This week is expected to be the busiest week of the year for the United States Postal Service. The deadline for mailing greeting cards and first-class packages, if you want them to arrive before Santa, is December 17th. USPS spokesperson David Walton said you’ll want to have things ready to ship by Saturday if not sooner.
“With it being so close to Christmas, it’s best to mail as soon as possible so that your gifts arrive under the tree in time for the holidays,” said Walton.
Walton says the post office is expecting 250 million people to visit post offices during the holiday season this year.
The postal service typically hires extra workers for the holiday season, but Walton said they didn’t have to hire as many because they increased their number of full-time employees throughout the year. Walton said so far things are running as smoothly as possible.
“Our delivery time nationally is about 2.5 days. That’s across the nation for deliveries which is really good, that’s excellent for this time of year,” said Walton.
And because the post office is expecting 250 million people to visit post offices during the holiday season this year some post offices have extended hours for customers to drop off packages and delivery workers are working longer days also.
“The post office, in certain cities, we are delivering earlier. We’re out as early as 6 AM and we stay out a little later as well after dark because of the time change,” said Walton.
The deadline for Priority Mail Express Military service is Friday, December 16th. The deadline for Priority Mail is December 19th and for Priority Mail Express the deadline is December 23rd.
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