USPS – The Post Office will be closed on Wednesday, December 5th

[almasty]

https://link.usps.com/2018/12/03/honoring-president-bush/

Honoring President Bush
Delivery, retail services suspended Dec. 5

President Donald J. Trump has proclaimed Dec. 5 as a national day of mourning throughout the United States and has called on the American people to pay homage to the memory of former President George H.W. Bush on that day.

Out of respect for President Bush, the nation’s 41st commander in chief, and to honor his vast contributions to the United States during his lifetime, and consistent with the presidential proclamation, the Postal Service will observe the national day of mourning.

The Postal Service will suspend regular mail delivery and retail service Dec. 5. USPS will provide limited package delivery service on that day to ensure that the Postal Service network remains fluid and USPS does not experience any impacts to its package delivery operations that might negatively affect customers or business partners during the remainder of the busy holiday season.

All Postal Service facilities — including headquarters in Washington, DC, and area and district administrative offices — are included in the national day of mourning. Local managers will advise employees on staffing levels to maintain operations and prepare for the resumption of regular activities Thursday, Dec. 6.

Pay and leave administration for the national day of observance for affected bargaining unit employees is governed by section 519.4 of the Employee and Labor Relations Manual and provisions of May 4, 2000, memorandums of agreement between the Postal Service and its unions.

Additionally, USPS facilities are required to fly the flag at half-staff through sunset Sunday, Dec. 30, to honor Bush, who died Nov. 30 at age 94.

[Sharyn]

Huh, I had heard about the national day of mourning, but didn’t put two and two together wrt the post office. Interesting.

[Joe]

I wonder if we need to do anything on our end so we are not hit on our metrics for not shipping on Wednesday. I have a one day handling, I may need to adjust to two days to cover Wednesday.

[Jay]

I assume eBay will hopefully do something to their shipping schedules so sellers arent penalized.

[aperture]

I just had an order going out 1st class zone 7 and the eBay app said “buyer expects this by Tuesday 12/11. That seems like a long delivery estimate and must be accounting for the interruption in service tomorrow.

I wonder if there will be a measurable impact on overall US sales from taking USPS off line for a day.

[Joe]

From eBay’s Selling Announcements:

USPS has announced very limited operations for December 5, 2018, in observance of the National Day of Mourning for the passing of President George H.W. Bush.

As such,

All Post Office locations will be closed.
Regular mail will not be delivered.
Package delivery will be limited.

eBay will automatically protect your Seller Performance and your late shipment rate will not be impacted for USPS shipments during this closure (any defects incurred will be removed and correctly reflected in your monthly seller evaluation).

And remember, as a holiday best practice, please ensure to handle within or faster than your handling time.

Thank you for selling on eBay.

[Sharyn]

Sort of off-topic, but I was told today that the 2 oz letter rate is going up from $0.50 to $0.55 towards the end of January 2019. That’s a pretty big jump. Other costs will be going up as well.

[almasty]

Unfortunately, it will probably get worse:

Treasury proposes postal changes

[Retro Treasures WV]

The irony here is that the majority of my amazon package are delivered by FedEx and UPS – two companies who DO have profitability in mind.

So again, is amazon the real problem with USPS, or is it extremely USPS’s bloated administration and overhead.

[almasty]

Yeah, we rarely get USPS delivery of Amazon prime orders where I live, either. Most packages usually get delivered by unmarked white vans. I’ve also seen moving trucks during really busy parts of the year.

[Ryanne]

here is a blog post at stamps.com about all the postal rate changes (don’t they go up every year?)
https://blog.stamps.com/2018/10/19/usps-announces-postage-rate-increase-starts-january-27-2019/

[Amatino]

FlipperTools has a great breakdown of the new rates on their FB page. I don’t know if it’s publicly available or you are supposed to be a member, so I’m not going to share it in case I do wrong, but you can join their FB group for access.

https://www.facebook.com/groups/flippertools/

[IndySales]

Mine still show “ship within 24 hours”. I assume everyone has that?

With handling times being as broken as they are, I expect some percentage of sellers are going to need to call in and have the defects removed manually. Happened to me on some other postal holiday this year despite eBay recognizing it and extending my handling time automatically.

[antarestar]

Yup, mine shows items that are supposed to be shipped today.

[Author]

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