USPS, FedEx & UPS 2024 Holiday Shipping Deadlines

Liz Morton
Liz Morton


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The Q4 holiday shopping season is kicking into high gear with USPS, FedEx, and UPS all announcing recommended shipping deadlines to make sure your Christmas packages arrive on time.

USPS

The following are recommended send-by dates for expected delivery before Dec. 25.

2024 Holiday Mailing and Shipping Dates for Items Sent to Addresses in the Contiguous United States (Lower 48 States):

  • USPS Ground Advantage service: Dec. 18
  • First-Class Mail service: Dec. 18
  • Priority Mail service: Dec. 19
  • Priority Mail Express service: Dec. 21

2024 Holiday Mailing and Shipping Dates for Items Sent to Addresses in Alaska and Hawaii:

  • USPS Ground Advantage service: Dec. 16
  • First-Class Mail service: Dec. 18
  • Priority Mail service: Dec. 19
  • Priority Mail Express service: Dec. 20

For customers sending packages internationally, or to military addresses, USPS suggests checking the complete list of recommended holiday mailing and shipping dates at usps.com/holidayshippingdates.

FedEx

The information below provides the last shipping dates for select services to help ensure your package is scheduled to arrive by December 24, 2024.

Parcel Services

  • FedEx SameDay: December 24
  • FedEx First Overnight, FedEx Priority Overnight, FedEx Standard Overnight, Extra Hours: December 23
  • FedEx 2Day & FedEx 2Day AM: December 20
  • FedEx Express Saver: December 19
  • FedEx Ground: 5 day shipping, 4 day shipping, 3 day shipping, 2 day shipping, 1 day shipping
  • FedEx Home Delivery: 5 day shipping, 4 day shipping, 2-3 day shipping, 1 day shipping
  • FedEx Ground Economy: December 13

Delivery times for Ground and Home Delivery vary based on origin and destination. For specific times, visit: https://www.fedex.com/grd/maps/ShowMapEntry.do

For freight, international and other services, check the complete list of FedEx holiday shipping deadlines: https://www.fedex.com/en-us/holiday/last-days-to-ship.html

UPS

These are the recommended UPS 2024 Holiday Season last days to ship for Dec. 24 delivery.

U.S. Domestic Shipping Services

  • UPS Ground: Check ups.com/ctc for details
  • UPS 3 Day Select: Dec. 19
  • UPS 2nd Day Air: Dec. 20
  • UPS Next Day Air: Dec. 23

For international and other services, check the complete list of UPS holiday shipping deadlines: https://www.ups.com/assets/resources/webcontent/en_US/2024-Year-End-Holiday-Schedule.pdf

Of course as usual, weather delays or delays due to increased volume are always a possibility so - it's best not to wait until the last minute!

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Liz Morton is a 17 year ecommerce pro turned indie investigative journalist providing ad-free deep dives on eBay, Amazon, Etsy & more, championing sellers & advocating for corporate accountability.


Recent Comments
Avatar PlaceholderConcernedYesterday
It is Slowwwwwww and is more expensive to the buyer. In the past items I have ordered will sit at the hub for around 2 weeks. I avoid ebay unless I cannot get it elsewhere.
Avatar Placeholdermarks3047Yesterday
Hi, I have a friend who had an interesting experience recently that fell under this issue. They sold an item, packed and dispatched to the UK Ebay hub, this was midway through the period as the pause occurred. They then received a message from the buyer that they had checked tracking and discovered that the item had disappeared on ebay, no advice. It then turned out that the tracking had been fudged and the package was with them but not forwarded on to the USA. A few hours of to and fro to get the answer that it was due to the tariff dilemma. NO fault of the buyer(who had paid) or the seller ((who had been paid) and a strange response that the item could not be delivered. The buyer would be refunded in full, the seller would keep payment and the item would not be returned. Strange, Ebay must be hurting paying our both sides of the deal+
Avatar Placeholdercwi2 days ago
  1. Start building out the brand and promoting the heck out of Canadian sellers to our domestic market. Work with Federal/Provincial level governments in the push to build a strong presence here in Canada.

  2. Add other calculated shipping options than Canada Post UPS/FedEx for domestic shipping - partner with couriers nationwide, leverage agreements and software integrations with courier reseller platforms such as Stallion Express. Build out a crowd sourced network using national/regional retail locations as drop points for rural regions, leveraging transport networks to move packages to courier pickup points, akin to the UK courier model but adapted to the Canadian realities.

  3. Create a centralized international shipping clearing house to aide micro businesses with affordable shipping rates and customs clearance to avoid pitfalls and complexities (akin to US eIS).

  4. Bring features forward to the platform from other localizations, such as prepaid best offer acceptance, etc.