Today historically is the busiest for mailing letters. Wednesday is expected to be the busiest of the year for parcel delivery.
View full sizeThis file photo shows packages waiting to be sorted at a post office in Atlanta. Today -- the second to last Monday before Christmas -- historically is the busiest day of the year for mailing letters. If you do one thing today, make it this: Give your letter carrier a smile. They could use it.
This is the second to last Monday before Christmas, which historically has been the busiest mailing day of the year for the U.S. Postal Service.
Postal workers say more than 600 million pieces of mail are expected to be processed, nearly double the usual volume.
The entire week is shaping up to be a harried one for postal workers. Today will be followed up Wednesday with what the postal service expects to be the busiest day of the year for parcel deliveries.
“Busy is an understatement,” said Melody Baylis, acting postmaster for the past three years at the Phillipsburg Post Office. “We’re inundated with 2,000 parcels today alone. It’s unbelievable.”
Most post offices gear up for the holiday season, when folks are shipping holiday cards and gifts and standing in lines at post office windows. Saturday’s snow added another element to the mix, Baylis said.
“They’re doing an excellent job,” she said this morning of the 50 or so letter carriers, clerks and supervisors who work out of the Phillipsburg facility. “Everyone knows this is the time of year when they really have to step up. Even Saturday, when the weather was so horrible, we got 100 percent delivery and everyone came back safe.
“We’re delivering everything we can.”
Baylis, a postal employee for 19 years, said she tries to lighten the mood in the holiday season, giving morning pep talks and bringing in baked treats for workers.
Workers in Phillipsburg today were snacking on cookies and cheesecake brought in by one of the truck drivers, whose wife baked over the weekend, Baylis said.
With the letter and parcel volume so high, even small gestures help postal workers get through the day, she said.
“At the end, they want to be sure their customers come first,” she said.
In Northampton County, both clerk windows were open and business was brisk at the post office on North Chestnut Street in Bath.
"It's very steady," said the acting postmaster, who didn't want her name published. "We had a lot of parcels for delivery."