Have you recently found yourself Googling “Is mail delivered on the 4th of July?” or “are post offices open or closed on Independence Day?”
Every passing day, Independence Day is coming near. People celebrate the day with juicy stakes and by sending gifts to their loved ones to remind the importance of freedom.
Well, the 4th of July seems a pretty normal package and mail delivery day to some, isn’t it? But on Memorial Day & Independence Day some currier companies are shut down completely. And it seems pretty fair.
But the question is, what if you want to send something on this day? Or which company (Amazon, USPS, UPS, FedEx, DHL) exactly considers which holidays as federal once to plan ahead of it?
In this blog post, we’ll clear all confusion regarding holidays especially like above ones, and also tell you what some big currier companies do on any perceived holiday (whether it’s a federal or not).
Keep reading, we’re here to make you prepare for your holiday celebration ahead to make sure all your goods arrive on time!
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So, what’s the general answer?
Before we start spitting any type of answers, let’s just clear one thing. There are 2 types of holiday categories:
- Federal (AKA official, government)
- Non-Federal (AKA unofficial, public perceived)
When we’re talking about service days or working hours, people mostly get confused about non-federal holidays or sometimes mix federal holidays with non-federal ones. Hopefully, we’re clear on this.
Now, government-owned, and many private services see the 4th of July as a federal holiday, and will be closed or will operate with reduced working hours (mostly happens in the private sector).
As a fact, Independence Day is the 6th federal holiday of the year though, here are the rest of the top 5 federal holidays of this year following; Columbus Day (Oct. 10), Veterans Day (Nov. 11), Thanksgiving Day (Nov. 24th), Christmas Day (Dec. 26th), and Martin Luther King Jr. birthday.
To get the full list of federal holidays, click here
For instance, the US postal mail service delivery is fully closed. Further in this blog, we’ll cover other services in detail too.
Their service struggles so much that they close early and open later, or they just shut their doors to trick people into believing it is closed. Kinda lame, isn’t it?
So, in your case, your state’s post office might be open on the 4th of July but not taking any new packages or they might be short-staffed and not fully functioning.
But what about non-federal ones (AKA public holidays) around the US? Well, this is the most confusing part. It’s a hit-and-miss guess, not all business is closed on it but some considered it worth a paid leave.
To name a few, Easter, Labor Day, and Mother’s Day are some examples. To get the full list of public holidays around the US, click here
And under these public holidays, there can be 2 options for business:
- Fully closed
- Pseudo closed – meaning working on multi shifts on customized working hours
Mostly, what we’ve noticed is that businesses prefer partially closed ones. Even Amazon has started this recently, and even currier companies also preferred this long ago.
We’ll talk about how to accurately know the office’s timing later. Reading online might give you the result but it can be outdated or irrelevant to your local post office so you, better stick with our upcoming suggestion.
Is US Mail Delivered On the 4th Of July via USPS, FedEx, UPS, DHL, and Amazon?
UPS and USPS:
In 2022, Independence Day is on Monday, meaning that the last regular delivery day would be Friday, July 1st.
Like previous years, this year both UPS and USPS will observe Independence Day as a federal holiday and will be closed worldwide – which means they won’t deliver any regular mails.
Now, the best way to save time, money, and energy is to buy your desired supplies online, while keeping shipping days within 3-5 business days in advance.
If that’s not the option or you want to be a little faster while being lazy, choose Express, Priority Mail, or Critical service for the fastest shipping solutions, estimated time of delivery would come to 24h (within the US only).
These three options have different pricing obviously and they’re quite expensive.
The best thing is, if you live in an area where USPS or UPS offers weekend deliveries, you may be able to get your package on Saturday or Sunday.
But if you’re jumbled about which one to choose? We can help by giving you a rule of thumb…
So, if your package is larger and you want to send it worldwide, UPS is the goto option. But if the package is smaller, and you want to send in economical pricing throughout the US, USPS is the preferred option.
FedEx & DHL
FedEx is closed partially on July 4 just like USPS and UPS, but their one service is available called “Custom critical service”, which will stay open, and again FedEx office will operate on modified hours for it.
FedEx’s “custom critical service” is the same as USPS priority mail or UPS express delivery. Don’t get confused, each courier companies have its terminologies.
If you’re not up for the custom critical delivery option, you can wait for normal operations to resume on Tuesday, July 5 to send your package as regular delivery.
This is the same for other federal holidays, you’ve to use the critical delivery service option to get the package within 24h.
And even if you want to go for it, depending on the location, FedEx offices will work on altered hours or be entirely closed. So, you’ve to figure out your own to know what they’re up to.
But how? It’s easy, we recommend directly consulting with your local office to know their schedule during holidays.
And coming to DHL, honestly, it is completely the same as FedEx. Regular delivery would be completely closed throughout the US. Their post offices would operate on customized hours.
Only DHL shipments under express or critical will be operational during holidays. Again, contact the local post office to know the current schedule.
Amazon & 3rd party stores
Looks strange in the list of courier services, but around the US. Amazon is getting its name within the top 5 courier delivery services at affordable prices.
For Amazon and any other big 3rd party stores, any federal holiday like Independence Day is considered a shipping holiday.
Why? Because any big store uses some logistics companies such as FedEx, USPS, or UPS to deliver their packages, so they have to comply with the schedule.
But here’s the catch. Amazon or any other store doesn’t provide any special offer for urgent delivery. So, if the estimated delivery date for your Amazon order falls on a holiday, you better consider it delivered the next day.
USPS, FedEx, DHL, and UPS hours: Is the post office open or closed
Unfortunately, FedEx, DHL, UPS, and USPS are mostly closed on Sundays throughout the year but still, you need to check your state or local post offices, they might be working under modified hours. But generally, they’re close.
Generally, all of these services operate from Monday through Friday, 7 AM to 9 PM, sharp. Central time. USPS stretches the close time to midnight though.
We’ve also tailored a separate article just on USPS, FedEx, DHL, and UPS services working hours and how they operate on holidays.
But still, there are some sparks of hope though. Some places have self-service machines nowadays that you can use to ship things.
But to do this, you’ve to print the labels, pay the postage, and drop them off. You can buy stamps from any local grocery store. It’s like being a post office yourself.
Still, it has some limitations. You won’t be able to get money orders or passport services but there might be other non-USPS locations to help you out if needed.
If you are considering this much hassle for a parcel, you better go with any express or critical service offered by any courier company you like. It’s worth the money.
We also have written an article comparing prices of each currier service plan and their avg. delivery days.
Final Words On “Federal Holiday Carrier Deliveries”
Just because you might not always see mail carriers on a holiday, doesn’t mean all USPS or any other delivery services cease operations entirely!
To some businesses, Independence Day is one of the 4 days a year to close themselves completely. Christmas, Thanksgiving, and new years are the other 3.
You’ll be shocked to know, that plenty of offices operate 24hrs, 365 days a year. Yes, it’s true, workers can demand to work holidays as well, and this is pretty normal.
Even though the regular courier services aren’t operational, there are always a few priority services available for customers on special occasions. USPS Priority Mail and Express Mail are the best examples.
However, we’re saying it again, If your shipment isn’t critical, wait or organize the delivery ahead because it’s cheaper.
