By Leah Kirstein – December 20, 2015
YORK COUNTY, Pa – This holiday season the US Postal Service expects to deliver a total of approximately 15.5 billion pieces of mail. Between Thanksgiving and New Year’s Eve, they expect to also deliver over 600 million packages. For the second year in a row, they are delivering packages seven days a week.
“I’ve never seen so many parcels. I’ve been doing this for 27 years and I’ve never seen so many parcels, in all the years, I have been doing this; it’s crazy,” said carrier Brion Durgin.
An increase in online shopping has led to the increase in deliveries. “Customers can count on the Postal Service and our more than 600,000 dedicated employees to deliver their holiday gifts, cards and letters,” said Megan J. Brennan, Postmaster General and CEO. “We have been investing in our infrastructure including package sortation equipment, new delivery vehicles and scanning technology to expand our capacity, improve operating efficiency and provide real-time visibility.”
Additionally, the Postal Service plans to hire 30,000 employees for the 2015 holiday season to meet the needs of its customers.
Following the success of the 2014 holiday season, the Postal Service will again deliver packages seven days a week in select major cities and high-volume areas beginning November 29, for the four Sundays before Christmas. They expect to deliver on average approximately 5 million packages every Sunday during December.