The calendar, step by step
| Step | Working days | Who controls it |
|---|---|---|
| Artwork approved and order paid, then printed, bundled by route, faced and dropped at the Post Office | 3 | Us |
| USPS delivery after the drop (our planning range) | 2–4 | USPS |
| Buffer for a normal bad day on the press or at the counter | 1 | Us |
| Earliest we promise from approved order to mailboxes | 8 |
Working days exclude weekends and the shop’s closed days. The ordering page uses these same numbers: it will not accept an in-home date earlier than this.
What USPS does and does not promise
USPS states that Marketing Mail “may receive deferred handling” and that it does not guarantee delivery within a specified time. We have found no USPS page that gives an in-home number of days for EDDM, so the 2–4 day range is our own planning figure, not a USPS commitment. What we control is the drop date. Plan any promotion that depends on an exact day (an event, a sale ending) with a week of slack.
Setting the drop date
When you pay for a USPS drop yourself, the EDDM tool lets you choose a drop-off date up to 30 days ahead. When we handle it, you tell us the date you want the mailing in homes and we work back from it; if that date is earlier than the calendar allows, the order page says so before you pay.
EDDM Retail pieces must be entered at the Post Office that delivers the routes, so a mailing that crosses several delivery areas is dropped at several Post Offices.