Remaining FedEx UPS & USPS Shipping Holidays for 2016

The Ecommerce Shipping Podcast

Remaining FedEx UPS and USPS Shipping Holidays for 2016 - October, November, December 2016 thru January 3, 2017
Today is October 5, 2016. Let's talk about the remaining Shipping Holidays for 2016. Shipping holidays are those days that the major shipping companies take a break from picking up and delivering packages. As a small business owner or employee these are important dates to know. These dates tell you when you will be able to ship a customers order, when they should receive it, and if you should even come into work. We all know the major holidays, Thanksgiving, Christmas, New Years.... but what happens when a holiday falls on a weekend, as does Christmas and New Years? Is the holiday then observed on Friday, or maybe Monday, or possibly not at all?
Remaining Shipping Holidays for October, November, December 2016, and January 2017 for FedEx, UPS and USPS
Monday, October 10 Columbus Day - The USPS will be closed in observation of Columbus day, All FedEx and UPS services will be available, with the exception of FedEx Home Delivery, they work Tuesday thru Saturday.
Friday, November 11 Veterans Day - The USPS will be closed in observation of Veterans day, All FedEx and UPS service will be available.
Thursday, November 24 Thanksgiving Day - FedEx Express, Ground, Home Delivery and Smartpost , along with UPS, and the United States Postal Service will be closed in observation of Thanksgiving. UPS notates that UPS Express Critical® will be available this day.
All services will re open the next day, November 25th, the day after Thanksgiving, also known as Black Friday, one of the busiest shopping days of the year. The only exception is FedEx Express notes that they will have modified service this day. "Early Station, on call pickups and drop box closings in some areas". So if you plan on shipping anything FedEx express that Friday, you may want to give them a call to clarify if the service you require is available. Their phone# is 1-800-GO-FEDEX.
And don't forget Cyber Monday the following Monday, December 1st. If you haven't started making preparations for these very big shopping days, may I suggest that you get started ASAP. Make sure you have plenty of stock on hand, and plenty of shipping supplies for these two days, as hopefully they will be big sales,... and shipping days for you!
Friday, December 23 The Friday before Christmas. It looks like all FedEx services will be open, including Express, Ground, Home Delivery and Smartpost. The only exception to this is FedEx Ground notates that on this day they will only be delivering, no pickups for FedEx Ground on the Friday before Christmas. I have to assume this is to give drivers the full day to deliver packages and not split time with making pickups. I am certain that they do not want any undelivered packages this week. Also, don't fret about no pick ups this day, because I have to assume they would just sit at the local hub until Tuesday night, seeing there are no pickups Monday either.
The United States Postal Service is open and making their normal rounds on this day, as is UPS
Sunday, December 25 Christmas Day is on a Sunday this year. FedEx, UPS and the USPS will all be closed this day according to their websites.
Monday, December 26 The Day after Christmas, it looks like FedEx Express, Ground, Home Delivery and Smart Post will be closed this day, as will UPS and the USPS. UPS notates that UPS Express Critical® will be available this day.
Saturday, December 31 New Years Eve falls on a Saturday this year and New Years Day on Sunday, January 1, 2017
Monday, January 2 2017 FedEx and UPS will be closed the Monday after the Sunday New years day. USPS will also be closed on this Monday also, but as of today, October 3, 2016, the last holiday listed on the USPS Holiday Schedule is Christmas Day. I checked a Government website and it is listed as a federal Holiday, and it states that the USPS observes all of these days.
Tuesday, January 3 All FedEx, UPS, and USPS services will reopen, with the exception of FedEx Home Delivery. FedEx Home Delivery Drivers normal work schedule is Tuesday through Saturday, with Sunday and Monday off, this way the Home Delivery guys don't get left out and get a 3 day weekend.
I'm not sure how you guys handle holiday's at your company, but here at Fastpack Packaging, If FedEx and UPS are not running, that also usually means that the USPS isn't open either, and most of our suppliers are closed, so we go ahead and take it too! It's not like we can ship anything....
If you would like a printable copy of these dates, visit our blog at http://www.fastpack.net/blog/ or you can visit the below links for FedEx, UPS and USPS and print their list of holidays.
http://www.fedex.com/us/service-guide/holiday-schedule.html
https://www.ups.com/content/us/en/resources/ship/imp_exp/operation.html
https://about.usps.com/news/events-calendar/2016-postal-holidays.htm
https://www.federalpay.org/holidays
If you have any questions about Shipping or packaging your product lines for shipping, please feel free to email me, or tweet @FASTPACK , and I would love to help you! Don't forget, if you need shipping supplies, check out my company Fastpack Packaging Inc., for "Shipping Supplies from A to Z" at http://www.fastpack.net