Monday, Dec. 19, marks the last day you can expect your cards and packages to arrive by Dec. 25 if you are using the United States Postal Service”™s Priority Mail. Of course, if you want to splurge for Priority Express Mail, you have until Friday, Dec. 23.
We recommend sooner rather than later. The Post Office is awfully busy this time of year, accepting more than seven billion pieces of mail and packages nationwide.
Amid its 10-year transformation plan, “Delivering for America,” and building on what it calls its successful 2021 holiday campaign, the Post Office ”“ an independent federal institution delivering to more than 163 million addresses six, even seven days a week ”“ has converted 100,000 workers to full time since the beginning of 2021, with more than 41,000 part-time workers converted to full time since January 2022. A national drive began in October to hire an additional 20,000 seasonal employees, while adding an extra 10.5 million square feet of space to the network to process packages; opening 23 temporary peak annexes, besides the 48 parcel support annexes opened for peak 2021; and installing 137 new package-sorting machines. This brings the organization”™s total to 249 new processing machines since the launch of the “Delivering for America” plan in March 2021. According to the Post Office”™s website, the new equipment, combined with increased operational and network improvements, will expand the organization”™s package processing capacity to 60 million packages a day.
The post office has done this while continuing a 110-year-old tradition, helping fulfill hundreds of thousands of wishes from children looking for holiday magic through the”¯USPS Operation Santa”¯program.
If you prefer to ship gifts from the comfort of home, you can use the”¯Click-N-Ship”¯feature on”¯usps.com. There customers can order free Priority Mail boxes, print shipping labels, purchase postage and even request free next-day Package Pickup.
