Priority Mail 2-Day™ and 3-Day™- What does it actually mean?

[oldskoolmadskilz]

I've noticed that USPS has sub brands Priority Mail 2-Day™ and 3-Day™.  It prints on the label and shows up on their website, but when you look at the actual service commitment for specific zip codes, it names the service as two day, but only commits to three day.  I've even seen some where two day service takes 3 days if you ship Monday through Thursday, but if you ship Friday or Saturday it's two days.  You'd think this would be easy to get right

[a_c_green]

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@oldskoolmadskilz wrote:

I've noticed that USPS has sub brands Priority Mail 2-Day™ and 3-Day™.  It prints on the label and shows up on their website, but when you look at the actual service commitment for specific zip codes, it names the service as two day, but only commits to three day.

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It's a promise though not a guarantee, based on their estimate of the travel time from your sending location to the destination. For really close shipments (e.g. next state over), I have very occasionally seen Priority Mail 1-Day™ come up on my label.

I notice that Priority Mail has been moving pretty quick recently, and some of their delivery day estimates have actually moved up by a day before the package arrives. First Class Package is now lagging behind PM by at least a day or two.

[lesegouts]

They can never be sure based on their volume vs capacity. That  is the problem with Media Mail. It moves on a space available basis.

[nobody*s_perfect]

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@oldskoolmadskilz wrote:

I've noticed that USPS has sub brands Priority Mail 2-Day™ and 3-Day™....

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They aren't sub brands, they are just delivery estimates.  USPS has no control over factors like weather and airline routes. Also, deliveries to remote locations tend to take an extra day.

[1tuna]

the USPS has dumbed down the estimates so more late packages  will arrive on time

if they said 7 day priority, many of the lates would be gone

the thing with 1st class mail is they added a few more days to the estimate so when they are  late  they are also on time

[simba6]

Delivered by date, I'm lucky when they arrive at the correct address at all anymore.   Those dates don't seem to mean much as to when it arrives I have noticed.

[oldskoolmadskilz]

I do this when i estimate software completion dates for my customers, so I guess it's fair.

[crazystuff4sale]

Estimate™