Modern shipping companies offer a wide variety of conveniences. However, weekend deliveries have been a relatively new development, especially on Sundays.
So does UPS deliver on Sundays, and if so, what do you need to know about this new service? If you’d like to find out, keep reading to see what I discovered!
Does UPS Deliver on Sundays In 2024?
UPS offers limited Sunday deliveries in 2024. Sunday deliveries are only available in certain metropolitan areas for residential packages. While UPS delivers 7 days a week to most places, there are still days such as holidays where employees don’t work. Costs for Sunday deliveries vary, and Sunday is included in services like UPS SurePost.
If you’re interested in learning more about how Sunday deliveries work with UPS and how you can use them for your next package, read on for more useful facts and tips!
Does UPS Deliver Seven Days a Week?
UPS has started delivering on Sundays, but the company is not a seven days a week, 365 days a year service.
Sunday deliveries are still somewhat limited, and only apply to domestic shipments and APO/FPO addresses.
As well, Sunday deliveries are still limited to more densely populated, metropolitan areas.
There are also certain holidays UPS recognizes and does not ask employees to work on, so there are certain days of the year when packages aren’t delivered.
Some holidays that UPS observes and doesn’t do deliveries or package pickups on are as follows:
- Easter (first Sunday in April after the first full moon)
- Mother’s Day (second Sunday in May)
- Memorial Day (last Monday in May)
- Juneteenth (June 19th)
- Independence Day (July 4th)
- Labor Day (first Monday of September)
- Thanksgiving Day (the fourth Thursday of November)
- Christmas Day (December 25th)
- Christmas Break (December 26th)
- New Year’s Day (January 1st)
- New Year’s Day Break (January 2nd)
If you’d like to see some more information about the holidays that UPS recognizes and whether or not delivery/pick up service is available or if UPS Stores will be open, you can visit the holiday schedule page of the UPS website here.
It’s important to note that UPS does offer one service that runs 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, 365 days a year: UPS Express Critical.
UPS Express Critical is exempt from any holidays and is the most urgent service UPS offers, usually delivering in around 24 hours, sometimes less.
If you’re interested in using UPS Express Critical for your next urgent shipment, you can visit the company website here or call customer service at 1-800-714-8779.
Does UPS Deliver on Sundays During the Holiday Season?
The holidays are the busiest time of year for most shipping companies, and UPS is no exception.
However, UPS doesn’t extend its delivery window for all packages to Sunday.
Rather, only the packages that have the Sunday delivery feature added to them will be extended.
This means that while you can absolutely pay for Sunday deliveries to be attached to your package, this service is still only available for those who order and pay for it ahead of time.
If you’re shipping something time-sensitive during the holiday season, it’s a great idea to add the Sunday delivery feature to your package.
However, don’t expect UPS to add this feature for you if you don’t request and pay for it.
Does UPS Deliver on Sunday for Amazon?
Amazon is the only shipping company that delivers seven days a week at no extra charge, offering big competition to companies like UPS.
However, UPS has worked out a deal with Amazon to help with last-mile delivery (which is the most expensive and tedious part of package delivery) in exchange for some of Amazon’s profits.
Due to this deal, UPS does deliver Amazon packages on Sunday, but in limited quantities.
Usually, if something you order on Amazon will be using UPS delivery, you will be charged for shipping, which is how UPS receives some of Amazon’s profits.
Because Amazon boasts seven days a week delivery, UPS adheres to its delivery schedule.
How Much Does Sunday Delivery Cost UPS?
Typically, the shipping costs for a package shipped with UPS depend on the weight, dimensions, and distance a package will be traveling.
Sunday delivery packages are no different, but there are some extra costs associated with these deliveries since they require more resources.
All residential packages have a residential fee to help cover the costs of “last-mile delivery,” which is the most tedious and expensive part of any package delivery service.
Since Sunday deliveries are only available for residential packages, this residential fee applies.
However, in order to cover the costs of other resources that Sunday deliveries require, the residential fee is doubled.
Therefore, for packages delivered on Sunday, you can expect to pay an extra $16 per package, on top of your usual shipping costs.
If you’d like to read more about weekend delivery and pick-up options, including Sunday deliveries and pick-ups, you can follow this link to the UPS website.
Right now there is only one service available that includes Sunday deliveries at no extra cost: UPS SurePost.
Does UPS SurePost Deliver on Sundays?
UPS SurePost is a service that UPS and USPS created for team deliveries, and the service does deliver on Sundays.
UPS handles the logistics and long-distance travel of the package, whereas USPS handles last-mile delivery.
Because USPS handles deliveries for this service, UPS does not charge extra for Sunday deliveries.
If you’d like to read more on the merits of UPS SurePost as described by UPS, you can check out this document.
To learn more, you can also see our posts on whether or not UPS delivers on Saturdays, UPS shipping restrictions, and how fast is UPS Ground.
Conclusion
UPS does deliver on Sunday, but it is still a relatively limited service, only delivering to more densely populated, metropolitan areas in the United States and to APO/FPO addresses. As well, the service is not free.
Currently, the only service that includes Sunday deliveries for free is UPS SurePost, which is a hybrid service offered by UPS in partnership with USPS.