Do FedEx, Amazon, & UPS Deliver on Veterans Day 2019?

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Veterans Day 2019 is today, Monday, November 11, 2019. While post offices and federal offices are closed for the holiday today, what happens with FedEx, Amazon, and UPS? Will they still be delivering mail today? Read on for more details.

FedEx Is  Delivering Mail Today

Yes, FedEx will be open for Veterans Day and delivering mail today. According to their holiday schedule, every FedEx service is available today except SmartPost, which is only offering a “modified service” today. (This means that deliveries may be delayed because the USPS is observing the holiday.)

In fact, FedEx offers some shipping options every day of the year. According to their holiday schedule, you can even ship on Christmas Day using FedEx SameDay service, which is available 24 hours a day, 365 days a year for urgent shipping. As for FedEx stores, the site recommends talking to your local store to find out if they are open or changing operating hours for specific holidays.

Amazon Is Delivering Mail Today

Yes, Amazon will be open for Veterans Day and delivering mail today. However, any deliveries that are dependent on USPS and not delivered specifically by Amazon could be delayed, because USPS is not delivering today.

Amazon lists the holidays where hourly employees get paid time-and-a-half if they work. These do not include Veterans Day. The holidays are New Year’s, Memorial Day, Independence Day, Labor Day, Thanksgiving, and Christmas.

UPS  Is Delivering Mail Today

Yes, UPS will be open (for the most part) for Veterans Day and delivering mail today, according to their holiday schedule. UPS Domestic, Ground, Air and International are all open, as is UPS Freight, Forwarding, and Express Critical. However, UPS Stores may not be open. (Some will and some will not.) You’ll need to call your local UPS Store to find out if it’s open.

So although the U.S. post offices are closed and you won’t be getting  USPS mail today, you’ll still be getting packages delivered through FedEx, Amazon, or UPS. Here are the other holidays where USPS typically does not deliver mail:

• New Year’s Day
• Martin Luther King Jr’s Birthday
• Washington’s Birthday (President’s Day)
• Memorial Day
• Independence Day
• Labor Day
• Columbus Day
• Thanksgiving Day
• Christmas Day

All federal offices and courts will be closed today, Monday, November 11, 2019. Trash collection and public transportation should still run as normal today. It’s up to individual school districts whether or not they are closed today, since schools aren’t required to be closed for Veterans Day.

The History of Veterans Day

Veterans Day is a holiday that celebrates the anniversary of the end of World War I (on November 11). The holiday was originally called Armistice Day, but it was replaced by Veterans Day in 1954. Today, it honors all veterans who have served in the U.S. military.

On November 11, 1918, World War I was officially ended. On November 11, 1919, President Woodrow Wilson issued the following message about Armistice Day:

A year ago today our enemies laid down their arms in accordance with an armistice which rendered them impotent to renew hostilities, and gave to the world an assured opportunity to reconstruct its shattered order and to work out in peace a new and juster set of international relations. The soldiers and people of the European Allies had fought and endured for more than four years to uphold the barrier of civilization against the aggressions of armed force. We ourselves had been in the conflict something more than a year and a half.

With splendid forgetfulness of mere personal concerns, we remodeled our industries, concentrated our financial resources, increased our agricultural output, and assembled a great army, so that at the last our power was a decisive factor in the victory. We were able to bring the vast resources, material and moral, of a great and free people to the assistance of our associates in Europe who had suffered and sacrificed without limit in the cause for which we fought.

Out of this victory there arose new possibilities of political freedom and economic concert. The war showed us the strength of great nations acting together for high purposes, and the victory of arms foretells the enduring conquests which can be made in peace when nations act justly and in furtherance of the common interests of men.

To us in America the reflections of Armistice Day will be filled with solemn pride in the heroism of those who died in the country’s service, and with gratitude for the victory, both because of the thing from which it has freed us and because of the opportunity it has given America to show her sympathy with peace and justice in the councils of nations.”

In 1938, November 11 was officially dedicated as Armistice Day to celebrate World War I veterans, Military.com shared. But then in 1954, after World War II and the Korean War, Congress changed the holiday to Veterans Day to honor all veterans of wars, including World War I. Veterans Day is still celebrated on November 11, but if it falls on a weekend then it is officially observed either the Friday before (if it’s on a Saturday) or the Monday after (if it’s on a Sunday), allowing federal employees to still have a day off.