USPS Postal Service?

Question

When you send a letter through a mailbox, does the item get sent on the same day?

For example, I send a letter to California from Pennsylvania. It takes 3 days. I send it on Monday. So does it mean it reaches there on Wednesday? (Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday) or does it start traveling the day after it is collected?

Answer 1

The short answer is, yes. All mail is colleted and sent to the plant on the same day as the "last collection" notice on the box. The reason you are getting all the the other information from other folks is that they are partially or not at all taking into account the fact that the USPS, to the greatest extent, is using the wheel and spoke concept. That's why most letters now take an average amount of time, because there is more of a standardization, but alas a lot of the personal touches and in-town redirection, that sometimes saved time, is now gone. In other words all local mail is now sent to a hub, either a "district", region or an airport and then the mail is radiated back down the spoke to you. Sometimes it works great, sometimes its a mess. Welcome to (cost saving) mechanization.

Answer 2

Are you mailing from a blue collection box or a curbline box at your house? All blue collection boxes have a last pickup time posted and curbside boxes are picked up when the carrier delivers your mail.

If you get your letter in before the pickup time the processing begins that night.

USPS strives to get first class mail delivered under the following standards. We achieve it more than 95% of the time.

Within 200 miles - 1 day
200-500 miles - 2 days
500-3000 miles - 3 days

If you mail a letter from CA to PA before pickup time on a Monday, it should be delivered on Thursday. The three days is 3 x 24 hours = 72 hours from the pickup.

What else can you buy for 39 cents these days?

Answer 3

Some of the answer depends upon what type of service you paid for. Next day delivery will get it there the next day....usually. Next day delivery before 10 a.m. will get it there by then....usually. For a regular letter, a lot depends on how close you are to a major postal facility. Mail is sent from the post offices in the region to a central location where it is then sorted and sent on to the regional centers for the destination zip codes. There it is sorted again and distributed to the individual post offices where it is sorted and delivered.

A letter mailed from NC to NV (approx. 2,000 miles) usually arrives in two days. However, there have been times when it has taken a week or more to be received.

And then you have to hope that it is delivered to the correct address. I just finished getting a mess straightend out because my Visa bill was misdelivered and never received by me.

Answer 4

It depends on the time you sent the letter and collection times at the post office, or from the box in which you mailed it.
Did you send it before 3pm (some places 4)? If so then yes it went out on that day.

Answer 5

to me, the whole postal service is confussing...in my town if i send a letter say to someone say a block down the road, and i put it in the mail box today, the postal carrier will pick the letter up and take it back to my local post office. to me the logical thing is for the postal carriers would run it through machine make sure i have proper postage and mail it back to me the next day......it does not work like this in my town.....the letter will be sent 45 miles down the road get their postal stamp on the letter.... then sent back to my local post office. and receive the letter a day later......so i am guessing if you took your letter to a post office...they said three days....that will be wednesday...or if u put in your mailbox..make take a day longer.....i dont know why i wrote thie so long...guess just a thought of where the letters have to go through to get somewhere :P

Answer 6

I guess it depends. I sent a letter from New York to Ohio, it took six days. My aunt sent a letter from France it took four days to reach me. Personally, I think the e-mails are putting a damper on the USPS..