(NAPSI)—For the U.S. Postal Service (USPS), the period between Thanksgiving and New Year’s Day is the busiest time of year. USPS expects to deliver nearly 15 billion pieces of mail and 900 million packages, for a total of nearly 16 billion mail and package deliveries.
Starting Nov. 25, USPS expanded its Sunday delivery operations to locations with high package volumes. The Postal Service already delivers packages on Sundays in most major cities, and anticipates delivering more than 8 million packages on Sundays this December. Mail carriers will also deliver packages on Christmas Day in select locations.
You may be familiar with the “busiest day” for shipping holiday packages and mailing greeting cards. But like last year’s holiday fruitcake, that is a thing of the past. Instead, the busiest time now begins two weeks before Christmas. Starting the week of Dec. 10, customer traffic at Post Offices nationwide will increase and the Postal Service expects to deliver nearly 200 million packages per week during these two weeks. The week of Dec. 17−23 is predicted to be the busiest mailing, shipping and delivery week. During this week alone, USPS expects to process and deliver nearly 3 billion pieces of First-Class Mail, including greeting cards.
The Postal Service anticipates Dec. 17 will be the Postal Service’s busiest day online, with more than 8 million consumers predicted to visit usps.com for help shipping that special holiday gift. It’s predicted that nearly 105 million consumers will visit the USPS website between Thanksgiving and New Year’s Day. And usps.com is always open.
It’s estimated nearly 400,000 consumers will use the Click-N-Ship feature and other online services on Dec. 17 to order free Priority Mail boxes, print shipping labels, purchase postage and even request free next-day Package Pickup.
Informed Delivery is the Postal Service’s free daily digital preview of what’s coming to your mailbox. This holiday season, not only can you manage your packages and sneak a peek at cards headed your way, you can also see some exterior images of magazines and catalogs—all from your mobile app, dashboard, tablet or computer. Informed Delivery is one more way the Postal Service is helping you anticipate, communicate and celebrate this holiday season.
Additional news and information, including all domestic, international and military mailing and shipping deadlines, can be found at the Postal Service Holiday Newsroom: www.usps.com/holidaynews.
“The Postal Service anticipates Dec. 17 will be its busiest day online, with more than 8 million consumers predicted to visit usps.com for help shipping that special holiday gift. http://bit.ly/2DyThbJ”