June 18, 2020
The month of April, the first full month under the coronavirus pandemic and associated shut-downs, proved to be much better than the USPS predicted. The boom in package shipping is offsetting much of the loss of monopoly-protected market-dominant mail. Here are the volumes and revenues the Postal Service reported for April:
April 2020 Vol Rev
First Class -8.9% -8.1%
Periodicals -17.7% -18.4%
MM -45% -45.7%
Packages +34.9% +38%
Total -27.2% -3.8%
The weekly data are indicating that May’s monthly results will be better than April’s. Packages are trending up 60 percent, with mail down 24 percent. Marketing Mail has improved from a loss of half its volume to a quarter drop.
| USPS Weekly Volume Changes 2020 (week ending) | ||||||||||
| Product/Category | 10-Apr | 17-Apr | 24-Apr | 1-May | 8-May | 15-May | 22-May | 29-May | 5-Jun | 12-Jun |
| Total Mail | -32.00% | -29.00% | -28.00% | -27.00% | -32.60% | -29.00% | -26.90% | -25.60% | -21.20% | -24.10% |
| Flats | -36.50% | -36.00% | -37.40% | -30.10% | -23.00% | -37.40% | n/a | -34.00% | -30.00% | -26.80% |
| FCM Single-Piece | -16.30% | -25.00% | -16.60% | -21.70% | -9.00% | -14.80% | -10.60% | -9.00% | -12.00% | -13.50% |
| FCM Presort | -2.20% | -8.00% | -2.00% | -3.30% | -4.40% | -8.40% | -9.80% | -7.00% | -10.00% | -11.10% |
| Marketing Mail | -42.50% | -50.00% | -43.70% | -45.30% | -40.00% | -38.60% | -35.80% | -30.00% | -35.00% | -26.60% |
| Periodicals | -17.70% | -7.00% | -38.70% | 10.20% | 2.60% | -42.00% | -16.00% | -16.00% | -17.50% | -18.00% |
| Total Packages | 20.70% | 29.00% | 50.00% | 59.40% | 64.00% | 77.00% | 80.00% | 73.00% | 66.00% | 60.00% |