Deadlines loom for getting holiday packages, cards in the mail

Neither snow nor rain nor the annual crush of holiday packages and cards slows the U.S. Postal Service from making the rounds.

“We’ve had carriers out since 6 a.m. delivering packages just to keep up with the volume, and we’ve been out seven days a week,” said Tad Kelley, the U.S. Postal Service spokesman for Western Pennsylvania.

Nationally, the Postal Service anticipates delivering 800 million packages between Thanksgiving and New Year’s Day. This week alone, the Postal Service predicted it would process and deliver 2.5 billion pieces of first-class mail, including greeting cards.

The holidays bring a spike in volume everywhere, including here, Kelley said. The Pittsburgh region, which typically handles 13,000 to 15,000 packages a day, is now processing 23,000 to 50,000. In Greensburg, which averages 3,000 to 4,000 packages daily, the holidays increase that volume to 5,000 to 6,000.

And a late Thanksgiving didn’t help, cutting out an additional week before Christmas to get gifts and cards in the mail.

“It puts a challenge on everybody,” Kelley said.

Saturday is the last day to use the regular Priority Mail service — with a two- or three-day guarantee — and get packages delivered in time for Christmas.

Post offices will be open Monday and Tuesday.

“If you are going to go past (Saturday), and we know there are some procrastinators out there, we really need to have them by Dec. 23,” Kelley said. That is the last day to use Priority Mail Express, an overnight delivery service, to get packages there by Wednesday.

“We deliver that 365 days a year to most ZIP codes in America,” Kelley said, “even Christmas day.”