The check is in the mail. How long it takes to get there just depends, however.

The U.S. Postal Service tracks delivery performance metrics on a weekly and quarterly basis. According to the latest statistics, the average time for the USPS to deliver a piece of mail or a package was 2.5 days.

For the period of time between July 1-Sept. 15, slightly more than 91% of first-class mail was delivered on time when compared to the USPS service standard, a drop of 1.1 percentage points from the fiscal third quarter, USPS said. The figure improved to 95% for marketing mail but dropped to 86% for periodicals.

According to USPS, the goal is to meet or exceed 95% on-time service performance over the next decade.

No holiday surcharges

Mailing holiday packages won’t cost you extra this year.

USPS will not add any additional surcharges for customers this holiday season, something it said adds “increased predictability in pricing or customers.” The decision means there will be no additional fees for residential area delivery, Saturday delivery or minimum volumes.

In 2022, postal surcharges were in place from early October to late January and ranged from an additional 25 cents to $6.50. Last year, USPS processed more than 11.7 billion pieces of mail and packages during the holiday season with an average delivery time of 2.5 days.