package arrives before New Year’s day is to not have it need a signature.
Some packages require signatures for the USPS delivery worker to hand them over.
If no one is home, then no one is there to sign for the package.
As a result, the worker ends up taking the package back to the post office.
If you arrive home after the post office closes for the night, you won’t be able to pick up your package until the next day.
You can ensure this doesn’t happen by either digitally signing for your packages or not requesting a signature in the first place.
This allows the delivery worker to place the package at your home and go along their way.
3. Hold Mail
If you know that you’re going to be out of town for the holidays, but you want to ensure you can get your packages on time, you should hold your mail with the USPS.
When you hold your mail, the USPS will keep from delivering anything to your address.
They’ll hold it for the requested time.
When you return home, you can go to the post office directly and pick up your items instead of waiting for them to resume deliveries.
This ensures you’re able to get your package in time instead of waiting for the USPS to resume deliveries to your address the next day.
Conclusion
The USPS does deliver on New Year’s Eve because it isn’t an official holiday.
However, because it’s a day where a lot of parties and events happen, you may experience some delays with your mail.
Luckily, there are a few things you can do to help speed up the process of delivery.
