Post Office Expects Busiest Day Of The Year
NORTH TEXAS (CBS 11 NEWS) - Monday was a busy day at post offices across America. It's actually the busiest mailing day of the year, according to the U.S. Postal Service, which estimates 607 million pieces of mail sent and delivered on Monday.
"We believe that this day we will actually accept more than three million pieces of mail here in Dallas alone," predicted USPS spokesman McKinney Boyd.
From boxes to cards, to bills and everyday written correspondence, this day will even surpass the pressure put on the postal service on April 15 -- tax day.
"We do know for a fact that this is the busiest day because customers are also purchasing online," Boyd said. He offered some suggestions for customers packing boxes to be sent to loved ones.
- Be sure they're labeled properly, especially addresses and zip codes
- Be sure they're filled and packaged properly with bubble wrap or Styrofoam peanuts if needed
- Be sure you have the correct postage
"If you're sending something overseas," said Boyd, "you'd better hurry in today or tomorrow because many of those deadlines have passed."
At the main Dallas post office, Kristy Tran felt the pressure of getting packages out. As far as the stress impacting her two-year-old son, Leo, not so much.
"Leo, he was more excited about the merchandise on the walls," said Tran who sent packages to San Diego, Seattle, and France.
Kenneth Williams was kind of the ultimate procrastinator for his granddaughter's gift. "I'm running behind. Monster dolls," he said pointing at the unwrapped box of dolls in his grasp. "She wanted a set of monster dolls for her birthday. It was Saturday."
Leah Martin is the kind of person most people secretly envy. "I'm done. I'm done with Christmas shopping," she said. "Yeah, generally I do this way earlier but with the ice, and Thanksgiving was late, and I ordered some things from Amazon that didn't come because of the ice."
The Postal Service says the ice storm delayed service just a few days and it caught up a week ago The Sunday delivery yesterday was not to catch up -- but to get ahead of this week's anticipated rush, with today being the busiest mailing day of the year.
At a time when the Postal Service is notoriously in debt, service is one thing keeping these customers happy. "Because I like to support our government and use the postal service to mail all of my packages," said Tran. Martin echoed, "You know, they always get 'em there and it's cheap," and added, "I love the post office. They do a great job."
Here are the important deadlines for domestic delivery to make sure items arrive on time: Friday for regular First Class Mail; Saturday for Priority Mail; and Monday December 23 for Priority Mail Express, the premium service that will actually deliver on Christmas Day.
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