Dive Brief:
- The U.S. Postal Service launched its Priority Next Day offering on Saturday with availability in 54 markets currently, according to an announcement from the agency.
- The next-day delivery service, available through direct USPS contracts, covers addresses within 150 miles of regional processing and distribution centers. Packages weighing up to 20 pounds can be entered at participating locations.
- "Designed to support e-commerce, this solution is perfect for retail and online businesses that require fast, swift, dependable, and cost-effective shipping," the Postal Service said in its announcement. "It caters to businesses with daily shipping volumes that align with specified cutoff windows."
USPS' Priority Next Day service launched in 54 markets
Dive Insight:
Priority Next Day's launch gives Postal Service shippers a new overnight delivery option that reaches more than 67 million customers spread throughout the country.
That number is poised to grow as the service expands to more markets — in January, the agency said Priority Next Day would eventually reach about 295 million people daily.
The offering's rollout also provides the Postal Service another avenue to better compete with FedEx and UPS and gain direct business from parcel shippers, rather than working through package consolidators.
Postmaster General Louis DeJoy has touted the shift away from consolidators and toward direct shipping offerings like Priority Next Day and Ground Advantage as key to the agency's long-term financial health.
This overhaul has led to industry-wide strategic shifts among consolidators, including UPS insourcing SurePost volume this year that it previously would've handed off to the agency.
January volume for the USPS' shipping and packages category fell 8.1% year over year after the SurePost split, outpacing overall volume declines of 6.3%. However, the category's revenue stayed flat despite the drop.
