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Dive Brief:

USPS' Priority Next Day service launched in 54 markets

Markets the offering is available in as of March 1

Dive Insight:

Priority Next Day's launch gives Postal Service shippers a new overnight delivery option that reaches more than 67 million customers spread throughout the country.

That number is poised to grow as the service expands to more markets — in January , the agency said Priority Next Day would eventually reach about 295 million people daily.

The offering's rollout also provides the Postal Service another avenue to better compete with FedEx and UPS and gain direct business from parcel shippers, rather than working through package consolidators .

Postmaster General Louis DeJoy has touted the shift away from consolidators and toward direct shipping offerings like Priority Next Day and Ground Advantage as key to the agency's long-term financial health .

This overhaul has led to industry-wide strategic shifts among consolidators, including UPS insourcing SurePost volume this year that it previously would've handed off to the agency.

January volume for the USPS' shipping and packages category fell 8.1% year over year after the SurePost split, outpacing overall volume declines of 6.3%. However, the category's revenue stayed flat despite the drop.

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