The United States Postal Service (USPS) announced Thursday that it will deliver seven days a week in major cities during the height of the holiday season, including Christmas Day, according to an article by Fortune. The USPS hopes to compete with FedEx and UPS with the surge of e-commerce.
The National Retail Federation forecasted that e-commerce sales would increase as much as 11 percent during the holiday season. UPS has doubled its seasonal hires this year to handle the increased workload, and FedEx has increased its staff as well.
USPS will begin its seven-day delivery on Nov. 17, and will deliver packages every day through Christmas Day. It is expecting to handle between 450 million and 470 million packages during the holidays—12 percent higher than last year.
Unlike FedEx and UPS—which both announced price increases for the end of December-—USPS said it lowered some prices for business and frequent shippers.
USPS’ goal is to make up for past losses, losing money in 21 of the last 23 periods, including a $2 billion loss in the quarter ending on June 30, 2014.
